Awarding of the „Righteous Among the Nations” medal during the festival “ZACHOR Colour and Sound”

During the festival, on June 15th at 6 pm in the Podlasie Opera and Philharmonic in Białystok (2 Podleśna Street) took place the ceremony of awarding the “Righteous Among the Nations” medal. The distinction was presented to Józef Krzywicki from Lipsk, son of the late Anna Krzywicka and Stanisław Krzywicki, who during the Second World War had been hiding the Trachtenberg family - Leon Trachtenberg, who they knew before the war, his wife and youngest son - in their house in the village Dulkowszczyzna. Józef Krzywicki was eight years old during the war. In the spring of 1943 the Jews escaped from Grodno and asked his family for help. The Krzywickis prepared for them a hiding place in their barn, where the Trachtenbergs had been hiding there for almost a year. After liberation they left to Białystok and then emigrated to the United States.

Among other attractions during the festival, lectures, workshops for children, concerts and exhibitions were organized. The visitors were able to watch a documentary about Gedali Rozenman, see the exhibition of Izaak Celnikier’s photograms, the spectacle “Unloved” based on Arnošt Lustig’s prose and staged by the students of the 6th King Zygmunt August High School in Białystok, the performance of the Rajfer Sisters from Israel and the concert of Opa Nowyj God from Saint Petersburg. On Monday, June 14th 2010 in the Philological Department Assembly Hall of the University of Białystok at 12 noon took place the meeting with the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich.

Gedali Rozenman, first of the two central figures of this year’s edition of the festival, was the last Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Community in Białystok. He had considerable standing, wrote works and polemics on religious topics and taught in numerous Białystok schools. On behalf of the inhabitants of the town he welcomed Józef Piłsudski on August 21st, 1921. Rozenman tried to build the best possible relations between the Jewish and Polish community. He introduced in the Great Synagogue the custom of singing the Polish anthem during national holidays. In June 1941 together with Efraim Baracz he organized the local Judenrat. Gedali Rozenman and his family died in 1943, during the liquidation of the ghetto.

Izaak Celnikier lost a big part of his family during the liquidation of the Białystok ghetto. He was sent to the camps in Stutthof and Birkenau, and later to Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen and Flossenbürg. He survived the war and in 1946 left to Prague, where he graduated from the School of Applied Arts. In 1955 he co-organized the all-Poland exhibition “Against the war, against fascism”. The artist emigrated to France, where he lives and works to this day. Many of his paintings depict everyday life in the Białystok ghetto.

The full program of the festival can be found on the website of the Center for Citizenship Education Poland-Israel