Poland: Mazel Tov! This year’s Preserving Memory Awards are presented to honor non-Jewish Poles — including 2 young children — who preserve, protect, and promote Jewish cultural heritage and memory

Presented at an annual ceremony during the Krakow Jewish Culture Festival, the awards were established in 1998 by the American lawyer Michael Traison, to thank and pay tribute to non-Jewish Poles engaged in such activities.

Over the years some 300 or so people and organizations, mostly volunteers and mostly from small, far-flung towns, have been honored for activities ranging from cleaning up Jewish cemeteries to running Jewish museums to carrying out school projects on Jewish history and memory.

This year’s honorees illustrate the range, depth, and commitment of involvement by non-Jewish Poles in the care, study, management, education, and preservation of Jewish memory.

Here’s this list of this year’s honorees — several are activists involved with the broader projects such as the “Leaders of Dialogue” network and the “Brama Grodzka – NN Theatre Centre.“

Dorota Róża Bida 

A guide and educator affiliated with the Wiktor Ambroziewicz Museum of the Chełm Region, where she curates exhibitions focused on the history and culture of Chełm’s Jewish community. She conducts museum lessons, guides historical walking tours, collaborates on educational projects, and promotes awareness of the city’s multicultural heritage. Since 2021, she has been a member of the Leaders of Dialogue network. Her work focuses on education, local heritage, and preserving the memory of Chełm’s Jewish community. Dorota maintains long–standing relationships with the descendants of Chełm’s Jews (Chelmers) from Israel, the USA, South Africa, Brazil, and Germany. She assists them with genealogical research, reconstructing family histories, and digitizing surviving photographs and family mementos. During their visits to Chełm, she facilitates meetings with the local community and organizes commemorative events honoring Holocaust victims. In 2019, her archival research uncovered traces of missing members of the Gutenberg family. They were later commemorated by name with the installation of “Stones of Memory” at 13 Pocztowa Street, as well as five Stolpersteine at 83 Lubelska Street, also dedicated to this family. Together with descendants of Chełm’s Jews, she organized a four- day commemoration marking the 80th anniversary of the Holocaust in Chełm, honoring the memory of the town’s destroyed Jewish community.

Jerzy Dębiec

Director of the museum in Nowy Żmigród. For the past 21 years, he has documented and promoted the history of the Jews of Nowy Żmigród, cared for the local Jewish cemetery, organized commemorative ceremonies, and led educational initiatives for both youth and adults. Jerzy Dębiec is also actively involved in commemorating and maintaining sites of Jewish tragedy and extermination in Biecz, Dukla, Frysztak, Jasło, Sanok, and Wola Michowa. Thanks to his work, the museum in Nowy Żmigród has become an important center for preserving Jewish history, housing a collection of approximately 400 Judaica items. He is the author of the book “From the History of Nowy Żmigród” and numerous articles on Jewish history, including some published in the newspaper “Region Żmigrodzki,” where he also served as editor–in–chief. As he puts it, “My greatest achievement is changing the local community’s attitude toward Jews. Through conversations and joint efforts, more and more people are attending our commemorative events. That is truly beautiful.“

Marcin Bocian and Kamil Langier

The two independently conduct research at the site of the Forced Labor Camp at the HASAG Apparatebau “Pelcery” factory in Częstochowa, where Jews from Częstochowa and other regions of occupied Poland were subjected to forced labor. The results of their work are presented on their website: https://www.hasag.pl Marcin Bocian is passionate about the local history of Częstochowa and its Jewish community. He collects vintage postcards and photographs related to the city. As an amateur local guide, he assists visitors in tracing their family roots. Kamil Langier is a student of archaeology with a deep interest in the history of the Częstochowa region. He collects archival materials focused particularly on the history of both World Wars. The primary goal of their work is to locate and document material remnants associated with the HASAG factories in Częstochowa and to honor the memory of those who were forced into slave labor–both those who perished and those who survived.

