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Gazeta Volume 28, No. 1
Winter 2021
Orchestra from an orphanage led by
Janusz Korczak (pictured center) and
Stefania Wilczyńska. Warsaw, 1923.
Courtesy of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish
Historical Institute. Used with permission
A quarterly publication of
the American Association
for Polish-Jewish Studies
and Taube Foundation for
Jewish Life & Culture
Editorial & Design: Tressa Berman, Daniel Blokh, Fay Bussgang, Julian Bussgang, Shana Penn, Antony Polonsky, Aleksandra Sajdak,
William Zeisel, LaserCom Design, and Taube Center for Jewish Life and Learning.
CONTENTS
Message from Irene Pipes ................................................................................................ 4
Message from Tad Taube and Shana Penn .................................................................... 5
FEATURE ARTICLES
Paweł Śpiewak: “Do Not Close the Experience in a Time Capsule” . ........................... 6
From Behind the Camera: Polish Jewish Narratives
Agnieszka Holland and Roberta Grossman in Conversation ................................... 11
EXHIBITIONS
When Memory Speaks: Ten Polish Cities/Ten Jewish Stories
at the Galicia Jewish Museum
Edward Serrota ..................................................................................................................... 15
Traces of Memory in Japan . ........................................................................................... 19
Where Art Thou? Gen 3:9 at the Jewish Historical Institute ......................................... 20
REPORTS
Libel Action Against Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski ...................................... 21
Revolution Returns to Poland: Feminists Lead Largest Demonstrations
Since the End of Communism ........................................................................................ 24
ANNOUNCEMENTS
CONFERENCES
Conference Launches Volume 33 of POLIN: Studies in Polish Jewry ................... 28
Commemoration of Warsaw Ghetto .......................................................................... 30
IPJS Symposium in Honor of Professor Antony Polonsky . ..................................... 30
BOOKS AND JOURNALS
Yiddish: Biography of a Language. By Jeffrey Shandler ........................................ 31
Przechytrzyć Historię (Outwitting History). By Aaron Lansky
Translated by Agnieszka Nowak-Młynikowska ........................................................ 31
The Rise of the Modern Yiddish Theater. By Alyssa Quint ..................................... 32
Jewish Europe Today. Between Memory and Everyday Life.
Edited by Marcelo Dimentstein and Ewa Tartakowsky ........................................... 32
Barefoot Through Thorns and Flowers.
A Memoir By Ester Rachel Kamińska ....................................................................... 33
Zagłada cmentarzy żydowskich (The Destruction of Jewish Cemeteries).
By Krzysztof Bielawski ............................................................................................... 33
2 n GAZETA VOLUME 27, NO. 1
Grief: The Biography of a Holocaust Photograph. By David Shneer ..................... 34
Polin Volume 33, Jewish Religious Life in Poland Since 1750
Edited by François Guesnet, Antony Polonsky, Ada Rapoport-Albert,
and Marcin Wodziński ................................................................................................ 34
Eastern European Jewish Affairs Announces Changes in Leadership ................. 35
BOOK ESSAY
Reflections on The People on the Beach. By Rosie Whitehouse ........................... 36
AWARDS
The 2020 Gierowski-Shmeruk Prize . ........................................................................ 38
On the Gierowski-Shmeruk Prize to Marcin Wodziński and Waldemar Spallek
Antony Polonsky . ............................................................................................................ 40
Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Awards from
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research ........................................................................... 42
Yossi Klein Halevi—Man of Reconciliation . ............................................................. 43
Recipients of the Maria and Łukasz Hirszowicz Award .......................................... 43
2020 National Jewish Book Awards (U.S.) Annual Biography Award ................... 43
IN BRIEF
Agnieszka Holland Elected New European Film Academy President ................. 44
Online Archive of An-sky’s The Dybbuk ................................................................... 44
Opening of the Korczak Digital Archive ................................................................... 45
GEOP Announcements .............................................................................................. 46
OF SPECIAL INTEREST
Saving the Great Synagogue of Slonim
Michael Mail . ....................................................................................................................... 48
Tribute to Maria Piechotkowa
Shana Penn ......................................................................................................................... 51
POEM
“The Well”
Tadeusz Dąbrowski . ............................................................................................................. 55
OBITUARIES
David Shneer .................................................................................................................... 56
Piotr Grącikowski . ............................................................................................................ 58
Krzysztof Śliwiński . .......................................................................................................... 60
GAZETA WINTER 2021 n 3
President, American Association Message from for Polish-Jewish Studies Irene Pipes Founder of Gazeta Dear Members and Friends, Greetings from Florida where I am still sitting out this unprecedented crisis which has lasted much longer than any of us could have anticipated. I hope you are comfortable and safe and that we shall be able to resume normal activities in the foreseeable future. The beginnings of a widespread vaccination does provide some light at the end of the tunnel. We are determined to carry on our important work. It is amazing how much one can do with podcasts and Zoom. One notable event has been the opening of the Legacy Gallery at the POLIN Museum in Warsaw. Curated by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett and Tamara Sztyma, and designed by Arnaud Dechelle, Irene Pipes the gallery is located in a beautiful space on the main floor of the POLIN Museum, overlooking the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. It honors Polish Jews who have made a major contribution to the life of Poland and the wider world. The gallery highlights twenty-six such people and more, as discussed in the book, Legacy of Polish Jews, which accompanies the exhibition. A series of online events has marked the opening. We all hope that we will soon be able to visit it in person. The Global Education Outreach Program (GEOP) of the POLIN Museum has also organized a series of online discussions of recent books on the history of Jews in Poland as part of the program What’s New, What’s Next? Jewish Studies in the Time of Pandemic, which is intended to lead up to the international conference What’s New, What’s Next? Innovative Methods, New Sources, and Paradigm Shifts in Jewish Studies, scheduled for October 2021. (A full listing of GEOP events can be found in this issue of Gazeta.) In January, an online conference was held to celebrate the publication of Volume 33 of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, which is dedicated to Jewish religious life in Poland since 1750. The volume reflects the recent advances in the history of Jewish religious life in Poland, examined from a series of fresh perspectives, as reported on in this issue. The event honored the memory of the late Ada Rapoport-Albert, Professor Emerita of Jewish Studies and former head of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College London, who was one of the editors of the volume. We wish you the best of health, and that you find inspiration in the programs and publications described here. With best wishes, Irene Pipes President 4 n GAZETA VOLUME 28, NO. 1
Message from
Chairman and Executive Director,
Tad Taube and Taube Foundation for Jewish Life
& Culture
Shana Penn
Recovering and preserving our history is a vital enterprise, but it
is also a demanding one, as this issue of Gazeta reveals. In one of
our stories, Paweł Śpiewak explains to his interviewer the many
challenges he faced during his decade-long tenure as director of the
Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute. Upon entering his
position in 2011, he found the institution suffering from years of
underfunding. The building’s physical structure demanded attention,
but even more effort was needed to reinvigorate the programs, update
the services and technology, and move the institute to the center of the
Tad Taube Jewish historical research community.
