JOINT STATEMENT BY POLISH AND UKRAINIAN CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS AND ACTIVISTS

Cooperation between Polish and Ukrainian civil society has been growing steadily for many decades now.

We assure you that recent political events will neither interrupt nor weaken this cooperation.

Our friendship endures and only grows stronger in the face of Russian aggression and thanks to the heroic struggle of the Ukrainian people, “for your freedom and ours.”

Together, we have worked, we are working, and we will continue to work for an independent, secure, democratic, and befriended Ukraine and Poland, where human rights and freedoms are respected.

As part of the RAISE project, we have prepared a handbook based on the results of qualitative research on the difficulties of starting a conversation with people from different social groups. The research was conducted among parents of preschool-aged children.

The publication titled “Within Reach: Simple Ways to Start a Conversation” contains a set of practical tips on how to begin and carry on a conversation with people from various backgrounds — even when we differ in language, place of origin, or life experience. The text includes simple opening phrases, safe conversation topics, ways to ease feelings of uncertainty, and short exercises that help shift from fixed assumptions to curiosity and openness to contact.

The guide is meant for everyday use: in public offices, preschools or schools, at work, in queues — wherever we meet unfamiliar people.

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Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed in the materials are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. 

As a part of the RAISE project, we created a small social campaign based on our research into how people in Poland perceive inequalities between the majority population (Poles) and minority groups.

Our findings show that decisions about employment or renting property are often made not based on skills, needs or personal qualities, but on a person’s nationality. To illustrate this, we produced four short animated clips that present, in a simple and symbolic way, everyday situations in which prejudice becomes a barrier to equal treatment. Each clip concludes with a strong, shared message.

Hiring? Hire the person, not the passport.

The first animation looks at the situation of Ukrainian women in the Polish labour market. It shows how hiring decisions are often determined not by a person’s skills but by their nationality. It is a call for equality and fairness in the workplace, regardless of one’s background.

Renting out? Look at the person, not the passport.

The second animation focuses on Ukrainians searching for a place to live in Poland. It shows how nationality often becomes an unjustified barrier to renting a flat. The campaign encourages people to look at the person, not just at their documents.

Presentation of the works by Gabi von Seltmann is the second artistic activity in the new Rotating Gallery. “The Great Synagogue Restores Memory” is a video recording of a multimedia art project held in public space. On 19 April 2018, on the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, an image of the Great Synagogue rising from rubble appeared on the wall of the Blue Tower skyscraper which today stands in the Synagogue’s location. The projection on the wall was repeated several times. In the Rotating Gallery, “The Great Synagogue Restores Memory” is accompanied by another video work titled “Dedications to Bashert.” Both projects are connected by the figure of Jewish poet Irena Klepfisz and by fragments of her poem.

13-22 July, during museum opening hours, in the last gallery of the Core Exhibition

The year 2024 marks POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews’ 10th anniversary. To celebrate this occasion, we want to make the voices of Jewish artists heard by creating a rotating, lively, polyphonic space in the last gallery of the Core Exhibition—a space for Jewish artists to express themselves.

The year 2024 marks the thirteenth edition of the March of Remembrance, in which we will walk the streets of Warsaw to commemorate the victims of the Great Liquidation Action in the Warsaw ghetto on its 82nd anniversary.

The march will start on July 22 at 18:00 from the Umschlagplatz monument in Warsaw (10 Stawki St., corner of Dzika St.) and will follow a symbolic route through Stawki, Andersa, Anielewicza, Zamenhof streets, and will end at 5 Dzielna St, where an art installation will be unveiled, we will also hear a cantor’s song and fragments of the rabbis’ writings.

Event on Facebook

On 10 July 1941, soon after the Soviet forces’ withdrawal and after the German troops entered the North-East Polish town of Jedwabne, the local Polish people began to gather the Jews from the town and the surrounding area in the town square. The Jews were publicly humiliated, and several were killed. A few dozens, including the rabbi Avigdor Bialostocki, were then selected to destroy a Lenin’s monument nearby. The group was then led to an earlier prepared mass grave in a barn where they were murdered and buried together with the Lenin’s bust. The remaining several hundred Jews were led to the same barn. They were doused with diesel before the barn was locked and set on fire. The mass murder was committed by several dozens of local people with many more witnessing it. The German forces in town didn’t take an active part in the pogrom, but they have most likely encouraged it in the spirit of Reinhardt Heydrich’s doctrine about encouraging local populations to take part in pogroms.

Jewish pogrom in Kielce took place 78 years ago. The persecutors of their Jewish neighbours were Poles, and the tragic events took place in Poland just liberated from Nazi occupation.

The events known today as the “Kielce pogrom” took place primarily in the building at Planty 7/9 street, where about 200 people lived and where offices of Jewish institutions (Jewish committee, congregation, Kibbutz Zionist party Ichud, etc) were located.  Pogroms of the Jewish population were also reported in other locations in Kielce, as well as on trains passing through the city on that.

40 people were murdered during the Kielce pogrom (including three Polish nationals). Two people were murdered on Leonard Street. 35 people were injured.

World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on June 20 and celebrates the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution. World Refugee Day is an occasion to build empathy and understanding for their plight and to recognize their resilience in rebuilding their lives.

17 May was chosen to commemorate the decision to remove homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1990. The day aims to coordinate international events that raise awareness of LGBT rights violations and stimulate interest in LGBT rights work worldwide. LGBTQ+ rights are human rights that still need to be defended.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken released the 48th annual Human Rights Report. The entire report can be found on the U.S. Department of State’s website, with the Poland chapter.

The Poland chapter will be available on the U.S. Embassy website later today and we will post the Polish translation as soon as it is available.

As Secretary Blinken wrote in the preface, the year covered by this HRR coincided with the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the authors of the UDHR, “The destiny of human rights is in the hands of all our citizens in all our communities.”