For the next month (until the end of November 2024) an exhibition based on artistic photographs of Samuel Willenberg's sculptures taken by Sławomir Kasper will be presented at the IPN President Lech Kaczynski Central History Point in Warsaw (107 Marszałkowska St., 1st floor).
Samuel Willenberg was among 200 inmates who, on 2 August 1943, succeeded in escaping from the Treblinka German extermination camp. At the moment of his death in 2016, he remained the last survivor of the camp rebellion. The sculptures by Samuel Willenberg depict people and situations he remembered particularly vividly from the time of his imprisonment in Treblinka.
Samuel Willenberg was a soldier of the Polish Army and the Home Army, as well as a participant of the Warsaw Uprising. After their leaving for Israel in 1950, he and his wife visited Poland on numerous occasions – often as guides for Israeli youth. They became spokespersons for good Polish-Jewish relations, hiding neither the tragic nor the beautiful events linking the two groups of Polish citizens during the German occupation of Poland.
The project also includes "Treblinka’s Last Witness", a documentary film produced by WLRN Public Television for South Florida, which is a first-hand account of Samuel Willenberg’s life as a Jewish prisoner of the death camp.
The exhibition along with the educational project based on Willenberg's works has been possible thanks to the kindness and trust bestowed on the Institute by Ada Krystyna Willenberg, who tirelessly continues her husband's work in the name of preserving the memory of the Holocaust and its victims.
The Institute has been taking care of and popularizing Willenberg’s legacy until the completion of the construction work at the Treblinka Museum, where the collection will be exhibited permanently according to the Artist's last will.
"The Image of Treblinka in the Eyes of Samuel Willenberg" educational project
In January 2020, the Institute of National Remembrance initiated an exhibition and educational project on the basis of sculptures by Samuel Willenberg, depicting people and situations he remembered particularly vividly during his imprisonment at Treblinka extermination camp. The exhibition received the National Patronage of the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda to mark the Centenary of Regaining Independence.
The exhibition is accompanied by the screening of "Treblinka’s Last Witness", a documentary film produced by and screened courtesy of WLRN Public Television for South Florida, as well as educational workshops.
The aim of the project is not only to educate about the tragedy of the Holocaust, but also to familiarize the younger generation with the author of the sculptures, a Jew from Częstochowa, a soldier of the September campaign, a prisoner of Treblinka, a participant in the camp rebellion, a Warsaw insurgent, and an advocate of reconciliation between Polish and Jewish nations. He was among 200 inmates who on 2 August 1943 succeeded in escaping from Treblinka. At the moment of his death in 2016, he remained the last survivor of the revolt. Samuel Willenberg was known for speaking equally openly about both the tragic and beautiful pages of history.
In spite of the perpetrators’ efforts to destroy all traces, the sculptures provide direct evidence of their deeds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j_09Vmxd2Q