In another of our stories, two notable filmmakers, Agnieszka Holland
and Roberta Grossman, discuss their mutual fascination with the great
themes and events of the 20th century and the challenge of trying
to understand Jewish and Holocaust subjects. “We constantly have
to find ways to discover and understand the keys to the past,” says
Holland, “because this will somehow enlighten our choices today.”
And for real commitment in the face of challenges, consider
the decades-long efforts of Maria Piechotkowa and her husband
Kazimierz to document the wooden synagogues of the Polish lands,
all destroyed during the Nazi occupation. As explained in a tribute
Shana Penn
obituary in this issue, these remarkable Jewish buildings were known
by few until the Piechotkas published their pathbreaking study in
1957. The Communist regime’s efforts to discourage research in all
things Jewish did not prevent the book from circulating abroad, with
remarkable results that we are enjoying today.
Recovering and preserving our history, these stories reveal, is not
a matter of pushing a button and letting a computer do the work. It
requires personal dedication, effort, and persistence, along with quite
a bit of imagination. We at Gazeta are proud to be part of that effort.
Tad Taube and Shana Penn
Chairman and Executive Director
GAZETA WINTER 2021 n 5
FEATURE ARTICLES
“Do Not Close the Experience in a Time Capsule”:
Pawe /l Śpiewak in Conversation with Olga Drenda
Translated by Przemysław Batorski
O n the eve of his
retirement as Director
of the Emanuel Ringelblum
Jewish Historical Institute
in Warsaw, Professor Paweł
Śpiewak reflects on his
decade of leadership over
this preeminent institution,
collection, and archive, and
its historic pre-war building.
Olga Drenda: Maybe let’s
Professor Paweł Śpiewak.
start from the beginning, Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
from 2011.
such a way of life. I imagined not unimaginable to me. The
Paweł Śpiewak: I became
that for the rest of my life idea of directorship intrigued
the director of the Jewish
I would be a rebellious and surprised me. There was
Historical Institute almost by
academician—writing essays, something adventurous, new
accident. Previously I had not
articles and books, like the and risky about it.
considered such a possibility.
proverbial shoemaker, working
I had no managerial I was introduced by Minister
for someone who knocks and
ambitions. I knew something Bogdan Zdrojewski to
rings to order an article for a
about the JHI, had a good an institution that looked
more or less popular weekly.
understanding of the existing dilapidated from the outside.
My anvil, my computer, was
Jewish community, learned I made reconstruction of
full of such contracts.
about Jewish traditions, wrote the space a priority. What
commentaries on the Torah I had—as the saying goes— is most beautiful—the
for Tygodnik Powszechny, various adventures in my architecture typical of the
but did not wish to take up a career (I have been a member 1930s, resembling the interior
managerial career and work of the Polish Parliament for of the Emigration Museum
for the so-called Jewish street. two years, an exciting waste in Gdynia or the YIVO
of life), and the fact that a new building in Vilnius—was then
It was not and is not an easy
opportunity might appear was obscured. The building of
street. I had not considered
6 n GAZETA VOLUME 28, NO. 1
the current Jewish Historical Drenda: What was the cause arouse any particular interest.
Institute, as one of the few of this state of affairs, simply Unfortunately, the JHI was
community Ghetto buildings, entropy? treated as a marginal academic
survived the war. It remained and archival institution.
Śpiewak: My predecessors
a strong sign of presence and The greatest treasure, the
operated under difficult
memory of the Central Judaic archives, including the largest
conditions. The salaries were
Library (there was no trace of of them, the Ringelblum
outrageously low, lower by
it) and of the Judaic Institute. Archive (ARG), were being
half compared to the lowest
During the war it performed edited. If anyone made them
salary in the Polish Academy
important functions. It public, it was certainly not
of Sciences. A significant part
was here that Emanuel the JHI and its employees.
of the expenses was covered
Ringelblum—the patron of It was in the JHI that the
by the support of the always
the Institute since 2009—and documents from Jedwabne
gracious Taube Foundation,
a large group of his associates were kept, as well as the diary
without which the Institute
came to work every day. of a ghetto policeman from
would not be able to function
Otwock—Calel Perechodnik.
The building has something at all. Those were years
Fortunately, some of this
extraordinary about it: traces of economic turmoil. The
legacy was published by the
of fire on the floor. As in the change came together with
Polish Center for Holocaust
picture from Hiroshima. The the transition of the JHI to
Research. The institution
nation died, only a trace of the the authority of the Ministry
was technologically at
fire remained. When the Great of Culture. Thankfully the
the level of a typewriter,
Synagogue was blown up in late Minister Tomasz Merta,
computers were more of an
May 1943, a fire penetrated a wonderful man, managed
ornament. The website was
the building and burnt the to arrange it. Dr. Eleonora
extremely modest. In my
ceilings and stone. The Bergman was re-organizing
opinion, the Jewish Historical
temperature must have been the Institute for three years. I
Institute was heading toward
enormous. had the impression that I was
marginalization. I can say that
entering a forgotten institution
I feel that this is an extremely when I entered the JHI, I did
hidden behind a skyscraper,
important sign that I think of not even realize how difficult
covered with autumn leaves
in biblical terms. In one of the a task awaited me. My social
for years. The otherwise
midrashim we read that God and sociological knowledge
beautiful building stood, but
wrote the Tablets of Moses has also changed a lot.
