"They Risked Their Lives" exhibition went on display in European cities

Mateusz Szczepaniak, 16 November 2016
During February and March 2016, our exhibition "They Risked Their Lives - Poles Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust" went on display in more European cities - in Germany, Spain and Italy.

The exhibition, created in 2013 by the POLIN Museum in partnership with the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tells the story of the Righteous Among the Nations - Poles who risked their lives, and the lives of their families, to help persecuted Jews. The exhibition shows the fate of the rescuers and the rescued in the historical context of occupied Poland. It explains the scale of help provided and what motived the Righteous to do what they did.

On 18th February, the exhibition opened in the Museo della Resistenza in Collegno, Italy. Participants at the opening included the Polish Honorary Consul in Turin Ulrico Leiss de Leimburg, the Polish Vice-Concul in Milan Zuzanna Schnepf-Kołacz, the Mayor of  Collegno Francesco Casciano and Dr Claudio Vercelli from Turin's Instytut Storico Salvemini.

Milan is also hosting the exhibition in Italy at the Casa della Memoria. Visitors were greeted by the Polish Consul General Jerzy Adamczyk, the Milan City Council's Director of Museums and Archives Maria Fratelli, the President of the Association of Former Prisoners of Nazi Camps Dario Venegoni, Vice-President of the Memoriale della Shoah in Milan Roberto Jarach and Annalia Guglielmi from the Gariwo Foundation.

A special guest at the event was Dorota Keller-Zalewska, Deputy Director of the POLIN Museum, who spoke about the exhibition and about the Museum's project "The Polish Righteous - Recalling Forgotten History".

A screening of the film "The Rescued" then followed. This film was created by Joanna Król and Karolina Dzięciołowska, and was also produced by the POLIN Museum. The film features Polish Jews rescued from the Holocaust, Today, they are older residents of Poland and Israel.

The exhibition will remain on display in Milan until 1st April 2016.

Coinciding with the opening of the Ulma Family Museum of Poles Who Rescued Jews During WWII, our exhibition was also opened in the Spanish city of Castelló d’Empúries in the province of Girona. The venue was the Capella dels Dolors chapel in the Most Holy Virgin Mary Basilica and was opened by the Mayor Assumpció Brossa Gratacós and attended by representatives of the local church community. The opening was followed by a concert of Sephardi music.

This year, Castelló d’Empúries became the capital of Juderías de España – a network of history Jewish districts in Spain. Numerous cultural events are taking place to mark the occasion, their aim being to publicise the history and culture of the region's Sephardic Jews. The exhibition will remain on display until 2nd May 2016.

The next day, our exhibition also went on display in Munich in the Conference Centre of the Polish Consul General. As part of events accompanying the exhibition, at 6:00pm on 22nd March, a panel discussion will take place featuring Dr Alina Molisak of the Warsaw UNiversity and Dr Andrei Löw of the Holocaust Studies Centre of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. Moderator will be Prof. Dr Martin Schulze Wessel of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität's Centre of Eastern European Studies.

The exhibition will remain on display in the Bavarian capital until 1st April 2016.

The exhibition was prepared in the basis of testimonies collected from the Righteous themselves and from those who were rescued. These were collected via the "Polish Righteous – Recalling Forgotten History" internet project of the POLIN Museum. To date, the exhibition has been translated into six languages and has visited several dozen cities around the world.