In 1940-1943, the Germans established a closed Jewish district in Warsaw, the ghetto, where on an area of about 4 ha they concentrated close to 450 thousand people. The history of the Warsaw Ghetto is an integral part of the wartime history of Warsaw. Based on numerous diaries and memoirs from the Warsaw Ghetto, young people taking part in the competition were able to reconstruct the stories of those trying to live with dignity in that inhuman world – social and political activists, teachers, doctors, journalists, scholars and artists. People of different ages and with different political views, hopes and dreams.

Within the framework of the competition organized by the Warsaw Center for Socio-Educational Innovation and Training (WCIES) students from Warsaw high schools got to know the biographies of the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto and those who organized social life and aid in the closed district.

On June 19, the official prize-giving ceremony was held at the WCIES. The Museum’s Education Department was co-responsible for organizing the high school module of the competition.

During the first phase of the competition students prepared short films presenting selected activists and insurgents from the Ghetto. The films were judged by Zofia Mioduszewska from the Museum’s Education Department, and Robert Szuchta, one of the Museum’s historical consultants. Four teams qualified to take part in the second phase: the Gastronomy and Hospitality School Complex, A. Mickiewicz High School No. 4, School Complex No. 7, M. Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska High School No. 78.

The second phase of the competition involved an intriguing city game, prepared by Miriam Boehm and Jan Grądzki of the Museum, which took place in Muranów. Groups of students sang the fighters’ anthem in Yiddish, tried to find the location of Muranowski Sq. and deciphered the Hebrew names of political organizations active in the Warsaw Ghetto. The participants also worked with literary texts related to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The first prize went to the team from the Gastronomy and Hospitality School Complex, whose members included: Edyta Stępień, Wojciech Mucha, Łukasz Trzaskowski, Marta Kot, as well as their teacher, Janusz Heller.

We would like to congratulate them on their outstanding performance!

Thanks to the competition, students from Warsaw high schools were able to get to know the history of the Warsaw Ghetto and the events that took place in Muranów 70 years ago.

The competition was an event marking the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.