The international conference has finally successfully taken place – live! -, even though nothing was certain until three weeks before the start.

In the short history of the project, it was undoubtedly the most important event of 2021, and so much could be written about the four days when it took place. I think that the conference programme, which we successfully fulfilled with one exception, will tell us a lot: the first director of Polin, Dariusz Stola, got injured just before his trip to Brno, so instead of attending the conference he headed to hospital where he spent four days.

The programme does not mention that the opening ceremony was also attended by the President of the Senate of the Czech Republic Miloš Vystrčil, the German Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Christoph Israng, the Mayor of Brno, Markéta Vaňková, the President of the Jewish Community of Brno, Jáchym Kanarek, the President of the Constitutional Court, Pavel Rychetský, or the Rector of Masaryk University, Martin Bareš. Finally, one of the events was attended by the leaving ambassador of the State of Israel, Daniel Meron.

Such support from prominent figures is gratifying, but equally important is how many new contacts we have made through the conference. We have achieved what we had hoped for: we have laid the foundations for an international board of advisors in Brno, the final line-up of which should be known during the spring of 2022. And we also signed an important Memorandum of Cooperation with Masaryk University on the spot.

Thanks are due to the many people who helped make the conference a success, but special mention must go to the staff at the Hotel International, who provided us with the best possible facilities for the conference.