“THERE ARE NO MORE JEWS, SINCERE, SIMPLE PEOPLE” EXHIBITION
On December 7th 1941 in the morning, lorries came to pick up the first group of Jews from Koło (after two days of detainment in the cheder and beth midrash). 50 persons were loaded on each of them respectively. They were informed that they were heading towards Chełmno (the rallying point) and then further “to the east”. Instructions were given to the drivers in a loud voice to drive carefully, especially if the ill were transported inside the vehicle. Soon after, the lorries would come back empty to pick up the next group from the list.
After a night spent in the palace, the Jews were ordered to take off their clothes and go to the narrow basement corridor. The palace (the relics of which were preserved) takes up a special place in the history of SS-Sonderkommando Kulmhof. The victims would spend their last moments of their life before death in mobile gas chambers. Located next to the exit from the basement, their interiors used to imitate bathhouses.
On December 11th, the last transport left Koło. Lajwe Wołkowicz notified the nearby Judenrat in Dąbie about the beginning of deportations: “I took a risk and left. Passing through Chełmno, I noticed a large number of SA officers and gendarmes. […]
I haven’t noticed any more Jews in the streets in Koło”.
In total about 3 thousand Jews from the city perished in the camp, “simple and sincere men”, as described by Henoch Hirschbein in Sefer Kolo (1958). Next victims transported to Chełmno in December 1941 were the Jews from Dąbie in the Koło county as well as Jews from cities and towns of the Turek county, concentrated in so called countryside ghetto Czachulec–Kowale Pańskie.
In the years 1937–1939, ca. 4560 Jews lived in the city of Koło, which constituted about 35% of all citizens. The memory of Jewish community within modern urban space is evoked by the damaged cemetery or the monument located in the centre of the New Market Square, where the synagogue complex used to be situated. An important aspect while preparing the scenario of the exhibition consisted in collecting and appropriately selecting the sources depicting rich heritage of the Jews from Koło.
The exhibition was prepared with the 80th anniversary of their Shoah in mind. It is the first exposition forming part of the post-war tradition of “writing” that documents the history of the Jews from Koło and promotes the knowledge of those events.
The inauguration of the new museum exhibition accompanied the ceremony commemorating the first camp victims and the beginning of mass extermination of Jewish people within the territory of the so called Wartheland.
The exhibition crowns the year of research efforts, including numerous queries and searches of the families of Holocaust Survivors. On this occasion, their descendants shared their private archives, providing such unique materials as the photographs of Abraham Stupaj, owner of the photography atelier at Sienkiewicza Avenue in Koło, or the poems by Tola Moskal Kopyto, former prisoner of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp.
The exhibition consists of two parts. The first one is formed by exposition pylons situated within former camp premises in Chełmno, where the history of the Jews from Koło is presented following the chronological order, starting from German troops entering the city, the persecution of Jews, through forced displacements, incarceration in the ghetto and the Shoah. The second component is presented in the hall of the Museum historical service pavilion and it is dedicated to the life before the Shoah. Here, lithographs by Harry Daniels (Herszel Danielewicz) from the collections of Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw take the floor. The artist, citizen of Koło, is famous for his cycle of works devoted to the “old life” with clear city-related reminiscences. The narration is complemented with small objects – artifacts presented in showcases.
Why has everything already become silent? After the war, Michał Podchlebnik, eyewitness of the displacement action of the Jews from Koło, who had escaped the Chełmno camp, found himself among those who came back to the city. In 1946, up to 35 Jews lived in Koło, but the community did not manage to restore Jewish urban lifestyle, and there were no active institutions or a synagogue. In the years that followed, due to difficult political moods in the country, the Jews from Koło would emigrate, like Podchlebnik, to Israel, Western Europe, USA or Canada.
Today, the Compatriotic Association of the Jews from Koło is active in Israel, led by Izzy Israel Keren (Kutner). The photo included within the exhibition and presenting a man taking a stroll on the promenade in Koło wearing a dark suit, lacquered boots and a stylish hat brings the memory of his father, Yeshayahu Szaji, and thousands of Jews that perished.
* Museum of the former German Kulmhof Extermination Camp
in Chełmno nad Nerem, Department of the Martyrdom Museum in Żabikowo
The Museum in Chełmno presents the new temporary exhibition entitled The life of Jews from Koło years ago… that commemorates the first victims of the Nazi extermination camp in Chełmno (German Kulmhof) – the Jews from Koło.
Magdalena Babik*