Moving. Fascinating. Fun. Those are all apt words to describe the experience of spending time* the other day with Małgosia and Magda Płoszaj a mother and daughter pair in Rybnik, Poland, which is in Upper Silesia. We discussed their mutual dedication to Jewish memory. It all started when Magda, who now works in the education department in the Auschwitz Memorial Museum, was five or six years old and her mother started dragging her with her when she visited Jewish cemeteries. They went all over Poland and probably visited 200 cemeteries together, while Małgosia estimates she has visited over 300.
Where did this drive come from? For Małgosia it started after seeing “Schindler’s List.” Before that, like many Poles I have met who are dedicated to Jewish memory, she did not know about the Jewish history in Poland. She was devastated by the loss when she realized it. She took little Magda to the Kraków neighborhood of Kazimierz, where the Jews used to live, and stood on Szeroka Street, one of the main Jewish streets. At that time Kazimierz, which today is full of trendy restaurants and coffee shops, was dilapidated and grim. Małgosia looked up at some empty windows and said aloud,
“My God, there used to be so many of you, and now, nothing.”
Over the years they spent all of Magda’s school holidays traveling across Poland to discover Jewish cemeteries, and at the beginning this was without mobile phones or GPS.
At a certain point Magda rebelled and did not want to do it anymore. The twenty-seven year old explains that she got into something “completely different.” I am expecting her to say ice skating or punk rock. “World War II military history,” she tells me!
But now she’s come full circle, working, as I said above, at the Auschwitz Memorial Museum. Małgosia meanwhile, keeps a blog about Rybnik Jews: http://szufladamalgosi.pl/
“It’s funny,” Magda tells me, “we’re both involved in Jewish remembrance, but somehow I focus on death and mom focuses on life.”
“I’m proud of you,” Małgosia says, as she plants a kiss on her daughter’s forehead.
*My meeting with Małgosia and Magda was for the purpose of recording an interview for the Rescuer of Memory Archive that I am creating in partnership with Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN.
