Nominated for 2020 POLIN Award: the Krotchwile Association

The Krotochwile Association was founded in 2012 and has since been actively engaged in the preservation of local Jewish heritage in the Wielkopolska [Greater Poland] region of Poland. It popularizes the knowledge on Jewish history and culture by running educational projects addressed to both youth and adults.

In August, the members of Krotochwile Association, assisted by volunteers, launched the first stage of works on the inventory of one of the several surviving Jewish cemeteries in Wielkopolska—the cemetery in Koźmin Wielkopolski. In the process, 511 graves have been identified and 300 tombstones have been recorded and described. The results of the works carried out at the cemetery are published on the Association’s website jewishwlkp.pl.

From the very outset, the Association has been organizing the Simchat Chaim Festival during which former Jewish communities across the region are being remembered through concerts, performances, exhibitions and literary events. Currently, the Association members are busy working on a documentary on Nathan Mośkiewicz, Koźmin’s last Jewish resident who survived the Holocaust and returned to his hometown after the war.

Inspired by the multicultural history of their region, the Krotochwile Association is involved in projects in many places—their activities take place in Poznań, Koźmin Wielkopolski, Krotoszyn, Jarocin, Buk and many smaller towns across Wielkopolska.