The Yiddish Book Center's

Wexler Oral History Project

A growing collection of in-depth interviews with people of all ages and backgrounds, whose stories about the legacy and changing nature of Yiddish language and culture offer a rich and complex chronicle of Jewish identity.

“Now There are Just Traces Left”: Learning About a “Living Past” of Jewish Culture in Poland

Watch now:

Michał Moniuszko, a musician and teacher, reflects on the remnants of Jewish history in Sejny, Poland, a town that before the Holocaust was 70% Jewish. Today, no living Jews remain there.

This is an excerpt from an oral history with Michal Moniuszko.

This excerpt is in English.

Michal Moniuszko was born in Sejny, Poland in 1977.

Jump to map

This interview is part of the Yiddish and the Arts: musicians, actors, and artists series.

Other video highlights from this oral history

"The Yeshiva? It Was A Shoe Factory”: Discovering Traces of Multicultural Poland through the Borderlands Project in Sejny

4 min 29 sec

“We Got Into A Friendship”: After Sixty Years, A Cantor Returns to His Native Sejny, Poland

7 min 1 sec

“Everything Started from That”: Finding Connection Between Rock and Klezmer as Introduction to Jewish Music

5 min 17 sec

“It Must Be Done”: The “Great Responsibility” of Educating Young People about Jewish and Multicultural Past of Sejny, Poland

3 min 32 sec

“Phantom” Limb: Presence of the Past in Sejny, Poland

3 min 23 sec

“First: Get to Know [it]”: Advice to Counter Poland’s “Antisemitism Without Jews”

1 min 26 sec

More information about this oral history excerpt

Themes: