“Social Laboratory of Jewish Heritage” is an educational and artistic project implemented in 2025 by the Zapomniane Foundation in cooperation with artists, local communities, and partners from Poland and Germany. Its goal was to restore the memory of forgotten burial sites of Holocaust victims and to develop new, inclusive, and ethical forms of commemoration.
The project activities took place in three locations: Przegaliny Małe, Pawlichy, and Las Chodówki – small villages and rural areas where executions of Jewish residents took place during World War II. In each location, commemorative interventions – artistic, landscape-oriented, and educational – were carried out, engaging local communities in the process of discovering, understanding, and commemorating the burial sites.
Jewish artists from Poland and Germany were involved in the project, including Atalya Laufer, Anna Schapiro, Natan Kryszk, Marcin Król, Alex Roth, and landscape architect Natalia Budnik. The project combined contemporary art with local history, memory work with intergenerational and community activities. Each location resulted in a unique form of commemoration – a memory ritual, a landscape gesture, or a site-specific sound installation – created together with local residents.
The project demonstrated that it is possible to build a shared, empathetic memory – not through erecting monuments, but through action, presence, and relationships. Its results include not only physical interventions in space but also bonds, conversations, and collaborations that have permanently embedded the forgotten burial sites into local landscapes of memory.
Co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as part of the Cultural Program of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2025 within the SYNERGIE grant program.
