We gather again beacause we remember. We remember what happened. We remember those that fought. We remember those that died. And we remember those that kept that memory alive: Marek Edelman, Jacek Kuroń, Zofia Kuratowska, Anka Kowalska, Lechosław Goździk, Mirosław Sawicki, Symcha Rotem Rathajzer alias „Kazik”, Noemi Korsan, Chawka Raban, Julia Hartwig and many others.

Like Marek Edelman, we see the commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising as a matter of memory, regardless of the current political climate. We do not want and cannot take part in the official celebrations as they have been entirely appropriated by politicians, are full of empty, national rhetoric and will be attended by the representatives of the president’s office and of the government, whose prime minister layed down flowers for Nazi collaborators from the National Armed Forces (Holy Cross Mountains Brigade). Nowadays antisemitism, xenophobia and intolerance are rife in our public life and the authorities encourage them. In the face of this we will not remain silent.

Let this commemoration be an expression of resistance. In autumn we planted a plum tree from Wałowa Street on the ruins the Ghetto to show that life and memory persist despite the growth of fascism. A couple of days later we commemorated the victims of the Ghetto benches at the Warsaw University. All year, in spite of the right-wing’s attempts at memory politics, we worked to preserve the popular historical memory and its potential for resistance.

Lets meet at 12 PM at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw, from where we will go under the Zygielbojm memorial, at the crossing of Zamenhof and Lewartowski Streets. The latter has just returned to the map of Warsaw thanks to our mutual efforts. We are hoping that this symbolic fact will serve as a message to politicians, that manipulating collective memory is not as easy as they thought. In the first location we will listen to Yiddish songs performed by the Jacek Kuroń Multicultural Human Sciences High School Choir, to Marek Edelman’s 1983 letter to the communist authorities and to “Campo di Fiori”, a poem by Czesław Miłosz. Later, artist Partycja Dołowy will present her project of a living commemoration of the Ghetto’s Mothers. We will then walk in silence to the Jewish Combat Organization’s bunker on 18 Miła Street, where, in accordance with the tradition passed on to the youth by Marek Edelman, children will light candles on top of the Anielewicz mound so that the memory stays alive in future generations. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the mound, the rest of us will listen to Zuzanna Ginczanka’s “Non Omnis Moriar” read by Maja Komorowska and Władysław Szlengel’s “Kontratak” (“Counterattack”). From there we will continue to the memorial on Umschlagplatz where we will read Barańczak’s “Jeżeli porcelana to wyłącznie taka” (“If porcelain, then only the kind ”) and the stories of Holocaust victims prepared by Ewa Teleżyńska and Paweł Sawicki.

In the afternoon, at 6 PM, we invite you to Cafe Kryzys for a screening of a film by Jolanta Dylewska titled “Kronika Powstania w Getcie Warszawskim wg Marka Edelmana” (“Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Chronicle as told by Marek Edelman”). And the day before, on April 18 at 9 PM, the image of the Great Synagogue at Tłomackie will be projected on the facade of a skyscraper that stands in its place at the Bankowy Square. The show is entitled “The Great Synagogue Restores Memory” and it was created by Gabi von Seltmann.

We are a group of people united by the need to remember, we represent various movements and organizations, our event is open to all people of good will.

The event is organized, among others, by:
Antyfaszystowska Warszawa
Koalicja Antyfaszystowska
Otwarta Rzeczpospolita
Syrena
Stowarzyszenie Rok Marka Edelmana
Studencki Komitet Antyfaszystowski
WLH im. Jacka Kuronia
Patrycja Dołowy
Zuzanna Hertzberg
Amel Mana
Paula Sawicka
Gabi von Seltmann

As an independent initiative we rely on grassroots support. If you want and are able, please support us with a small donation (we need to pay for a sound system, printing and flowers):
https://zrzutka.pl/99wf5y

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