ghettoisation, forced labour camps, deportations to extermination camps and "death marches" in January 1945. Essential elements of this part of the exhibition are memoirs depicting individual fates, as well as lists of emigrants and deportees, including an expressive, spatial installation presenting synagogues destroyed during this period.
Another part of the exhibitions begins with example stories of a few survivors of the war. In the last hall, the exhibition presents post-war history from 1945, starting with the influx of the Upper Silesia Jewish community from the East, through the anti-Jewish activities of the late 1940s of the XX century and subsequent years, as well as successive waves of emigration, particularly in 1968. It also presents the political, economic and social commitment typical of the post-war reality of the Polish Peoples Republic and the transformations after 1989. The history of Jews in Upper Silesia has been stretched to the present day: current activity is presented in the form of video recordings with representatives of this currently, small community, which was prepared in the autumn of 2018.
The exhibition entitled “Jews in Upper Silesia” presents this issue for the first time in such a comprehensive manner. It is a huge and multi-threaded topic, previously researched to a lesser degree. In preparation for the project, in-depth and preliminary archival research of libraries and museums in Upper Silesian centres, as well as other Polish cities and abroad, including Berlin, Jerusalem and New York, were carried out in cooperation with many people.
As a result of these activities, over 60 original exhibits as well as numerous documents and illustrations related to the history of Upper Silesian Jews are presented at the exhibition, some of them unique and presented to the public for the first time. They come from more than 100 institutional and private partners, Polish and foreign, among others, from Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Israel, the USA, Argentina.
The presentation of so many exhibits, information and illustrative materials in a relatively small space was possible thanks to the unusual, carefully thought-out arrangement prepared by the Collective SENNA.