was no longer visible in a
with white and black fire. I
social sense. I like to come back to one
treat this trace as a sign of
quote from Machiavelli’s
what is most important in our Nobody visited this place,
The Prince: a prince who
Jewish history. Our covenant unless they were doing
takes control of a state in a
tablets and our fate are written research. There were very
state of decay is in a favorable
in fire. Not to be erased. few exhibitions, one in
position, because any move he
Unforgettable. ten years, and they did not
GAZETA WINTER 2021 n 7
makes to restore order will be “Apart from us, no support from various grants
a move forward, will change and foundations. The Taube
one could deal with the
something. It is easier to build Foundation, which contributes
something when institutions memory of the Jewish greatly to the development of
are non-functional and poorly our institution, the Rothschild
artists who died during
staffed. The first goals are Foundation, the Koret
then quite easy to achieve. the war. It was a long Foundation, and others, are
The second thing is that, I also helpful; recently the
road to go and it is not
admit, I hadn’t had much to do Norwegian and EEA Grants
with the Institute before. My over yet.” play an important role. They
ex-father-in-law was once the now account for at least a third
–Professor Paweł Śpiewak
director, in the most difficult of our overall budget. We have
period, 1969–70. He resigned a lot of money for our research,
after some minor conflict with digitization of materials. They publishing, exhibition,
Professor Marian Fuks. had to be made available, as digitization etc. This is our
well as books, magazines, great achievement, which can
Drenda: What was it like documents written on paper, be continued in the coming
putting together the JHI? often of the poorest kind, had years. An important element
Śpiewak: To some extent, this to be saved. Now we have of our role in the Jewish
process started bottom-up. If a fantastic scanning center, community is cooperation with
today I know what the mission we have rebuilt the website the Taube Center and the Hillel
of the Jewish Historical once again, and many new Polska Foundation.
Institute is, it is not because people with great competence
and amazing commitment A publishing department
I came there with a clear plan.
appeared at work. was also needed. A long time
One thing became clear to ago, there had been one book
me, that apart from moving The first task was to published every seven years,
the bookstore from the middle strengthen the administrative and I thought there should be
of the hall, throwing away and accounting side. We almost twenty books a year.
unnecessary wardrobes from managed to organize our In my nine years, we have
the building’s lobby, and relations with the Association published nearly a hundred
tidying up the space, it was a of the Jewish Historical books, not counting the ARG
requirement that the Institute Institute. We now have a series. A significant place is
should be technologically good and lasting agreement held by Kwartalnik Historii
modernized, moving from defining the property Żydów [Jewish History
the era of typescript to the relations and the principles Quarterly], edited by Dr.
internet era. It was not only of mutual cooperation. Jan Doktór. We managed to
about the website, but also— increase its volume by one
Not only has the basic
which was criticized by some third (here the help of the
budget of the JHI increased,
JHI employees—about the Association was essential and
but also specific donations,
8 n GAZETA VOLUME 28, NO. 1
significant). Our publishing
house and a beautiful
bookshop are the showpieces
of the Institute.
Of course, the publishing
house requires not only
editors, graphic designers,
printing houses, but also
considerable funds. Here
we are aided by the Rosa
Luxemburg Foundation and
other institutions.
Each researcher has the
opportunity to publish their Part of the permanent exhibition on the Warsaw Ghetto Archives, opened in
2017, curated by Professor Paweł Śpiewak.
texts. Quite an interesting Photographed by Grzegorz Kwolek. Courtesy of Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
collection has assembled in
this way. A separate place is established and I created a The education department
taken by the publication of long-term exhibition program. conducts many classes for
subsequent volumes of the Many of the exhibitions are students, researchers, and Polish
Ringelblum Archive (there worth remembering, they and foreign students. Academies
are thirty-eight of them), plus were accompanied by really for teachers are very important
translations of these volumes good catalogs. I am thinking to us. We used to conduct one
into English. It is a huge of exhibitions devoted to such session every year. Now
achievement of Prof. Tadeusz Polish rabbis, Julia Pirotte’s there are two each year. Many
Epsztein, Dr. Eleonora photography, anti-Semitic lesson scenarios have been
Bergman, and Dr. Katarzyna caricatures, Polish art about the prepared and published on the
Person. The Institute itself, Shoah, and an exhibition Hate Delet portal.
whose employees enjoy Speech—I Exclude Exclusion.
a serious scientific status, The Archives Department
Of course, the most important
benefits from this. is our backbone. They look
for us are the two permanent
after millions of pages of
exhibitions. One is dedicated
Once there also was no documents (digitization is
to the Oneg Shabbat group and
exhibition department. We ongoing). New documents
the other is called the House of
didn’t have a way to show come to us all the time.
Prayer. Apart from us, no one
our huge and little-known art We respond to numerous
could deal with the memory
collection, which was basically official inquiries. Our library
of the Jewish artists who died
unedited when I came on board. works very well. We buy
during the war. It was a long
In a few months, a museum all important books on the
road to go and it is not over yet.
and exhibition department was history of Jews. We devote
GAZETA WINTER 2021 n 9
considerable resources to this have created a huge collection This article was reprinted in
goal. The library’s inventory of Jewish and Judaic data part from a longer version
has been completed. The book and documents, one of the published on January 12,
collections were put in order, largest in the world. The list 2020 on the Jewish Historical
including the manuscripts and of achievements is long and Institute website. To read
the antique books department. worthy of a separate report. the full article, please visit:
We gained access to many https://www.jhi.pl/en/articles/
Drenda: [What] is the
research portals, including pawel-spiewak-do-not-close-
division of tasks between
JSTOR. We are working on the-experience-in-a-time-
institutions, cooperation, and
a new bibliography of the capsule,2195.
the positioning of Jewish
Biuletyn [Bulletin of the
institutions in Poland?
