WHO WE ARE 

It all started with conversations around memory and place, remembering and forgetting, and Polish, Jewish and German narratives. We wanted to transform words and ideas into action. We are a group of researchers, architects, genealogists, educators, and activists from Wrocław and beyond, including descendants of Breslau Jews. 

WHAT WE DO

Our mission is to advocate for care, revitalization and conscientious maintenance of the physical heritage of the pre-war Jewish community of Breslau through working with memory, shaping the urban landscape, researching history, genealogy, education and civic engagement.

HOW WE DO IT

We build partnerships with local and external organizations and institutions to foster our mission and initiate projects focused on exploring history, Wrocław’s urban spaces, and genealogy in the context of the Jewish heritage of Wrocław. 

GREEN COMMEMORATION FOR GWARNA

The hidden Jewish cemetery at Gwarna Street in Wrocław is an example of a place that disappeared from the map of the city after WWII. Located opposite the Main Railway Station, it is now part of a yard surrounded by blocks of flats. It remains a forgotten and neglected space.

Our efforts aim at commemorating the site in an inclusive way.

TEMPORARY EXHIBITION

“PUTTING THINGS BACK. JEWISH BRESLAUERS AND THEIR OBJECTS”

OP ENHEIM, Wrocław, Poland

29/05 – 29/09/2024

This was the first exhibition of this type in Poland based on private collections of Jewish families from pre-war Breslau and has been created in cooperation with those very families. 2.300 visitors from 27 countries saw the exhibit. Watch a short video from the opening with families’ testimonies.

Stay tuned – an online version of the exhibition is coming soon.

CONFERENCE

Join us on November 14, 2024 or watch online the conference on “Sensitive Legacy in University Collections: Between Adaptation and Restitution”.

The aim of the event is to learn about and discuss Australian, German and Polish perspectives on the problematic collection of human remains created in the early 20th century by German antropologist Hermann Klaatsch, which is currently in the collections of the University of Wrocław.

Genealogy – Find Your Jewish Ancestor in the Pre-war Wrocław/ Breslau

If you’re looking for family members from the pre-war Jewish community of Wrocław/ Breslau, we might help.

Research Projects in Our Spotlight

Legacy of the Hadda Brothers in Wrocław – How Jewish Architects Shaped Our City? Research by Daniel Ljunggren, a Swedish restoration architect.

Jewish art collectors in Breslau

We publish an updated database, which is a continuation of the efforts undertaken over 10 years ago by a group of researchers as part of the “Silesian Collections” initiative.

You will find there information about the collections of Carl Sachs, Max Silberberg, Leo Lewin, Ismar Littmann, Hugo Kolker and Gustava and Alois Landerer.

UMF as part of the Engaged Memory Consortium

The core of the partners’ interest is dealing with neglected Jewish heritage sites in Europe, and particularly in Poland, where Polish, German, Jewish and other minority histories and legacies overlap and intertwine, pointing to the difficult European experience of the Holocaust and WWII.

NeDiPa: Negotiating Difficult Pasts

The NeDiPa project implemented in 2022-2024 aimed to develop a systematic approach to the difficult heritage of the Holocaust in Central and Eastern Europe. See our results – the Difficult Heritage Remembrance Framework & Multimedia Library. You might find it useful in your work as a memory activist, scholar, teacher, community manager, heritage professional or public administration employee. 

MultiMemo – Multidirectional Memory: Remembering for Social Justice

In 2023 we a launched new EU-funded project with eight European partners featuring research, commemorations, education, community workshops, exhibitions and more.

3D Matzevot – A Digital Documentation Project

“3D Matzevot” is an innovative digital documentation project in which 3D technology is used to scan select tombstones of Jewish cemeteries in Wrocław/Breslau and – where possible – personal microhistories are recovered. Contemporary digital technologies offer new possibilities of not only documenting the past, but also recreating that which seemed irreversibly damaged.