"The Warsaw Ghetto. People, Places, Events" – a new project by the MGW Exhibition Department

In the project "Warsaw Ghetto: People, Places, Events," we will focus on the culture created in the ghetto. We want to show that the ghetto was alive, that people went to the cinema and theater, and tried to live a normal life, " says the project curator.

In each installment, we will focus on a different topic ," says Magdalena Piecyk. " The 'Warsaw Ghetto: People, Places, Events' project is open-ended. Sometimes we will focus on a single artist in terms of their work in the ghetto and what they did before, sometimes on a specific artistic phenomenon within the ghetto, other times on the activities of a specific group of artists – the choice of topics is unlimited. We will present them within the broader context of the Warsaw Ghetto."

Each year, a new installment of the project will be published, devoted to a different topic from the world of art, music, and theater. The publication of the first part of the project on September 21st – "Around Abraham Ostrzega's Shop" – coincides with the 78th anniversary of the end of the so-called Great Action. Ostrzega was an artist known particularly for his funerary sculptures and also co-founded the Jewish Society for the Promotion of Fine Arts. With the outbreak of World War II, the artist's studio found itself within the ghetto and was transformed into a factory producing whetstones and metal polishing powder, employing fellow artists, including Józef Śliwniak, Maksymilian Eljowicz, Henryk Rabinowicz, Roman Rozental, Izrael Tykociński, and Symcha Trachter. In the summer of 1942, the factory became part of Heinz Müller's workshop. When the Germans, in accordance with earlier arrangements made by the RSHA (Reich Security Main Office), decided to physically liquidate the prisoners of the Warsaw Ghetto and began the so-called Grossaktion, the artist-workers of the workshop were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp.

Anna Kilian

Photo: MGW