Jewish Historical Institute]
and Quarterly of the Jewish Śpiewak: The geography of
Historical Institute. Jewish institutions in Poland
has certainly changed during
The genealogy department
my term of office. We have
has been strengthened over
to constantly reposition
the years. Currently, the team
ourselves. The emergence
consists of five outstanding
of the POLIN Museum and
specialists, who are invited to
local initiatives has had a
all international conferences
good effect, because Jewish
on genealogy. Over the years,
issues are more present in
we have been visited by
the public discourse. We also
thousands of people from all
become caught up in serious
over the world, and everyone
historical debates. Anti-
received knowledge of the
Semitic slogans will always
highest quality. We work with
appear, but I believe that this
all the world’s major research
is a marginal phenomenon,
institutions and museums
because the Jewish community
dealing with Jewish history,
after 1989 is no longer
starting with the Yad Vashem
fragile. People brought up
Institute and the Holocaust
as Catholics discover their
Museum in Washington. We
Jewish ancestors, many people
have signed many bilateral
convert. Jewish culture is
agreements, recently, with the
returning thanks to many
NS Dokuzentrum in Munich,
researchers, scientists, and
where we want to open
filmmakers who are interested
an exhibition on the Oneg
in it in Poland. We are all
Shabbat group in two years.
entitled to this heritage. n
Thanks to digitization, we
10 n GAZETA VOLUME 28, NO. 1From Behind the Camera: Polish Jewish Narratives
Agnieszka Holland and Roberta Grossman in Conversation
E ditors’ Note: The
November 19, 2020
episode of TJHTalks (Taube
Jewish Heritage Talks) is
devoted to the cultural impact
of films that explore Jewish
and Holocaust subjects.
Hosted in cooperation with
the Warsaw Jewish Film
Festival, this session features
two universally acclaimed
filmmakers, Agnieszka Holland
and Roberta Grossman.
Below is an excerpt from
that conversation. Agnieszka Holland Roberta Grossman
Roberta Grossman: times.’ ” You refer to it as Holocaust, of course, but it was
In 2013, when you were doing a saying. I think of it as a also Communism translated into
publicity for your series, curse. I’m wondering what the Stalinist practice. It was the
Burning Bush, about Jan in your personal background Second World War. It was the
Palach and his fraught self- and your life experience have long oppression in communist
sacrifice that led ultimately kept you coming back in your countries. It was colonization
to a democratic revolution films to the Holocaust and the and decolonization. It was
in then Czechoslovakia, communist era [in Poland]? the birth of the modern vision
you said in a speech in of gender and of the new role
Washington, DC, that you Agnieszka Holland: Thank
of women, the birth of ...
were most interested in you, Roberta. I think that all
human rights, and living beings’
modern times, namely the times are difficult somehow and
rights...[I]t’s why I find this time
19th century and what you interesting somehow, but yes, the
fascinating and I think somehow
refer to as the “perversely first part of the 20th century was
that we are rooted in this period,
captivating” 20th century. a time when a lot of issues and
in this first part of the 20th
And you said, “according to challenges and dangers [that]
century. It’s not an accident that
a popular Chinese saying, we are living through now, were
so many things that are going on
‘may you live in interesting born, and developed. It was the
now are referring somehow to
GAZETA WINTER 2021 n 11Communism or to Fascism. And a Greek or Jew, that we all
the reference to fascists becomes have the right to justice, to
very obvious, very relevant, protection, to equality, and
somehow, which is dangerous, so on. And in the praxis, in
but at the same time pushes us reality, appeared to be at least
to ask if we are unable to invent partly very wrong.
new ideologies or new utopias or
Fascism was another side of
new dystopias.
the heritage of Christianity,
We constantly have to this dark side of that, with
find ways to discover and nationalism as a main tool,
understand the keys to the past and then racism as in the
because this will somehow case of Nazism. It’s a very
enlighten our choices today. important and very powerful
tool and it became clear
Grossman: I wanted to ask you
that by creating an enemy, a
about your 1990 film, Europa In Darkness, 2011.
scapegoat, that it’s possible
Europa, because it seems to “We are rooted in the to organize through hate an
me that everything that you
first part of the 20th extremely efficient system.
just spoke about is expressed
in that film. I think the thing century. It’s not an And then it was Zionism, which
that draws me to history and tried to instill in Jewish people
especially extreme periods
accident that so many living in Europe, in Africa, and
of history is the sadness and things that are going then in the Americas, with the
confusion about how the feeling that they can always
on now are referring
individual can react. So how be destroyed, to give them the
does the life experience of the somehow to Communism hope that it can be possible to
main character, Solomon Perel or to Fascism.” come back to their roots and
—and of course this was based to create a place where they
on his true story—how does –Agnieszka Holland will be safe and create also—
his life experience exemplify taking from different ideas and
these currents that you were just form of Fascism—and it from different utopias—a new
referring to, these ... major was Zionism. Those three society that will be better and
historical currents of the things have been parallel more just than the society they
20th century? and then fighting and then are coming from.
trying to create a new utopia,
Holland: I was thinking that a new paradise. In the case So somehow, all those people,
it was three very important of Communism, it was as the individuals, who found
ideologies or waves or the idea, something very themselves in the middle of
new currents in the first inclusive and novel, a kind of those three currents, they
part of the 20th century. new Christianity somehow, became toys in the hands of
It was Communism, it was that people are equal, that history, in the hands of the
Fascism—Nazism like some you would not be considered regimes. And that was quite a
12 n GAZETA VOLUME 28, NO. 1typical destiny for citizens— magical that it is your penis
especially of Central and that can save your soul.
Eastern Europe—in the first
And my concept when I
part of the 20th century and
was writing the script was
even longer, even up to the
that it has to be a bit like a
fall of Communism. And I
philosophical fairy tale, like
was interested in that, because
Voltaire, like Candide, for
it was my destiny also. My
example. But told in the style
roots are half Jewish, half
of comic books. I never did
Polish. The family of my
want to go too deeply into the
father was killed in the
psychology. It’s supposed to
Holocaust, most of them. My
be a bit external, but at the
father survived as a young
same time, in some moments,
communist, escaping to Soviet
we are approaching his soul or
Russia. My mother was in the Theatrical release poster for
his feelings very closely. And
[Polish] Home Army, which Mr. Jones, directed by Agnieszka
Holland. afterward, we are distancing
was underground. They met Promotional material, used with permission
ourselves. So I think that
after the war. They believed
“The filmmaker is gives some kind of storytelling
that it was possible, after
energy to the film. But I was
the war, to create a more somebody who can afraid, first of all, that the real
just and right society, where
feel what’s going on hero in this, Solomon Perel,
we will all be not Greek
underneath and to maybe would be accused of being a
or Jew. They failed, and I
kind of Nazi.
