“Between Life and Death” exhibition in Vilnius
On the streets of Kaunas, Germans with bayonets pointing forward were herding prisoners of war barely alive and people with yellow stars on their chests were walking on roadways.
What could one do, how could one live? One thing was clear:
you could not sit and watch. Something needed to be done, but what and how?
– Sofija Binkienė, Righteous Among the Nations
During the Holocaust, six million Jews died in German-occupied Europe. Confronted by mass crimes, civilians were faced with a difficult challenge – how to respond to these acts of genocide. Attitudes towards the Holocaust varied, but only a few decided to help persecuted Jews.
The exhibition “Between Life and Death – Stories of Rescue During the Holocaust” presents stories of those who provided help and of those who received help. It tells of their experiences, efforts and motivations, It draws the viewer's attention to acts of courage and to the will to survive. In an historical context, it shows the fates of heroes from Poland and also from eight other European countries – Croatia, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Ukraine and Hungary. The exhibition shows the stte of these countries under occupation. It also describes the multi-dimensional relationships and emotional ties that were born between the rescued and the rescuers.
Exhibition Showing in Vilnius
To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the exhibition “Between Life and Death – Stories of Rescue During the Holocaust” will go on display in Vilnius. It was created by European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and Silent Heroes Memorial Centre. To date, it has been shown in the Brussels headquarters of the European Commission, the Castrum Peregrini Cultural Centre in Amsterdam and in the Bratislave University Library.
The Official Opening in Vilnius will take place on Thrusday 24th January 2019, at 5:30pm, in the Tolerance Centre of the Gaon State Jewish Museum (10/2 Naugarduko Street).
Those to participate in the event will include Ieva Šadzevičienė, Direcor of the Tolerance Centre; Markas Zingeris, Director of the Gaon Museum; Dr Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, Lithuanian Minister of Culture; Urszula Doroszewska, Polish Ambassador to Lithuania and Prof. Jan Rydel, Coordinator of European Network Remembrance and Solidarity.
Exhibition guides will be Klara Jackl (POLIN Museum) and Marta Ansilewska-Leindsteadt (Silent Heroes Memorial Centre).
Stories From Occupied Lithuania
What was daily life like for Jews hiding from the German Holocaust machine and who were those who, at the risk of their own lives, often helped them?
The part of the exhibition which is dedicated to occupied Lithuania presents the stories of Holocaust Survivor Jehoszua Szochot and Sofija Binkienė, Righteous Among the Nations. The abridged versions appears below:
At the end of 1941, Jehoszua escaped from the liquidated ghetto on Telsze (Wysoczyzna Żmudzka) thanks to help from a friend – a nurse Domicelė Pagojutė (1889–1972). She arranged numerous hiding places for him, his mother and brother.With her help, by the end of the war, they had changed hiding places twenty-two times. She also helped Rachela Taic-Zinger. Domicėlė, together with thirteen other people, enabled Szochot to survive the Holocaust. They were all honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations. Today, Jehoszua lives in Israel.
I am the only one to survive all of my Jewish school classmates. During the war, I lived an illegal life and hiding in fifteen places. It was all possible thanks to the extraordinary help and courageous dedication of Domicėlė and other Lithuanians.
– Jehoshua Shochot, Holocaust Survivor
Sofija Binkienė (1902–1984), together with her husband Kazys, daughters Liljana and Irena, stepson Gerdas, stepdaughter Eleonora and son-in-law Vladas, helped Jews in the Kovno ghetto, hiding them in her own apartment. They included Kama Ginkas, whom she hid from June 1941 until the end of German occuption in 1944. In 1967 and 1968, the entire family was honoured with the title of Righteous Among the Nations. To date, this honour has been bestowed upon almost 900 Lithuanians.
The exhibition will remain on display in Vilnius until 17th March 2019. Reports of the exhibition's 2018 official openings can be viewed from the links below:
European Commission in Brussels, 24/01–06/03/2018 »
Castrum Peregrini in Amsterdam, 13/06–15/08/2018 »
Bratislava University Library, 09–29/112018 »
* * *
Authors of the Exhibition: Dr. Martyna Grądzka-Rejak (ENRS) and Klara Jackl (POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews), in cooperation with Marta Ansilewska-Lehnstaedt (Silent Heroes Memorial Centre)
Academic consultants: Dr. Aleksandra Namysło, Prof. Jan Rydel (ENRS), Dr. Piotr Trojański (ENRS), Prof. Johannes Tuchel (Silent Heroes Memorial Centre)
Organisers: European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews and Silent Heroes Memorial Centre in German Resistance Memorial Centre Foundation
Financial support: Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Federal Government Representative for Culture and Media (BKM)
Partners: Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum, Memorial of Chambon-sur-Lignon, Mémorial de la Shoah, Danish Jewish Museum, "Tkuma” Ukrainian Institute for Holocaust Studies, Castrum Peregrini, NIOD, the Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk
