The book, when completed, will include selected contributions from Polish high school students & Jewish students from around the world. March of the Living students can write on one or both of the following topics:
- Your meetings with Polish Christian students and the impact it had on you;
- Your feelings about being descendants of Jews who came from the Shtetl, and what your grandparents told you about their experience.
Please include one or two paragraphs about yourself, growing up in your home town and a good photo of yourself as well. These essays should be no more than about 1000 to 1500 words.
You can see an example essay from a Polish-Christian high school student at www.ozarow.org/Winning_Student_Essay.shtml.
The Poland Jewish Cemeteries Restoration Project (PJCRP) plans to publish a book of award winning essays, entitled “My Shtetl - My Town” which have been written by Polish high school students. Publication is planned for 2006/2007. The book will be initially in English with a Polish version to follow.
With every Jewish cemetery restoration, the PJCRP encourages Jewish descendants/donors to support an annual essay contest at the local high school. The top three Polish student essay award winners receive prizes. Typical titles are “The Jews of my Town”, “My Town during the Holocaust”, “The Importance of Reconciliation”, “Respect for Other Cultures” and related writings. Essay submissions can be a combination of writing including poetry, photos,drawings, but must be in excellent Polish, accompanied by a good English translation. Students can collaborate as coauthors. The judges are drawn from the teaching staff at the high school and local residents.
The Polish student essays received so far have been excellent, touching, and far exceeding our early expectations. They deserve as wide an audience as possible.
The objectives of the book include (not in order of importance):
- Holocaust education, particularly of Polish and Jewish youth;
- Furthering reconciliation and creating peace in the world;
- Proving that cemetery restoration is also very much about the living;
- A book of example essays for other schools in Poland to use as we start new cemetery restoration projects;
- Provide previously unknown historical insights about what happened locally before and during the Holocaust as recorded by young Poles interviewing elders;
- Creating awareness and encouragement in Jewish descendants that they have an obligation and it is a great mitzvah to restore their ancestral cemeteries;
- As a fundraiser – all profits will go into the PJCRP General Fund to support PJCRP objectives; and,
- Worthy objectives we did not realize or understand in the beginning!
The book will also include short essays (maybe 500 to 1500 words) and stories from Jewish donor/descendants about their shtetls. For example, for a particular shtetl there would be an essay/story from descendants, written by one or more descendants. Suitable topics could include one or a combination of:
- Brief history of the former shtetl;
- Stories before and during the war;
- Heroic Poles who saved Jewish lives;
- Stories from Survivors;
- Personal reflections on visiting the former shtetl;
- Famous Jews of the shtetl and famous descendants, rabbis, artists, business people, etc.;
- Memories of being a 17 year old growing up in the US, Canada or elsewhere (a counterpoint to the Polish student essays);
- What it means to restore the cemetery to the Jewish descendants;
- Other ideas, which will be appropriate to the objectives of the book(s).
Also included will be letters from notable individuals from these former shtetls (the mayor, priest, headmaster of high school) Jewish and non-Jewish organizations, embassies, and governments (Poland, US, Canada, Israel, France, others).
March of the Living participants are invited to submit an essay for consideration in the publication called “My Shtetl - My Town”.