Henryk Sławik Exhibition

KJ, 16 November 2016
On 27th January, in connection with the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust, , a preview took place of the exhibition, Henryk Sławik – the Forgotten Hero of Three Nations.

The exhibition introduces the figure of Henryk Sławik who, during the Second World War, saved around 5,000 Polish Jews in Hungary. Chairing the council on Polish refugees, he provided Jews with false documents under Polish-sounding names. In this, he worked closely with the Hungarian office of József Antall who “stamped and legitimiised” the documents. After Hungary was occupied by the Germans in 1944, Sławik was arrested. He underwent torture, but never betrayed Antall. He perished in Mauthausen.

After the War, he was doomed to oblivion. It was only in 1990, due to one of those whom he rescued, that Yad Vashem in Jerusalem awarded Henryk Sławik with the Righteous Among the Nations medal.  In 2010, he was posthumously awarded the Order of the White Eagle.

The story of Sławik, known as the Polish Wallenberg, is still little known in Europe. To date, the exhibition has been displayed in a few Polish cities and is intended expound Sławik’s heroic deeds.

The project came about thanks to the Podloskie Museum in Białymstok, the ffice of Euro-Paliamentarian Dr. Marek Migalski, Projekt Śląsk association  and the Henryk Sławik Memory and Activities Society.

Honorary Patrons of the exhibition are the Hungarian Ambassador to Poland, the Israeli Ambassador to Poland, the Podlaskie Provincial Marshall, as well as the Mayor of the City of Tykocin.

The exhibition will remain open until 7th April 2013.

More about the help provided by Henryk Sławik can be found HERE.