Bożena Gajewska

A regional historian, cultural events coordinator, and activist affiliated with the Forum for Dialogue network. She is also a voluntary monument caretaker, a dedicated community organizer, and a board member of the Friends and Families of Kutno Jews Foundation, established in 2024. A central focus of her social engagement is restoration of memory and preservation of Jewish heritage in Kutno and the surrounding region. She conducts archival research, writes articles on the history of the local Jewish community, and is the founder and administrator of the website www.kutnowskisztetl.pl. She is the author and coordinator of over twenty projects aimed at restoring the memory of Kutno’s Jewish community, engaging both older residents and students of local schools. Her initiatives include educational programs, workshops, theater performances, concerts, exhibitions, community meetings, daffodil and crocus planting campaigns, and free student trips to the Museum of the Former German Kulmhof Death Camp in Chełmno on Ner. Bożena has created three temporary educational exhibitions about the Jewish communities of Kutno, Krośniewice, and Żychlin, while actively collaborating with their descendants. She also works to restore the Jewish cemetery in Kutno and serves as the caretaker of the Jewish cemetery in Żychlin.

Małgorzata Maria Jęczeń

A medical doctor from Lublin and ambassador of the March of Life organization based in Tübingen. Since 2018, she has been actively involved in initiatives commemorating Jewish life in pre–war Poland, promoting Polish–Jewish reconciliation, and supporting Israel. In Lublin, in cooperation with March of Life, she has organized several remembrance events, including public readings of the names of Holocaust victims from the region (2021, 2023) and the city’s first March of Life (2024). Since 2021, she has lead Polish–Israeli dialogue meetings in Lublin, held at Majdanek, the Yeshiva, and Brama Grodzka – NN Theatre Centre. She collaborates with various organizations in Poland and Israel, including the Reconciliation Foundation, Shtetl Mszana Dolna, Polania, Guardians of Memory, Bench of Dialogue, “Janów in Israel,” the Chelmer Organization of Israel, and the Mashmaut Center (Israel). In 2024, she volunteered in the Moshav Mivtachim.

Anna Kurzępa

A journalist at TVP Lublin since 1994. Since 2018, she has produced programs focused on the history of Jews in the Lublin region, Jewish heritage, and the Holocaust. She is the author of over 30 episodes of the series “Poles Rescuing Jews,” which documents individual stories of Poles helping Jews during the Second World War. She has also produced 50 episodes of the series “Along the Route of Lublin’s Shtetls,” which explores the history of Jewish towns in the Lublin region. She is the author of several documentaries, including “In Search of Roots,” “As If We Had Never Existed,” and “Pardes on the Vistula.” In 2024, she created a report about the library of the Lublin School of Sages and a piece on the forgotten Jewish cemetery in Turobin (A Place of (Non)Memory?“). As part of the series “From the Lublin Region,” she prepared a segment on the first translation from Yiddish of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “The Magician of Lublin.” In producing her programs, she collaborates with institutions such as Brama Grodzka – NN Theatre Centre, the State Museum at Majdanek, the Jewish Lublin Foundation, the Warsaw Ghetto Museum, and the Jewish Historical Institute (ŻIH). Her work is regularly broadcast on TVP3 Lublin, as well as on TVP Historia.

Rita Miernik

A graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Silesia, the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the College of Interdisciplinary Individual Studies in the Humanities at the University of Warsaw, where she studied sociology and bioethics. She is the creator of the historical and social project “Sad Synagogues“, through which she travels across Poland documenting buildings that once served as synagogues. She documents their current condition and use while also exploring public awareness in towns that were once predominantly Jewish. In Końskie, she leads educational walking tours titled “In the Footsteps of the Jews of Końskie,” which highlights local remnants of Jewish life and presents the town’s social and industrial history. Locally, she engages with the University of the Third Age in Końskie and nearby secondary schools. Rita Miernik has worked with leading institutions of Jewish life in Poland, including the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the Jewish Historical Institute, the Taube Center for Jewish Life & Learning, and the Auschwitz Jewish Center (Muzeum Oszpicin). She is also a co–author of content for the Monument App, developed by the Polish Tourism Organization and the National Institute of Cultural Heritage. In addition, she collaborates with the Taube Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Wrocław, the Faculty of Sociology at the University of Warsaw, and the Center for Social Memory Studies in Warsaw. 