was able to observe their capture something which
frustration as a child and then Grossman: Like a
as a teenager and as a young
didn’t happen yet, but
collaborator?
person, and my personal which is coming.”
experience was the experience Holland: Right. And I didn’t
–Agnieszka Holland want to hurt him, especially
with the Communists,
with the oppression of the because I admired his honesty
[W]hat I found in Solomon
Communists. and courage to speak about
Perel was his honesty, because
the darkest moments inside his
And so what was in the story what was intriguing in his story
own persona. And secondly,
of Solomon Perel reflected and was very risky, was very
I was afraid that the Jewish
the experience of my country, provocative, was that he, in
audience would refuse the
of my region, and also of the some way, became a Nazi—in
film as not noble enough
generation of my parents and his heart and in his head—and
or not have having enough
partly my own generation. he felt like his Nazi fellows.
gravitas. But that didn’t
And at the same time, I found Except for one little thing,
happen. The film became
this very universal because it which was a piece of skin on
very, very popular, with the
was the story of identity and his penis. So I found it very
Jewish audience especially.
who we are. paradoxical and somehow very
GAZETA WINTER 2021 n 13We did huge tours in several
countries and there were a lot
of meetings with the audience.
And at the beginning of the
’90s, when the film came
out, there were many Jewish
survivors who had never
told their stories, because
that started quite late, the
openness to tell their stories. Who Will Write Our History, 2018.
So this film provoked a lot of
people so that they came to “The thing that draws me to extreme periods of history
me afterward and told me their is the sadness and confusion about how the individual
stories. Every time it began
like this: “It’s a fantastic can react.”
film. Thank you so much. It’s –Roberta Grossman
an incredible story, but my
story…” And the only people say. I feel that we are living who can feel what’s going
who attacked me, and called in this interesting time, very on underneath and maybe
the film “anti-Semitic,” were intense, and I’m spending my capture something which
the Germans. time mostly watching what’s didn’t happen yet, but which
Grossman: Just in terms of going on in the world, and I is coming. So that will be my
looking at your future work, have the impression that I’m ambition. n
do you know what your next watching a TV series, reality
shows, one on the American To watch the hour-long
films are? interview, please go to:
presidential elections, another
Holland: Well, it’s difficult was Polish presidential https://www.youtube.com/
to tell because the COVID elections. And lately I can watch?v=wcfM0VcQV9g
pandemic has taught us that observe the women’s protests
we know nothing about and the awakening of Polish Agnieszka Holland is a Polish
the future. But I feel now feminism. Another reality film and television director
that I would like to make series is the pandemic and and screenwriter, best known
a contemporary film. And what it does to states and for her political contributions
yes, I would like to make the societies and human beings. to Polish cinema.
film with women of strong And all those changes and
character. I’m looking for the challenges I was talking Roberta Grossman is an
something like that. If it about in the beginning, they American filmmaker whose
will happen, I don’t know. are now in flux and we don’t documentaries range from
What will be the cinema, the understand very well where social justice to historical
independent cinema after things are heading. I think subjects, with a focus on
the pandemic, is difficult to the filmmaker is somebody Jewish history.
14 n GAZETA VOLUME 28, NO. 1EXHIBITIONS
When Memory Speaks: Ten Polish Cities/ Edward Serotta
Ten Jewish Stories. A New Exhibition at
the Galicia Jewish Museum
T en Polish Jews, the subject
of the exhibition, were
born in the 1920s and grew up
in secular homes or religious
ones. Two families were upper
middle class, the others were
poor and struggling. They lived
within the borders of inter-war
Poland, and like all teenagers,
they were focused on sports,
school, friendship, poetry, and
first loves.
The world they lived in came
to an end in September 1939,
Poster for Ten Polish Cities/Ten Jewish Stories.
and the horrors would not stop Courtesy of Galicia Jewish Museum
until May 1945. All of them
would lose members of their These are the stories we tell in The Backstory
families. Some would survive Ten Polish Cities/Ten Jewish Centropa was founded in
the terrors of Nazi ghettos and Stories, a second permanent Vienna and Budapest in 2000
concentration camps, while a exhibition in the Galicia with the goal of interviewing
few would flee into the Soviet Jewish Museum, which over a thousand elderly Jews
Union so they could outrun opened on January 27, 2021. still living in Central and
the German army. One was This is a very different sort Eastern Europe. They never
hidden by a complete stranger of exhibition, because every used video in those interviews,
in a Polish village, two fought story it displays is told by nor did they focus primarily
with the Soviet army. One those interviewed by Centropa on the Holocaust. Instead,
found a rifle and joined the between 2002 and 2006. they wanted to digitize tens of
Partisans. When the fighting This is not an exhibition about thousands of old family
stopped, eight of them chose 20th century history. This is pictures and to ask their
to remain in Poland. Two about what the 20th century respondents to share stories of
started life over in the did to the people in this an entire century, just as they
United States. exhibition. lived it. The idea was to
GAZETA WINTER 2021 n 15Central Europe University in Anka Grupińska, an activist
Budapest. In order to fund the in Solidarity in the 1980s,
program, Centropa turned to led the Polish team of
the Claims Conference, the interviewers, translators,
Austrian and German transcribers, and scanners.
governments, regional banks, Between 2002 and 2006 they
and American family interviewed seventy elderly
foundations. Jews still living in Poland
and had scanned nearly 1,500
It was harder to find support
of their old family pictures.
for the Polish interviews.
