Young people cleaned up the site of the mass grave of the Holocaust victims

On 29.10.2024, a group of volunteers from Primary School No. 1 in Kasina Wielka, under the supervision of Ms Kinga Kołodziejczyk, cleaned up the area of the mass grave of Jews in Mszana Dolna. Kamil Strużyński also worked with us, as usual, and the other teacher, Ms Agnieszka Ceklarz - due to work commitments - joined us later.

Before work, the group was acquainted with the history of this tragic place, learnt about the principles of commemoration and behaviour at Jewish memorial sites, heard the stories of a few families, and the history of a group of Christians of Jewish origin, also murdered at Pańskie on that terrible day, 19.08.1942. At that time, practically the entire Jewish community of Mszana Dolna, the surrounding area, and displaced people from several other towns were exterminated.

Volunteers washed the memorial and the monument commemorating more than a thousand murdered, the surroundings of the grave, raked the leaves and tidied up the alleys. Finally, the girls lit the candles they had brought, placed pebbles on the monument and in front of the actual burial site.

After a really hard work, the volunteers ate sweet buns from our Sztetl Mszana Dolna Foundation, and everyone also received monographs about the Jewish cemetery, published by us, which also contain information about the life and death of Mszana Jews, the course of the Holocaust in our town and a description of the memorial sites.
The mass execution, on 19.08.1942, in the Pańskie ravine, also included Jews from all the villages of the Mszana Dolna municipality, thus also from Kasina Wielka.

We are extremely grateful to the ladies who mobilised and brought their students and to the school management for understanding the importance of this involvement. We hope that this is the beginning of a good collaboration with another school in our area. This is the fifth educational institution to join us in our efforts to nurture the memory of the Jewish community of our region.

It was with emotion and gratitude that we noticed that at the mass grave was visited before us by the children from Kindergarten No. 2, who traditionally come with their guardians to this place. Let us remember!