Piotr Nazaruk

An educator and Yiddish translator at the “Brama Grodzka – NN Theatre Centre” in Lublin, specializing in Jewish history. He is the curator of several temporary exhibitions, including “Rywka Berger’s Sketchbook,” “Atlas of Memory Maps,” and “The House of Peretz.” He is the author of works such as “Kokebebe” and “Hersz Lender’s Bagel Empire,” and co–editor of the journal Scriptores as well as the volume “Glass Plates of Lublin: Found Photographs of a Lost Jewish World.” He was a YIVO Institute for Jewish Research fellow in 2017 and 2018. For the past several years, he has been dedicated to recovering books from the library of the Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin and coordinating a project to digitally reconstruct its collection.

Marta Wójcik

A graduate of archaeology from the University of Rzeszów, with postgraduate studies in museology and heritage preservation from the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (KUL). She is a city guide and has long been affiliated with various cultural institutions in Rzeszów. Her work focuses on commemorating the history of Rzeszów’s Jewish community. Since 2015, she has organized events for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day as part of the Podkarpackie region’s commemorations. She has curated three exhibitions dedicated to the Jewish community of Rzeszów. From 2022 to 2024, she served as secretary of the Rajsze Association and co–led the “March of Remembrance” on the anniversary of the liquidation of the Rzeszów Ghetto. For the past decade, Marta has led educational walking tours following the footsteps of Rzeszów’s Jews, drawing strong interest from local residents. In 2021, she co–created the Rzeszów edition of the POLIN Museum exhibition “So Many of Them, Yet None“. In 2023, she organized accompanying events for the exhibition “What Remains is Memory. Rzeszów’s Jews During the Occupation.” In addition, she is deeply involved in preserving and commemorating Rzeszów’s Jewish cemeteries. She initiated the campaigns “Light of Memory on Jewish Cemeteries” and “The Cemetery Gate Opens” at the New Jewish Cemetery, where she also leads clean–up and educational efforts. Her mission is to restore memory of Jewish life in Rzeszów and foster local historical awareness through education, exhibitions, and public space initiatives. 

SPECIAL AWARDS:

Brother and sister Mikolaj Marczynski, 11, and Hava Marczyńska, 13,  from Jalso. They have long helped their mother, Inga, care for Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust memorial sites. Inga received the Preserving Memory Award in 2021.  “I have accompanied my mother in her work at Jewish cemeteries and in the commemoration of murdered Jews,” Hava writes in a statememt.

“I permanently take care of the forest grave of the murdered 260 Jews in Krajovice and the Jewish cemetery in Jaslo. I work there with my brother and mother, we clean these places from grass, bushes, branches and trash, we clean the graves. During memorial ceremonies I pay tribute to the murdered Jews with my cello playing. I am the author of a short booklet about the tragedy of the Holocaust and hate speech, and I also edit the annual invitations to ceremonies commemorating Holocaust victims in Jaslo. For me, Jewish cemeteries are not abandoned places, but places that were seized from Jews, taken and destroyed, devastated and disrespected. I want my work to restore the Jewish cemeteries, the Jewish inhabitants of Poland, to memory and respect. I have cleaned cemeteries in Brzesko, Jodłowa, Krajowice, Jasło, Dukla, Nowy Żmigród, Nowy Targ, Czarny Dunajec, Mielec, Krosno, Korczyna, Warzyce, Grybów, among others.”