The Lasting Memory Foundation was established in order to preserve the memory of the common history of Poles and Jews. Its establishment expressed a long-term engagement of the Foundation members in collecting and spreading knowledge in order to preserve and commemorate places and events related to Poles and Jews. It also resulted from their readiness to continue giving aid to people whose families were killed for rescuing Jews and who are currently living in poor conditions.
Our common work has resulted in photo exhibitions, presentations and lectures in culture centers and schools. It also involves the cooperation with various social institutions, aimed at spreading historical knowledge. We have photographed over 400 Jewish cemeteries, supported actions aimed at saving Jewish headstones, shown the memorial sites to groups of students and collected the accounts of witnesses to the times of World War II. We have located unmarked graves of murdered Jews scattered across fields and forests as well as those of the Poles who died attempting to help them. Our work has been appreciated and awarded with diplomas and medals.
The establishment of the Lasting Memory Foundation in 2008 enabled us to carry out more complex and effective actions. We reach the unknown and nearly forgotten places and people, witnesses to the Holocaust. We discover the unmarked graves of Jews murdered during the Second World War, including mass graves which we commemorate with memorial stones. We systematically supplement documentation of those places. We collect knowledge and pass it on to the young generations during special meetings in schools, also with the presence of witnesses. Our lectures concerning the common history of Poles and Jews are delivered in culture centers, various associations and prisons. We collect unrecorded accounts regarding the assistance to Jews during the Nazi occupation.
The aims of The Lasting Memory Foundation:
- Documenting and spreading knowledge concerning the common history of Poles and Jews
- Spreading and deepening the knowledge of the Holocaust
- Commemoration of unmarked martyrdom sites and burial places of Jews as well as preparing documentation of those places.
- Passing on historical knowledge to young generations, also in memorial sites and with the assistance of witnesses.
- Collecting the accounts of the last living witnesses to the times of the war.
- Reaching people who rescued Jews during the occupation and preserving their actions
The Foundation Board:
The Foundation Board:On the left: the creator and President of The Lasting Memory Foundation- Zbigniew Niziński. Since 1999 he has been travelling across Poland and searching for disappearing Jewish cemeteries and mass graves of the murdered Victims. He has visited more than 600 cemeteries and the sites of mass extermination. He has reached elderly witnesses to the extermination as well as people with the title of the Righteous among the Nations of the World. He was awarded the diploma by Embassy of Israel in Poland and Jewish Historical Institute for his activity supporting the preservation of Jewish heritage. At the request of the Association of “the Children of the Holocaust”, he was honored with the medal by the Association of Jewish War Veterans. In 2008 Zbigniew Niziński was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland by the President of Poland. In 2010 he was granted the Honorary Membership of the Polish Association of the Righteous Among the Nations.
On the right: The Lasting Memory Foundation Vice President- Daniel Starzyński. A lecturer at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Doctor in Jewish Studies . The author of a dissertation concerning the creative activity of Szmuel Josef Agnon. Mr Starzyński has been visiting and photographing Jewish cemeteries since 1984. He also works as a guide in Auschwitz- Birkenau Museum in Oświęcim.
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