PARTICIPATORY MEMORY WORKSHOP – ŁĘCZNA

Event program

On October 19, 2023 in Łęczna, the Zapomniane Foundation conducted workshops for young people around the burial place of approximately 1,000 Jews from Łęczna. The educational workshops were aimed at involving and engaging school youth in caring for the burial site and encouraging them to become part of the process of preparing the commemoration.
The participatory workshops consisted of two parts. The first part was prepared by landscape architect Natalia Budnik, who created a design for developing the area around the planned monument by using greenery. Referring to the concept of green commemorations, she introduced the youth to her way of thinking and her concept, and then the participants planted plants together with her around the burial site and the future monument. The second part of the workshops was cooperation with the monument conservator Magda Olszowska, who was the co-author of the project and the designer of the monument in Łęczna. The workshops were based on her original idea of creating “memory stones” using “marble flour” and silicone molds specially created for the classes. After introducing the youth to the meaning of pebbles and the custom of placing them at graves in Judaism, the youth made white pebbles with their own hands under her supervision. Stones were prepared for the commemoration ceremony so that the youth could place them at the burial site in accordance with Jewish tradition.
The workshops took place a few weeks before the commemoration ceremony (November 7, 2023), in which young people and residents of Łęczna, clergy of three denominations, local authorities, representatives of various organizations, descendants of Jews from Łęczna and the Jewish community from Lublin participated. The youth could see the results of their work and place the stones they made near the monument.