We conduct research on WWII that expands historical records, then utilize that knowledge to work with children in classrooms and mass grave sites.

Throughout WWII, German forces executed thousands of residents of Kaluszyn, a small Polish town 60km east of Warsaw. The town’s Jewish cemetery was desecrated and turned into a mass grave - a sprawling field without fencing or headstones where hundreds of souls lay to rest. In early 1939 Kaluszyn’s Jewish population was ~6000; today it is zero.

"When we arrived in Kaluszyn we were jolted again into the real world of wartime Poland. Not only had live Jews been cast into the fiery crematoria but dead ones had been bulldozed from the holy Polish landscape. The cemetery had been wiped away and turned into a field for planting grain. The headstones had all been removed, leaving only a series of scars where the graves had been. We were too stunned to move."

- Saul Kuperhand, ‘Shadows of Treblinka’

In 2021, our team began visiting the local school to discuss Kaluszyn’s history and visit the cemetery with children. This educational work in the classroom was accompanied by a research report that utilized archival aerial photographs, GPR, and LiDAR technology to determine the cemetery’s historical land boundaries, execution sites, and locations of mass graves.

We have since returned annually to continue working with these students. Eventually each child will be given a tree sapling to plant in the cemetery as the initial stage of an eco-commemorative project. The trees will be strategically placed around the perimeter to define the cemetery’s boundaries. The trees will enclose the space naturally, honor those who rest in the land, and restore dignity to the desolate space.

After planting, the students will engage in aftercare, watering their trees and weeding the earth. Through tending to the space, the children will develop a personal relationship with the cemetery. The children, their parents, and others will witness the space transform over time, helping to reaffirm the notion that even amongst trauma and death, we can experience beauty and rebirth.