We Collect, We Build, We Remember – a campaign of collecting relics for the WGM permanent exhibition

“We attach great value to all artefacts directly related or referring to the history of the Warsaw Ghetto, as well as to those who lived there; the artefacts that would allow us to tell the history of this place, and of which, for obvious reasons, not much have been preserved,” said Magdalena Hartwig, the Head of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum’s Department of Collection.

The campaign aims to preserve from oblivion, as well as to present the testimony to the Holocaust times. The objects acquired for the collection of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum will be presented in its permanent exhibition. Donated relics will be covered by the conservation protection as well as secured against destruction, degradation and dispersion. “We are interested in various objects and documents, such as letters, postcards, certificates, identity cards, diaries, notes, as well as printed materials, such as posters, flyers, bills, programmes, brochures, and also photographs, photo albums, books. We are looking for everyday use items, objects of religious worship and works of art – also contemporary ones, inspired by that chapter of history and the Holocaust,” explains Magdalena Hartwig, adding that due to the location of the museum in the former Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital, the area of interest includes items related to hospital equipment, such as medical and pharmaceutical apparatus, furniture, handbooks, textbooks, prescriptions, labels and documents.

“We are looking for objects ranging from home furnishings – furniture, dishes, toys, cutlery, to the elements of street infrastructure, such as plaques or even rickshaws” adds Hartwig.  

The Warsaw Ghetto Museum is looking for objects and archival materials concerning the history of the Warsaw Ghetto, including the history of the Jews in Poland, and in particular in Warsaw, objects that bear witness to the Holocaust and the fate of the Jews during World War II in Warsaw and beyond – on the territories of Poland occupied by the Third Reich, the post-war fate of the Jews in Poland, the founders of the historic building of the Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital, as well as the 19th century and interwar Jewish community of Warsaw.

We look forward to hearing from you at: zbiory@1943.pl.

The campaign was inaugurated during the press conference organised in connection with with the handover of the original Stroop Report, deposited by the Institute of National Remembrance for the collection of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.

The Warsaw Ghetto Museum is an institution in organisation.  Its objective is to present tragic events which occurred in the period of the German occupation of Poland during World War II and to commemorate those who lived and suffered in the ghetto. The museum is to commemorate other ghettos as well.

The institution was established in March 2018.  Since then, the permanent exhibition team has developed the programme of the permanent exhibition. The following substantive departments were created within the institution’s structure: Science and Research, Exhibition, Education and Collections. The Museum has undertaken several initiatives aimed at the commemoration of events associated with the Warsaw Ghetto (including the anniversaries of the beginning of Grossaktion and the outbreak of the Ghetto Uprising), exhibition (5 outdoor exhibitions), education (workshops for teachers) and promotion of history. The institution’s long-term action plan involves the purchase of the building, which in the past accommodated a hospital founded by Bersohn and Bauman families, which so far has been leased from the Marshal’s Office of the Mazowieckie Voivodship.

In October 20202, the Warsaw Ghetto Museum announced a tender procedure for the “Development of project documentation for an investment project called “Construction of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum”, along with the design of a permanent exhibition and obtaining the required arrangements and administrative decisions, as well as design supervision.” The Warsaw Ghetto Museum has also been working on building the collection and obtaining artefacts intended for display at the permanent exhibition.

Miłka Skalska, Press Officer and Head of the Communication Department

Photo by Jacek Turczyk