“Life and death in the Będzin ghetto”
Monika Kempara
In the eyes of young people. . Life and death in the Będzin ghetto.
New exhibition at Sosnowiec Art Centre - Sielecki Castle
When talking about the history of Zaglębie (Polish coal basin), one cannot underestimate the role the Jewish community played in the development of the region. Until the outbreak of World War II, the Jews conducted both production and craft activities. They actively participated in economic life. At the turn of 1938 and 1939, the Jews accounted for 20% and 44% of the total population in Sosnowiec and Będzin, respectively. Over 50,000 Jews lived in these two Zagłębie cities. After the war, there were only 1,400 of them. What fate befell nearly 50,000 people? I believe we are all aware. Plenty of publications, scientific papers are created, from which we can derive knowledge about the Holocaust, but nothing can convey the emotions and climate of those times, just like the direct accounts of witnesses. The uniqueness of the exhibition “In the eyes of young people. Life and death in the Będzin ghetto”, lies in the fact that these are the memories of young people.
The exhibition is the outcome of a research project implemented in the Martin-Springer Institute at the Northern Arizona University, conducted under the supervision of Björn Krondorfer, PhD and Martin Kalb, PhD. The project was implemented from January 2013 to the spring of 2014. Students who performed historical studies, conducted interviews with survivors and developed the substantive concept of the exhibition, were actively involved in the project. Martin-Springer Institute was founded in 2000 by Doris and Martin Springer. Doris (née Szpringer) was born in Będzin in 1926, as the daughter of Abraham and Perli Baili Golenzer. She researches the period of the Holocaust, promotes the attitude of tolerance and justice.
The Project - In the eyes of young people. Life and death in the Będzin ghetto was presented to date in the United States. It is currently on display to visitors at the Sosnowiec Art Centre - Sielecki Castle in Sosnowiec (fully available in Polish). The exhibition presents thirty display-boards showing the viewer the history of life in the Będzin ghetto, and collections from the Rutka Laskier Foundation, consisting of extremely valuable historical and sentimental authentic objects discovered in the area of the Będzin ghetto. Due to the unique nature of the presented biographical materials, which are mostly unavailable in Poland (the Rutka Laskier Diary is an exception) the substantive value of the project is enormous. The photographic materials on exhibition come from the following collections: Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum in Israel and private collections.
The history of life in the ghetto is reported from the perspective of eight young people: Jane Lipski, Rose Rechnic, Rutka Laskier, Elli Liebermann-Shiber, Hadassah Broder, Sam Pivnik, Arnold Shay and Doris Martin.
All pictures in the article: Sosnowiec Art Centre - Sielecki Castle