(Václav Havel, a speech given at the opening of the conference “The Holocaust Phenomenon” in Rudolf´s Gallery of the Prague Castle, 6 October 1999)

The Education and Culture Centre of the Jewish Museum in Prague (ECC JMP) in collaboration with the Hidden Child organization, the Terezín Memorial and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) invite anyone interested to participate in a unique project called “Neighbours Who Disappeared”. This project is a social phenomenon of the Czech Republic. In the light of strong assimilation of the Jewish population till 1939 and following radical change and in the shade of the period 1945-1989, which did not care of the gradual devastation of historic sights and religious life, the path on vanishing traces of local Jewish settlement might for young people become a find of special context.

The goal of the project is to offer the students at the age of 12 – 18 years an opportunity to formulate new questions on the basis of first-hand information and always of a certain locality. Those are questions regarding the fate of the people who were part of social life of Czech and Moravian municipalities and who suddenly disappeared mainly within the period of the World War II from close neighbourhood of past generations. Individual or team work on the project inspires the participants to:

-         take interest in something else apart from “my own individual” and simultaneously the work paradoxically puts stress on self-reflection - that means personal contribution and searching for one’s own place in this world.

-         answer the question if it is really possible to find out some concrete facts within closest neighbourhood, in a district archive, in chronicles, at a building control office, in the databases of the Jewish Museum, Prague Jewish Community, Terezín Memorial, Pinkas Synagogue and if young people can appeal to these institutions by themselves or with the help of adults only.

-         pose questions to the generation that as the last one have experienced the World War II, without an outside help the young people do not often ask even their own grandparents.

-         trace the documents that would otherwise get lost

-         realize that learning is an adventure

As for the adults (teachers, workers of archives and of the Jewish Museum, members of Jewish communities, eyewitnesses, chronicle writers) the assistance with making information regarding this topic accessible (internet, collections and databases) is most important. The final works can present the school on the website connected with ours.

The students collect testimonies of witnesses about their neighbors and events of that time from eyewitnesses but they also gather archive documents, photographs, diaries, letters etc. The outcome of this effort is literary and research works that become an extraordinary authentic testimony of one tragic chapter of mankind’s history. You can become co-designers of the school website focused on neighbors who disappeared in the vicinity.

The task of the ECC JMP is mainly to present the outcome in collaboration with non-profit-making organizations and with local administration as well. Further it is the assistance (also editorial) with compiling volumes, carrying out exhibitions and film stories. We consider the entire project including its social appreciation, apart from other things, as an important counterbalance to displays of violence of various kinds.

The survey of the project development: The first collection was published in October 2000. The authors of the contributions were received at the Prague Castle and were appraised by Arnošt Lustig. The first film was shown on Czech Television (ČT1) in 2001. On the basis of shooting the film an exhibition of the students’ works is created which gradually increases up to twelve notice boards from different parts of the Czech Republic. Due to the interest and demands four versions (two big and two small which are easy to be transported) are created and they become a part of international workshops Holocaust in Education in Terezín and other conferences and important events. Twelve boards of the exhibition started the tour in Prague where the exhibition was opened in the Valdštejn Palace in June 2000 and president of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic Petr Pithart took part in the opening. The exhibition goes on together with the exhibition Anne Frank – A Story for Today or through the regions involved in the project (Třebíč, Jičín, Ostrava, Loštice, Boskovice, Telč, Sokolov, Chomutov, Klatovy, Ústí nad Labem, Heřmanův Týnec, Beroun, Stránčice, Litomyšl, Nová Paka, Stará Paka, Brno, Hranice, Lipník nad Bečvou, Hustopeče, Kojetín, Krnov). Together with complementary material (videocassette, CD presentation, exhibition catalogue, methodical publications and posters, A3 copies of eight of the twelve boards) the exhibition is only a part of a long-term, non-profit-making educational project. Beyond expectation of its authors the project becomes motivation to deal with further author long-term projects with the subject on the position of an individual in extreme situation, the period of the World War II and reflections on these events from the standpoint of young people today etc. In June 2004, new participants in the project were appraised at an international meeting by Debora Lipstadt, Arnošt Lustig and Leo Pavlát, director of the Jewish Museum in Prague.

The Neighbours Who Disappeared project was - as a part of education towards tolerance - supported by the Czech Ministry of Education Youths and Sports The guarantors of the project are Arnošt Lustig(writer teaching at American University in Washington, D.C.) and Zdeněk Zbořil (Institute of Political Science of the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, Charles University, Prague). This letter is an appeal for collaboration. For your information we attach the questionnaire and the basic offer of our lectures that could be linked with further individual collaboration. Please, contact us before starting the work on the project.