project NEIGHBOURS WHO DISAPPEARED

The Neighbours Who Disappeared Project

This project encourages young people to seek out those who vanished from their neighborhoods during World War II. The project provides a methodology for studying the Holocaust period in accordance with the general educational program of the Czech Ministry of Education at all educational levels. It also provides an opportunity to meet the last generation of eyewitnesses of the Holocaust and, in particular, to identify Holocaust victims. So far, it has produced exhibitions, a website, brochures, collections of papers and video documentation.
Because of the assimilation of the Jewish population in the former Czechoslovakia prior to 1939 and the following radical change in the period 1945-1989, during which there was little attention to the destruction of historic sites and religious life, young people today have few traces of local Jewish life to place their historical knowledge in context. The goal of the project is to offer the students 12 - 18 years of age new questions on the basis of first-hand information about their local Jewish communities: 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 local neighborhoods.

Testimony of survivors and eyewitnesses of that period events
Did your grandparents tell you about their experiences during the war?
Did they have any friends they lost during the war?
Do they have any photographs or written documents of that time?
Were these experiences somehow reflected in their further life?

General data
Do you know where the closest Jewish community was to your residence?
In which period did it thrive?
How was its existence terminated?
Do you know or are you able to find any interesting personalities in the history of the Jewish community, story of their life (they can be for ex. craftsmen, writers, artists, scientists, doctors, lawyers, businessmen, founders and owners of enterprises and factories)
Where are, closest to your residence, preserved cemeteries, synagogues, memorial plaques relating the life of the Jewish community?

Data drawn upon written sources
Do you know which documents relating the life of the Jewish community closest to your residence have been preserved in your district archive?
Does your school have any preserved documents from the time of the First and Second Republic?
Do you know since when the students of Jewish origin were not allowed to study at schools and why?
Do you know any interesting personalities who were studying at your school during the World War II and the story of their life?
What was the attitude of the students to the fact that one day some classmates of theirs did not come to school because of imposing the ban on access to schools and on any education of Jewish children?

A Tribute to the Child Holocaust Victims
- II. Phase of the Neighbours Who Disappeared Project

School children from various Czech towns, such as Telč, Pilsen, České Budějovice, Chotěboř, Varnsdorf and Litomyšl, are involved in a search for former Jewish schoolmates who vanished from these very towns during World War II. This phase involves creating memorial plaques at schools focusing mainly on pre-war Jewish pupils and students of schools still attended by children today and making digital copies of these plaques for a new traveling exhibition.

The survey of the project development:
2000 - The first collection was published and authors were appraised at Prague Castle by former president Vaclav Havel.
2001 - First film was shown on Czech Television (ČT1)
2001-2002 - On the basis of shooting the film an exhibition of the students' works is proposed
2002 -2005 - local brochures and collections
2004 - An international cooperation
2005 - II. stage of the Project A Tribute to the Child Holocaust Victims

Creation of local schools memorial plaques and brochures

We hardly can find a partner school for you (that is better on www.holocaust.cz, Sokrates or other EU web pages) but we can put links on www.zmizeli-sousede.cz on your web site,
We can arrange a common presentation in Prague (next will be in June during the Festival 9 Gates with free entrance placed in Waldstein garden in the center of Prague) .
We are sorry, we are not able to cover your accommodation or travel cost.

Supervision and coordination:
The Education and Culture Center of the Jewish Museum in Prague,
Maiselova 15, Prague 1, 110 00, Czech Republic
Phone: +420 222 325 172, +420 224 814 926 Marie Zahradníková
Fax: +420 222 318 856, marie.zahr@jewishmuseum.cz

If you are interested, to create a website or brochures in English or memorial plaque and to share it with other participants (Czech and Slovak Republic) send your contact on this address:
Methodology and coordination:
The Forgotten Ones NGO
Marta Vančurová (martavan@gmail.com), mobile: +420 603 147 074

call appeal for schools