by George J Elbaum

Legionowo is a town approximately 25 km. north of Warsaw with a current population of 55,000.  After the outbreak of WWII the Nazis created a ghetto in the city and forced approximately 3,000 Jews into it, then deported them to the Treblinka concentration camp in March 1942.  Some Jews from Legionowo managed to survive the war in hiding and lived in the city after the war, but most of them left the city by the end of 1940s.  Nine Polish inhabitants of Legionowo who hid Jews during the war were given the title of Righteous Among the Nations.  However, the only traces of Legionowo’s pre-war Jewish population still remaining are a couple of old houses that belonged to Jews before the war.

The King Jan III Sobieski School Complex No. 2 participated in 2017 School of Dialogue training program and it was nominated in the “Innovation” category this year.  Its Principal is Maria Serdeczna, and teachers Magdalena Grzybowska and Anna Gogolewska were the School of Dialogue coordinators who organized today’s event, which included students from another Legionowo school, the Salesian School Complex.  About 100 students attended my talk.