On Monday, November 16, Janusz Kurtyka, the President of the Institute of National Remembrance began his visit to Israel. Its main events of the visit are talks at Yad Vashem and the opening of the exhibition "Righteous Among the Nations" at the Massuah Institute. This will be the first Polish historical exhibition presented by an Israeli cultural institution. Also, “The Risk Of Survival ", a book by Mateusz will be presented. The book describes the aid brought by Poles to Jews during the Holocaust. On the base of the cooperation agreement, the Institute will also hand over approximately 20 thousand frames of microfilm containing archival material, which concerns the fate of Polish Jews.
This is not the first meeting of the historians from Yad Vashem and the Institute of National Remembrance. On September 12, 2006 at the premises of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem a cooperation agreement between the two institutions was signed. On November 8, 2007 it was completed by principles of archival cooperation regarding joint archival queries and provision of document copies. For the Israelis the period of World War II and the crimes committed against the Jewish nation are particularly interesting. The Institute, on the other hand, is interested in using the collections regarding the Polish citizens of Jewish nationality. Query results are available to the parties in the form of microfilm.
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The aim of the presented in the Massuah Institute exhibition "Poles saving Jews during the Holocaust. Polish aid to the Jewish population in Małopolska, 1939-1945" is to present the profiles of the Poles who in 1939-1945, risking their own lives, helped Jews to escape death at the hands of Germans. This aid had different forms: immediate, due to the need of the moment, such as an indication of escape routes before raids, or giving food; as well as production of so-called Aryan documents, searching for housing or work, or even permanent feeding and hiding.
The exhibition consists of 48 thematic panels. It opens with boards showing the life of Poles and Jews under the German occupation. Then, photographs of the Poles saving Jews in Małopolska are presented. A great part of them are those who, for helping Jews have been honored with a "Righteous Among the Nations” medal by the Yad Vashem Institute in Jerusalem. Also, the scale of aid to Jews by the Cracovian branch of the "Żegota" Council for Aid to Jews and by the members of clergy from the south-east of Poland are featured. Separate panels have been devoted to Józef and Wictoria Ulma family of Markowa near Łańcut, murdered by Germans on March 24, 1944, together with eight Jews, they had been hiding.
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The book published this year by Mateusz Szpytma describes the mechanisms and the scale of aid Poles gave to Jews during the Holocaust. In a synthetic manner, it presents the efforts of the Polish Underground State and the appointed "Żegota" Council for Aid to Jews, as well as the activities of ordinary people, who on their own, risking their lives and the lives of their families, rescued from extermination their Jewish fellow citizens. Particular attention has been paid to the Markowa village, in which 25 Jews were hiding. The climax of the book are the events March 24, 1944, when Germans killed Józef, the pregnant Victoria Ulma, their six small children, as well as the eight Jews from Szall and Goldman families hidden by the Ulmas. The book contains many documentary photographs.