Our Exhibition on Show in Tykocin

Mateusz Szczepaniak, 16 November 2016
The Exhibition "They Risked Their Lives - Poles Who Save Jews During the Holocaust" has gone on show in Tykocin. The town, near Białystok was once home to one of the largest Jewish communities in Poland. The shtetl and its magnificent heritage site - the Great Synagogue, have been well preserved to this day. The synagogue was the venue for our exhibition to coincide with the Jewish festival of Sukkot.

The Exhibition was created in 2013 by POLIN Museum in partnership with the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since that time, it has been shown around the world in places such as Chicago, Düsseldorf, El Paso, Hawaii, Madrid, Melbourne, Moscow and Paris. It has been translated in English, Spanish, German, Russian and Lithuanian.

The Exhibition was opened on Saturday 3rd October 2015 in the women's section of the Tykocin Great Synagogue. Jews first appeared in the town in 1522 and, over the years, developed into one of the largest Jewish communities in Poland and into a significant centre for intellectuals. Today, the synagogue and nearby Talmud school hold the Museum of Jewish Culture, a part of the Białystok Museum. It contains a rich collection of artifacts from Tykocin Jewish life, as well as an exhibition of the town and its surrounding area.

The Exhibition's co-creator, Klara Jackl, guided visitors around the display.

The Exhibition presents stories of the Righteous Among the Nations - Poles who risked their lives, and the lives of their families, to help persecuted Jews. It tells of the fate of the rescuers and those rescued in the historical context of occupied Poland. It explains the locations and extent of the aid, and the motivations of those who provided it.

The Exhibition was prepared using interviews with the Righteous conducted as part of the POLIN Museum's "The Polish Righteous - Restoring Memory" project.

The exhibition will remain open in Tykocin until 24th November 2015.