Our Exhibition "They Risked Their Lives ...." Goes on Show in More Cities

The Polish Mission at Orchard Lake Schools in Michigan has organised two showings of the exhibition. For two weeks in April, the Exhibition will be hosted at Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield. It was opened on 15th April during Shabbat celebrations. The second showing, coinciding with the Third of May Constitution Day holiday, was on the school campus of Orchard Lake Schools. A cycle of educational events, aimed at junior high school students, then commenced on 4th May regarding the Righteous Among the Nations. The exhibition will remain on show at the campus until 18th May 2016.

On 24th April, the Exhibition was also opened in the small Italian town of Alpette, at the Ecomuseo del Rame del Lavoro e della Resistenza. Over 100 people attended the opening - residents of  Alpette and nearby places. The exhibition and its accompanying events formed part of the 25th April holiday celebrating the liberation of Italy.

Locals who visited the exhibition were greeted Silvio Varetto, Mayor of Alpette, as well as by Giovanni Ferrero, Chairman of the National Union of Italian Partisans (A.N.P.I) in Alpette. A panel discussion then took place with historians and experts including Prof. Marco Brunazzi of the Istituto di Studi Storici G. Salvemini,  Elżbieta Grzyb, President of Ogniska Polska Turin and Anna Szwarc-Zając of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. The film  "Ocaleni" was then screened. The entire event was organised  by the Polish Consul General in Milan, the Polish Honorary Consul in Turin, the Alpette City Council, Associazione Nazionale Partigiani Sezione di Alpette, Ognisko Polskie in Turin and the Associazione Nazionale Alpini Gruppo Alpette Sezione Torino.

On 6th April, the exhibition also went on show at Bishop Benno House in Schmochtitz near Bautzen in Germany. Visitors to the showing were welcomed by Dr Straube, Rector of Bishop Benno House and organiser of the showing, Anna Piętak-Malinowska, Foreign Affairs spokesperson for the District of Bautzen and by Rabbi Aleksander Nacham of the Dresden Jewish Community Council. A letter was read from Polish Consul General in Munich Andrzej Osiak, as well as a letter from the exhibition's creators, Joanna Król and Klara Jackl of the POLIN Museum.

The Schmochtitz exhibition opening was accompanied by a lecture on "Polish Places of Remembrance in Eastern Saxony by Dr. Wolfganga Nicht of the German-Polish Association of Saxony. The showing was part of the "Partnership for Democracy" program.

On  the 12th May, the exhibition will also go on show in Magdeburg organised by Polish-German Association in Saxony at Einewelt Haus (One World House). The exhibition will be accompanied by a screening of the film "In the Name of Their Mothers - the Story of Irena Sendler”. The exhibition will remain open until 16th June 2016.

The exhibition was created in 2013 by the POLIN Museum in partnership with the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As well as having been shown once already in Melbourne, the exhibition has had numerous showings abroad including in Melbourne, Paris, Madrid, Moscow, Vilnius, Tallinn, Düsseldorf, Milan, Munich, Havana and Hawaii. It has been translated into six languages – English, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian and Lithuanian.

The exhibition 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 motivated the Righteous to do what they did.

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.