During the same day, another group of students from the Warsaw Film School took part in a second workshop session connected to the Le Case di Micòl project, continuing the shared reflection on Holocaust memory.
The workshop, led by Małgorzata Kosieniak, began once again with the screening of the animated short film created by former student Gabi Bania, inspired by Jerzy Ficowski’s poem Execution of Memory. Dark, symbolic and emotionally intense, the film immediately set the tone for the discussion by raising a central question: how does traumatic history remain within us over time?
Students were guided through a structured conversation around several key themes. First, they reflected on what the Shoah represents for young people today and on how societies can be influenced by propaganda, fear and mechanisms of exclusion.
They then shared their emotional reactions to the stories of the victims. Sadness and a sense of injustice emerged, alongside a more challenging question: why do we continue to talk about the Holocaust so much? This opened an essential reflection — the Shoah took place here, on European soil, and led to the near disappearance of a community that had shaped cultural and social life for centuries.
The workshop also addressed the differences between the Holocaust and other genocides, focusing on four defining elements:
the aim of total extermination,
the industrial organisation of killing,
the direct involvement of the Nazi state,
and the economic exploitation of victims’ property.
In the final part of the session, students researched the traces of Jewish cultural heritage still visible in Warsaw and Poland today, connecting history to the present and recognising how memory continues to live through everyday culture.
The workshop concluded with questions raised directly by the students themselves — questions about responsibility, awareness and the role of education. Through this process, reflection became active, shared and forward-looking, reinforcing the role of young filmmakers in carrying memory into the future.