The year 2025 was a period of intensive cooperation for the Urban Memory Foundation with the academic community, public institutions, and other non-governmental organizations in Poland and abroad, including within the Engaged Memory Consortium, an international network of organizations working on the protection, documentation, and interpretation of Jewish heritage in Europe. Thanks to European Union funding, we continued to develop tools that integrate and support research, social practice, education, and new technologies in the field of heritage and memory.
LOCAL AND NATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Academic cooperation and “sensitive legacy”
The Foundation strengthened its partnerships with universities, in particular the University of Wrocław, Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Wrocław Medical University, and the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. We organized academic panels, participated in international conferences, conducted expert workshops on “green commemorations,” guided city walks, and conducted educational activities for students. We also worked on academic publications. A particularly important strand of our work was a reflection on the ethics of care as a framework for responsible engagement with sensitive heritage; the interrelation between repatriation, memory, and relations with local communities. A related article will be published shortly in a peer-reviewed academic journal Prace Kulturoznawcze.
Panel accompanying the exhibition Entangled – decolonisation and difficult heritage
One of the key events of last year was a panel discussion co-organized with the Museum of the University of Wrocław as part of the Lower Silesian Science Festival. The panel focused on the exhibition Entangled and served as a starting point for an in-depth discussion on the fate of Wrocław’s non-European collections and processes for so-called “internal decolonisation” in Polish institutions. Particular attention was paid to the most problematic and ethically charged objects (including human remains and objects linked to colonial and Nazi violence), to the invisible heritage of forgotten cemeteries in Lower Silesia, and to the responsibility of museums and universities as spaces not only for archiving but also for “cultural therapy.”
Cooperation with the civic initiative “Spod Ziemi Patrzy Breslau“
We supported local field activities related to the identification, documentation, and restoration of the visibility of forgotten sites, such as the former German Evangelical cemetery on Krzycka Street in Wrocław. The activities conducted by our partner Spod Ziemi Patrzy Breslau successfully combined professional conservation work, community collaboration, and public engagement, resulting in the excavation of more than 50 gravestones, restoration of selected tombstones, reconstruction of several microhistories, and the development of a future lapidarium concept. This partnership will continue in 2026.
Heritage digitization and new forms of accessibility
The year 2025 brought a significant strengthening of our digital activities. In cooperation with the SPARK Citizen Accelerator Foundation, we developed 3D documentation of cultural heritage (3D Matzevot), worked with digital archives, and expanded online formats—virtual exhibitions, webinars, and publications accessible to broad audiences. Digitization has become, for us, not only a tool for protecting material traces of the past, but also an educational platform enabling inclusive, transnational, and accessible engagement with memory, especially for those who do not have direct access to sites of memory.
Anti-discrimination workshops at memory sites
A significant part of our educational work involved anti-discrimination workshops, conducted in collaboration with trainers from the EkoRozwoj Foundation. The sessions combined reflection on mechanisms of prejudice, stereotypes, and cognitive bias with direct experience in urban spaces and at sites of memory. Workshops began with exercises focused on group identity and the dynamics of judgment. The program then took participants for educational city walks in the Krzyki and Nadodrze districts of Wrocław, where they could apply theory to the less obvious histories of pre-war residents and Jewish community. This approach fostered experiential learning through direct contact with the city’s tangible and intangible heritage. The workshops were addressed to a wide range of audiences: teachers, educators, activists, senior citizens, and, in a pilot phase, police officers, allowing us to test the workshops’ potential as a tool for building intercultural competence and institutional responsibility.
Stolpersteine initiatives, the Daffodils Campaign and genealogical research
In 2025, the Foundation also maintained its ongoing engagement in commemorating victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution – through support in the implementation of Stolpersteine and participation in the nationwide social and educational campaign of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. The Daffodils Campaign commemorates the victims of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and each year engages young people and volunteers across the country. Genealogical research on pre-war Breslau/Wrocław families has long been a regular and ongoing part of our work. We combine archival research and collaboration with descendants of former residents to help restore names, biographies, and family connections. We see this work as an important component of responsible heritage practice and of building transnational relationships around the city’s history.
Documentary film Guardians of (Non)Memory – UMF in the public debate
An important culmination of last year was the premiere of the documentary film Guardians of (Non)Memory in Szklarska Poręba. The film, produced on the initiative of the Lower Silesian Culture Laboratory operating within the Centre for Culture and Art in Wrocław (OKiS), in cooperation with OP ENHEIM and the German–Polish Foundation for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, addresses contemporary challenges in working with sensitive heritage. The film includes UMF’s activities related to the commemoration of the destroyed Jewish cemetery on Gwarna Street in Wrocław. Following the screening in Wrocław at OP ENHEIM, we joined the discussion as representatives of the Foundation, co-creating a space for dialogue on responsibility, memory, and long-term care for the heritage of the city and region. The film (in Polish, with German subtitles) will be released online in the first quarter of 2026.
INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES
Landscape Archive – innovative research, exhibition, and commemoration
A key feature of our international activity was our role as a producer and co-organizer of the EU-funded exhibit Landscape Archive in Belgium, a project devoted to a lesser-known dimension of the Holocaust and its long-term consequences: dispersed burial sites of victims across the Polish landscape, often unmarked and remaining outside official memory maps. Shown in Brussels and at Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen, the exhibition presented the long-term work of the Zapomniane Foundation, which locates, documents, marks, and commemorates these sites in accordance with Jewish law (Halakha). Landscape Archive combined artistic practice, field research, and reflection on institutional responsibility towards the landscape as a carrier of difficult and sensitive memory. UMF partnered on this project with the Zapomniane Foundation and closely cooperated with the Polish Institute in Brussels, the Mission of Norway to the EU, Kazerne Dossin Museum, CEJI – A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe, and the Centre Communautaire Laïc Juif (CCLJ). The exhibition was part of the program of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2025 and contributed to strengthening international dialogue on ethical forms of commemoration, the protection of non-obvious sites, and the relationship between memory, space, and justice.
Commemoration of Jewish cemeteries in Europe – exchange of experience
A milestone in 2025 was an international seminar organized in Barcelona, bringing together heritage professionals from Poland and Spain, representatives of public institutions, civil society organizations, researchers, artists, and members of Jewish communities. The seminar combined fieldwork and artistic interventions at the medieval Jewish cemetery on Montjuïc in Barcelona. Organized by partners of the Engaged Memory Consortium from Poland and Spain (including UMF), in cooperation with the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Barcelona and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, the event created a platform for the international exchange of good practices in the protection, documentation, and commemoration of Jewish cemeteries.
Completion of the MultiMemo Project (2023–2025)
The project financed by the EU concluded with the publication of the Playbook, a toolkit of case studies presenting good practices in working with difficult heritage. Over two years, together with our partners, we organized 47 events with more than 5,600 participants from 27 countries, strengthening an international network for the exchange of knowledge and experience.
SURVIVE Project – Stories of Women’s and Children’s Resilience in WWII
In 2025, we were invited to cooperate on the EU-funded international project SURVIVE, implemented in Poland in partnership with the Spark Civic Accelerator Foundation, the Wrocław branch of the Institute of National Remembrance, and the Brama Cukermana Foundation. The project focuses on the experiences of women and children during World War II and on their presence – or absence – in local memory narratives. Within the project, we co-organized urban walks in Wrocław (From the Notes of the Foreigners’ Camp — Festung Breslau through the Eyes of Female Forced Laborers) and in Będzin (Partings: A Walk in the Footsteps of Mothers and Children during the Holocaust). Working with urban spaces, testimonies, and historical accounts helped restore visibility to experiences marginalized in mainstream narratives and stimulated reflection on how war memory functions today in the urban landscape, education, and everyday social practices.
Remembrance in Dialogue – a transnational educational project
UMF was a partner in a Polish-German-Ukrainian project offering a series of training sessions and field visits for teachers and educators from Germany, Poland, and Ukraine, preparing them to be multipliers of educational activities related to historical memory. The project focused on commemorating the Holocaust within the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine. We collaborated with the Zapomniane Foundation, FestivALT, Austausch e.V., and Insha Osvita, thanks to funding from the EVZ Foundation and the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Advocacy and combating antisemitism – national and European contexts
The Foundation actively participated in the development of the National Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Supporting Jewish Life for 2025–2030, engaging in the consultation process organized by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Poland. The strategy is inspired by European Union initiatives, and other EU Member States implementing their own national strategies. We contribute a perspective grounded in several years of work with Jewish heritage, sites of memory and (non)memory, education, and field activities, combining academic reflection with operational experience. Our engagement focuses not only on responding to discrimination, but also on building long-term prevention mechanisms: anti-discrimination education, strengthening the competencies of cultural and educational institutions, responsible management of difficult and sensitive heritage, and the creation of safe spaces for dialogue. We emphasize that public strategies should take into account local, historical, and social aspects, demonstrating that combating antisemitism cannot be limited to interventions in response to acts of discrimination, but must be an integral part of memory policies, civic education, and the building of social cohesion.
2026 – Strategic Directions
In the coming year, we plan to:
- continue working on the heritage of Wrocław and Lower Silesia within the ReActMem project, including public events and urban walks focused on the legacy of Jewish architects;
- launch the online version of the exhibition Putting Things Back in Place: Jewish Breslauers and Their Objects (website launch in February);
- further develop the “green commemoration” project for the site of the destroyed Jewish cemetery on Gwarna Street (former Claassenstrasse) as a long-term process integrating memory, ecology, and responsible spatial design. Planned activities include research, expert walks with landscape architects and specialists in Jewish law (halakha), interdisciplinary workshops for students, and the planning of an artistic-landscape intervention. We understand green commemoration not as a one-off installation, but as a “living landscape of memory” requiring care, education, and ongoing dialogue with users of the space;
- continue cooperation on the commemoration of the cemetery on Krzycka Street in Wrocław (funding from the Erika-Simon-Stiftung);
- further develop digital tools and publications (including making project outputs available online) to preserve memory objects and make them universally accessible;
- continue the webinar series as a permanent international platform for debate on memory cultures;
- strengthen educational and anti-discrimination programs for diverse social groups;
- continue genealogical research reuniting families with their past.
We would like to thank all our partners, collaborators, and participants for their trust and energy, and for co-creating a space for conversations about the past and its significance for the present and the future.
