They Risked Their Lives – Poles Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust Exhibition at the Rhineland’s Festival of Jewish Culture

The exhibition opened on 26th February 2015, together with another exhibition, In the Blink of an Eye – Jews in Düsseldorf After 1945(Von Augenblick zu Augenblick. Juden in Düsseldorf nach 1945). Over 400 people were in attendance, among them being representatives of North Westphallia, the city of Düssedorf and the Düssedorf Jewish Community Council.

Those who spoke at the opening included the Mayor of Düsseldorf, Thomas Geisel, Susanne Anna, Director of the Düsseldorf City Museum and Dorota Keller-Zalewska, Deputy Director of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN. All stressed the special significance of the exhibition devoted to the Polish Righteous Among the Nations in the context of the broad spectrum of the theme of the Festival of Jewish Culture, presenting the past and present of the Jewish people, their culture, ceremonies and customs.

The exhibition , In the Blink of an Eye – Jews in Düsseldorf After 1945, is devoted  to the revival of the Jewish community in Düsseldorf after 1945. It portrays its development from a small group of Jewish survivors who returned to Düsseldorf, through to today. Düsseldorf has the third largest Jewish community in Germany.

They Risked Their Lives – Poles Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust Exhibition  contains an exceptional collection of dumentation regarding the Righteous and the Rescued which has been collected as part of the Museum POLIN’s project, The Polish Righteous – Recalling Forgotten History. The exhibition tells of the fate of the rescuers and the rescued in the historical context of occupied Poland. It tell of those who risked their own lives and the lives of their families to aid persecuted Jews. The stories tell of the circumstances and scale of the aid provided and also what motivated the Righteous to provide that aid.

As part of the Rhineland’s Festival of Jewish Culture, the exhibition, They Risked Their Lives – Poles Who Saved Jews During the Holocaustwas accompanied by events prepared by the Polish Institute in Düsseldorf, among the being a lecture by Marian Turski on the Museum of Life, regarding the  genesis and realisation of the POLIN Museum, a concert by Cukunft, a screening the films Ida, Run Boy Run and a session with Piotr Paziński, author of Pensjonatu, recently publish in German.

The Rhineland Festival of Jewish Culture includes literary events, concerts, theatrical and dance performances, film screen screenings and panel discussions, taking place in fifteen cities within the region. Among those who will take part are Zeruya Shalev, Maria Schrader, Lily Brett and David Grossman.

For more about the Festival go to http://www.juedische-kulturtage-rheinland.de/projektinfo.htm