Description of the project

The website of the Virtual Museum of Jewish History in Białowieża was created to preserve the memory about the Jewish community in this town. To preserve it for the many descendants of Białowieża Jews, scattered around the world,  people whose ancestors escaped from Białowieża before the war avoiding the Holocaust; preserve it thinking about these which lived and died here; and preserve it for us – the citizens of Białowieża and our children, because the story of hundreds of Jews from the communities in Białowieża is also a story of the place we live in. Every day, going to school, work, or a walk in a park, passing through Waszkiewicz or Olga Gabiec street, through Zastawie or Tropince; we walk by houses where Jews used to live (and now we live), we shop in the stores in which our grandparents our parents once bought produce from Jewish store-keepers; and the tourists eat fancy dinners and drink delicious coffee in the restaurants and coffee-houses built in the old tenement house by Jewish landlords. The oldest generation of Białowieżans still remembers the Jewish citizens, and willingly shares their stories – such as Borys Russko, a poet from Białowieża, who wrote a beautiful poem about them. Some of them keep the stories of their beloved Szmulek, Roza or Ida next to their heart through their whole life; some of them still carry a nickname given by an old Jewish friend from kindergarden times. The „middle” generation doesn't know much, and children don't have any clue about the history of Jews in Białowieża. The Museum's website mission is to make sure we won't forget our joint history.

Katarzyna Winiarska

WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO CONTACT US!

 

All descendants of the Białowieża Jews, or anybody in possession of information, materials, documents, pictures, postcards, etc. related to the community of Jews in Białowieża; anybody that can refer people worth interviewing or archives/publications worth researching, anybody willing to help in the archive query in other countries; also these who have remarks about the content published on the site are asked to contact me at katarzyna.winiarska@teremiski.edu.pl