The Urban Memory Foundation works to bring the memory and heritage of Breslau Jews closer to the minds and hearts of a variety of audiences, especially to the citizens of Wrocław.
Breslau. Schweidnitzer Stadtgraben, 1884.
Phot. Eduard van Delden, in the collection of the National Museum in Wrocław.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you’re looking for family members from the pre-war Jewish community of Wrocław/ Breslau, we might help.
Legacy of the Hadda Brothers in Wrocław – How Jewish Architects Shaped Our City? Research by Daniel Ljunggren, a Swedish restoration architect.
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.
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.
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.
In 2023 we a launched new EU-funded project with eight European partners featuring research, commemorations, education, community workshops, exhibitions and more.
“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.
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