More than a few family Using Old Pictures in
Cover of the Ten Polish Cities/
Ten Jewish Stories walking tour foundations felt Centropa Educational Programs
guide of Kraków, based on Teofila should focus on Polish Jews
Silberring’s oral history conducted In 2011, theU.S. State
living in North America and
by Centropa. Department provided seed
Courtesy of Galicia Jewish Museum. Israel, but that is not how
funding for Centropa’s
Used with permission
Centropa’s historians saw it.
educational programs in
publish their findings in an Poland. The Taube Foundation
Enter Tad Taube. Born in
online searchable database. stepped in to help, and
Krakόw and raised in Torun,
There had never been an oral Taube and his family left for Centropa has been working
history project like this before. the United States in 1938. After closely with its partner, the
It is certainly too late to receiving a master’s degree in Galicia Jewish Museum in
launch one now. When the engineering at Stanford Kraków, ever since.
website www.centropa.org University, Taube became a
With a traveling exhibition
launched in 2002, it was major investor in real estate
based on Centropa’s Polish
written up in The Guardian, and technology in northern
interviews, and multimedia
Times of London, New York California. After the 1989 fall
films along with online
Times (twice), Ha’aretz, Die of Communism in Poland, he
content in Polish, 236 teachers
Zeit and Der Standard. began playing an active role in
have taken part in the nine
rebuilding Jewish life—
Spearheading the project were Centropa/Galicia Jewish
supporting academic and
young Jewish historians and Museum seminars, which have
cultural programs in Warsaw,
community activists in been held in Białystok,
Kraków, Wrocław, and
Budapest, Prague, Novi Sad, Lublin, Warsaw, Kraków,
elsewhere throughout Poland.
and Kyiv. All of them were and Wrocław.
children and grandchildren of The Taube Foundation, along
Where do those teachers come
Holocaust survivors and they with the Koret and the
from? Ninety-three of them, or
had guidance from oral Kronhill-Pletka foundations,
39%, teach in towns with
historians at Hebrew all provided the funding for
fewer than 50,000 residents,
University in Jerusalem and Centropa’s Polish interviews.
and most of those are former
16 n GAZETA VOLUME 28, NO. 1shtetls, a fact which seems to More than a few family pandemic—museums need
indicate that the smaller the to bring their exhibitions to
foundations felt Centropa
town, the closer people feel to their visitors.
its Jewish heritage. should focus on Polish
Kraków, the historic and
Despite the rightward bent of Jews living in North cultural center of southern
the current government in America and Israel, Poland, does not need another
Poland, Centropa and the historical museum about the
but that is not how
Galicia Jewish Museum have German occupation nor
registered an ever-increasing Centropa’s historians another Holocaust-related
interest in their seminars. In saw it. exhibition, especially since
fact, Centropa’s European Auschwitz-Birkenau is so
education director, Fabian close at hand.
year so that schools
Ruehle, stated that aside from
throughout the country can Jakub Nowakowski, the
Ukraine, more Polish teachers
create video walking tours Galicia Jewish Museum’s
continue to use Centropa—and
and websites about their director, said, “what is needed
bring in new teachers—than
towns’ Jewish history. In is a platform in both a
any other country in Europe.
2018, eighty-eight students museum environment and on
Centropa’s seminars are from fourteen schools in the web—one that will allow
different because they aren’t southern Poland gathered at Polish Jews to tell us about
frontal. While they do bring in the Galicia Jewish Museum to their lives during the 20th
at least one historian to speak, show off their projects. century—from the small
most of the seminars are comedies of everyday life to
conducted by the teachers An Exhibition You Can the great tragedies that befell
themselves, so they can share See on the Walls, Listen them. This project will also
best practices and lesson plans, to as You Walk, and Find serve as a unique extension to
then brainstorm with each on the Internet the themes that the museum
other on what works best in With more than 200 Polish already presents and discusses
their classrooms. Indeed, teachers using Centropa every at the Traces of Memory core
Ruehle said the most important year, the next logical step was exhibition.”
lesson he learned is that “no to take the most compelling
Centropa interviews and turn With that goal in mind, the
one can teach a teacher better
them into a permanent Galicia Jewish Museum and
than another teacher.”
exhibition—not just on the Centropa teams set about
While investing in teachers walls of a museum— also as a securing the funding to make
is surely the way to create website and even a walking it happen. The German
a sustainable model in tour app of Kazimierz, Foreign Office became the
education, the Galicia Jewish Kraków’s Jewish quarter. lead sponsor, with the Taube
Museum and Centropa hold That’s because—especially Foundation joining the donors
student competitions each during the COVID-19 circle in 2019, as did the
GAZETA WINTER 2021 n 17Exhibition installation of Ten Polish Cities/Ten Jewish Stories, including the story of Tad Taube (pictured in exhibition panel),
Chairman of Taube Philanthropies.
Courtesy of the Galicia Jewish Museum
Lerman-Neubauer Foundation actors read you the stories in have turned Tosia’s stories
of Philadelphia and the Polish, Hebrew, English, and into a walking tour app,
Kronhill-Pletka Foundation of German. There is nothing even designed and programmed by
New York. remotely like it in Poland. the Viennese app developer
Nous, which has also made
Monika Bielak, a Polish One of the panels tells the
apps for the Louvre and the
exhibition designer, helped the story of Teofila, or Tosia,
Berlin Jewish Museum.
Centropa/Galicia Jewish Silberring, who lived only a
Museum team envision what few streets away from the Just as important, all ten of
Ten Polish Cities/Ten Jewish Galicia Jewish Museum. Tosia the panels, as well as Tosia’s
Studies should look like. They was born in Kraków in 1925 walking tour app, are now
being readied for the web, so
decided to tell the ten stories and died there in 2010. Except
that students (and the general
on oversized panels, each of for the six years she suffered
public) who may never come
them backlit and built of through life in Nazi hell, she to Kraków can delve into
polymer, glass, and plastic. very rarely left her city. 20th century Poland, as told by
ten Jews who will share their
With reduced lighting in the Tosia’s Centropa interview is
stories with you. n
room during the day, entering unique, in that she remembers
the exhibition is like stepping Kazimierz, the Jewish quarter,
Edward Serotta is founder
into a giant family photo literally by door number,
and Director of Centropa.
album, one you walk through which is why the Galicia
and listen to on an app as Jewish Museum and Centropa
18 n GAZETA VOLUME 28, NO. 1Traces of Memory in Japan Jakub Nowakowski
I n 2020, the travelling version of
the Galicia Jewish Museum’s core
exhibition, Traces of Memory. A
Contemporary Look at the Jewish Past in
Poland, was presented throughout Japan.
The exhibition was displayed at the
Hyogo International Association in Kobe,
the Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, and
Chiyoda City Hall in Tokyo.
Updated in 2016, Traces of Memory
explores a variety of subjects, motifs, and
themes related to Polish Jewish history
and heritage. The exhibition offers a
unique insight into Jewish Poland by
describing a series of different processes
which, although rooted in the past, directly
influence today’s world and our future.
The Japanese iteration of the exhibition is
accompanied by a brochure containing
captions of the travelling version of the
exhibit translated into Japanese by
Professor Taku Shinohara.This project
has been executed cooperatively with
the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Poster for Traces of Memory in Japan.
Courtesy of Galicia Jewish Museum
and the Polish Institute in Tokyo, and
co-financed by the Minister of Culture
and National Heritage from the Culture
Promotion Fund. n
Jakub Nowakowski is Director of the
Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków.
GAZETA WINTER 2021 n 19Where Art Thou? Gen 3:9
Temporary Exhibition on the 80th Commemoration
of the Closure of the Warsaw Ghetto
Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw.
November 16, 2020–April 25, 2021
O n November 16, 1940,
the Warsaw Ghetto was
created, and the city of Warsaw
was divided into two parts by a
wall. Jews trapped in the ghetto
were separated from their
relatives, from information,
from trees, and from the view
of the sky to the horizon. The
exhibition Where Art Thou?
Gen 3:9 symbolically refers to
this moment.
Poster for Where Art Thou? Gen 3:9. Temporary exhibition for the eightieth
Instead of a typical chronolog- commemoration of the closure of the Warsaw Ghetto.
ical and factual narrative, the Courtesy of Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
organizers proposed a different
approach by bringing the Jerzy Radziwiłowicz, Mateusz Jewish Historical Institute, as
audience closer to the emotional Damięcki, and Martin part of the commemoration of
states experienced by the Budny. The recordings are the eightieth anniversary of the
hundreds of thousands of accompanied by images and closure of the Warsaw Ghetto. It
people crammed into the photographs taken in the ghetto. was co-financed by the Ministry
“Jewish residential district.” of Culture, National Heritage
As an “open,” self-guided and Sport, with the following
The exhibition space is exhibition, the sections are contributors:
divided into eleven positions designed to bring a sense
representing states or feelings, of the experience of the Curators: Paweł Śpiewak,
such as uncertainty, fear, ghetto, without any attempt Piotr Rypson
hunger, timelessness, intimacy, at staging or using expressive Curatorial collaboration: Anna
compassion, or faith, marking scenography. As the curators Duńczyk-Szulc, Agnieszka Olsten
the burden of life and death in state, “we would like the Exhibition arrangement: Marcin
the Warsaw Ghetto. viewers to find a universal Kwietowicz, Aneta Faner
message referring to other
You can understand the places and events in the Graphic design: Jakub Woynarowski
significance of subsequent border states we touch at Honorary patronage: President of the
places by listening to the war the exhibition.” Capital City of Warsaw
reports available on specially
The exhibition was organized Media patronage: Polskie Radio
prepared audio guides, read by
by the Emanuel Ringelblum Program II n
actors Magdalena Lamparska,
20 n GAZETA VOLUME 28, NO. 1REPORTS
Gazeta Editorial Report
Libel Action Against Barbara
Engelking and Jan Grabowski
I n January 2018, the Polish
Parliament passed legislation
that amended the law on the
Poland, Warsaw, 2018) and Jan
Grabowski, one of the editors
of the book, for libel. The libel
prosecution of crimes against the suit is based on the following
Polish Nation. It was rescinded passage in the book:
in June of that year, but a clause Having lost her entire
was retained, stating: family, Estera Drogicka
Protecting the reputation of (née Siemiatycka), equipped
the Republic of Poland and Dalej jest noc [Night Without End: with identity papers she
the Polish Nation shall be The Fate of Jews in Selected bought from a Belarusian
Counties of Occupied Poland],
governed by the provisions edited by Jan Grabowski and woman, decided to leave for
of the Civil Code Act of 23 Barbara Engelking, published work in Prussia. The village
April 1964 (Polish Journal by Polish Center for Holocaust elder Edward Malinowski
Research, 2018.
of Laws of 2016, items offered her his assistance
380, 585 and 1579) on The case has disturbing (and, using the opportunity,
the protection of personal implications for also robbed her) and in
rights. A court action aimed December 1942 she found
at protecting the Republic academic freedom in herself in Rastenburg
of Poland’s or the Polish Poland and has been (today’s Kętrzyn), working
Nation’s reputation may accompanied by a as domestic help in the
be brought by a non- house of a German family
governmental organization barrage of anti-Semitic named Fittkau. That’s where
within the remit of its comments on right-wing she met her second husband
statutory activities. Any websites in Poland. (a Pole, also working in
resulting compensation or Prussia), but also started
damages shall be awarded foundation, Defenders of the a commercial exchange
to the State Treasury. Good Name of Poland (Reduta with Malinowski, sending
Dobrego Imienia)—is suing him packages with items
On the basis of this, Filomena
Barbara Engelking, author of for sale. She visited him
Leszczyńska—the eighty-
one of the articles in the two when she went “home” on
year-old niece of a village
volume Dalej jest noc: Losy vacation. Even though she
elder, Edward Malinowski,
Żydów w wybranych powiatach knew that Malinowski was
from Malinowo in the Podlasie
okupowanej Polski (Night guilty of betraying many
region in eastern Poland,
without End: The Fate of Jews in Jews who were hiding in
and supported by the Polish
Selected Counties of Occupied the woods, and were later
GAZETA WINTER 2021 n 21in Germany (that’s because
the elders could select people
to be sent as forced laborers
in Germany). He responded
with a question—“have you
saved anything from the
ghetto?” So, I told him that
I have shoes, a dress, a shirt
Statement by Barbara Engelking and bed linens. I listed all of
these things to him and he
and Jan Grabowski following the said that he would go and
February 9, 2021 verdict: fetch all of them. I had a very
nice sweater, so he took it
W e are very grateful to all people and institutions from Poland
and around the world for their support and solidarity during the
trial initiated by Filomena Leszczyńska (and launched with support
away from me and he gave
me his wife’s old sweater, I
had some silk underwear, so
and participation of the Defenders of the Good Name of Poland) he took that away too. I also
regarding the alleged defamation of her uncle, Edward Malinowski had 100 German marks, and
who, during the war, was a village elder in Malinowo. We would also he took away fifty.
like to express our gratitude to our attorney, Mr. Michał Jabłoński.
Drogicka later learned that
The Warsaw District Court decided that we have to offer apologies Malinowski had taken her
to Mrs. Leszczyńska for having written in the book that Malinowski things (which had been
robbed Estera Siemiatycka and that he was involved in denouncing deposited with her neighbors),
Jews in hiding to Germans. While respecting the verdict, we do not but told her that he had found
agree with it, and we shall file an appeal to a higher court. nothing. Finally, she stated
that there were twenty-two
(Published on Jan Grabowski’s Facebook page, February 10, 2021.)
Jews hiding in the forest,
together with their children.
A forest ranger found
delivered to the Germans, and I reached Malinowo. I them and “together with
during his post-war trial, met a young boy, not more Malinowski, they went to
she delivered false than eight years old, and he fetch the gendarmes, and
statements in his favor. said: “you, Jew, you have they killed all of them, and
no right to live!” I looked the children, they killed
Engelking based her account around, I asked about the them all.” In the footnotes,
primarily on the extensive village elder, I went to this Engelking adds that after the
testimony recorded by Estera Malinowski Edward, the war, Drogicka testified in
Drogicka for the Shoah village elder, he told me that Malinowski’s defense when
Foundation. This is what she this was his name. I told he was tried for involvement
had to say about Malinowski: him that I have an Ausweis in the murder of these Jews.
I ran away from the forest; it (German identity papers), so This trial collapsed when
took me half an hour, seven perhaps I can go and work the witnesses against him,
kilometers, or more. I ran,
22 n GAZETA VOLUME 28, NO. 1perhaps terrorized by the “I regret the attacks on right-wing websites in Poland,
anti-communist underground researchers who, in closed on January 12 and a
active in the area, withdrew judgement was expected on
their charges. Drogicka accordance with the best February 9, 2021.
explains her testimony as practices and standards
follows: Update: On February 9,
in force in the scientific 2021, Judge Ewa Jończyk of
After the war, he would
have received a death world, pursue the mission the Warsaw Regional Court
penalty. I saved him, found Professors Engelking
of discovering facts and
despite the fact that he and Grabowski guilty of
phenomena concerning defamation. She ordered them
committed evil acts against
me, but so what? It was one of the most tragic to apologize to the plaintiff
really awful when I had to Filomena Leszczyńska, the
periods in the history of
testify, I was in real trouble, niece of Edward Malinowski,
Poland and the world.” for “violating his honor”
but I saved him.
―Zygmunt Stępiński by “providing incorrect
According to Engelking, information” that during the
“Estera testified in favor of damages because of her right war he had robbed Estera
the village elder at the trial. “to enjoy the remembrance Siemiatycka and caused the
I think that she wanted to of a deceased person,” her death of Jews hiding in a forest.
do him a favor and show “right to one’s national pride According to the judgment, this
gratitude for his having and identity,” her “right apology should take the form of
saved her life, although she to a fact-based history of a letter to Ms. Leszczyńska, and
didn’t have a particularly World War II,” her “right to in subsequent editions of the
good opinion of him.” In the protection of dignity,” book, the sections dealing with
her opinion, Malinowski and her “right to receive Malinowski should be changed.
was “neither a hero nor a truthful information from The judge rejected the claim for
blackmailer, but somewhere historical research funded by monetary compensation.
in between. During the her taxes.” She is entitled to
occupation there were many Responding to the verdict,
make this claim because of Professor Grabowski said,
such complex situations. I did her membership in an ethnic
not write that I believed he “I respect the court’s verdict,
group (the Polish Nation), and but it is difficult to agree with its
had handed over Jews. I gave because she is the niece of
the opinion of a witness.” findings. I hope that we will be
Edward Malinowski. She was vindicated in the appeal.” n
In her plea, the plaintiff demanding an apology and
claims not only did her uncle damages of 100,000 zloties Note: An English translation
not murder Jews, he even (approximately $27,000 USD). of the two-volume collection,
risked his life to rescue them Night Without End: The Fate
The case, which has disturbing
and had been acquitted of of Jews in Selected Counties
implications for academic
the charge of involvement of Occupied Poland, will
freedom in Poland, and has
in the murder of the Jews be published by Indiana
been accompanied by a barrage
in the forest. She claims University Press in 2021.
of anti-Semitic comments on
GAZETA WINTER 2021 n 23Revolution Returns to Poland:
Gazeta Editorial
Feminists Lead Largest Demonstrations Report
Since the End of Communism
E ditors’ Note: On January
27, 2021—since the
writing of this report and as
government’s latest
near-total abortion
ban, marking a
Gazeta goes to press—the formidable blow to
Polish government passed the the government.
restrictive abortion legislation
The protests drew
and public protests resumed.
momentum from
Beginning on October 22, two previous
2020, and continuing through nationwide
the wintry weeks of November pro-choice
into December, hundreds of demonstrations,
thousands of Polish citizens in 2016 and
poured into the streets 2017, when the
in the largest nationwide government
demonstration since the fall introduced sweeping
of communism. This time, legislative bans
however, the target was on abortion.
not communism, but ultra- Incensed feminist
nationalism in alliance with activists quickly
the Polish Catholic Church. mobilized protests
The underlying core demand via social media.
One of the posters for the Women’s Strike, by
in 2020, as in the 1980s, was They launched a Joanna Musiał. The inscription reads: “Freedom
restoration of democracy, new movement, the is a Woman.”
dignity, and justice. One Women’s Strike. Courtesy of Joanna Musiał. Used with permission
notable difference is that Under the banner which black-clothed women
today, the lead organizers are “Black Protest,” women demonstrated publicly for
feminists, many under thirty and men dressed in black Poland’s independence and
years old. Led by the OSK marched in cities and towns. reunification.
(Ogólnopolski Strajk Kobiet, The choice to dress in black
All Poland Women’s Strike), made historical reference to “[The year] 2016 will go
they rallied citizens of all ages the women-led resistance down in history as the birth of
and backgrounds in nearly against 19th century Czarist the mass women’s movement
600 cities and towns to protest occupation of Poland, known in Poland,” declared Warsaw
the Law and Justice (PiS) as the National Mourning, in feminist scholar and activist
24 n GAZETA VOLUME 28, NO. 1You can also read
