JACOB JR, MY JEWISH WORLD - GALICIA JEWISH MUSEUM - KRAKOW/POLAND


Monday, Adar 11, 5775. March 2, 2015.

Shalom! World.

This excellent museum and research centre commemorates Jewish vitims of the Holocaust and celebrates Jewish culture in Galicia past, present and future. The centrepiece is "Traces of Memory", a moving photographic exhibition that depicts modern-day remmants of the once-thriving Jewish community in the southeast of the country. You can also watch testimonies of survivors on video and peruse some seminal temporary exhibits such as "Polish Heros: Those Who Rescued Jews".

Recently deceased British photo-journalist Chris Schwarz (1948-2007) is behind this thought-provoking exhibition, set in a converted ware-house. Aiming to broaden people's attention from the empty Synagogues of Kazimierz and the death factory of Auschwitz, Schwarz and writer-historian Jonathan Webber set off around southern Poland (Galicia) to record the lesser-known places of murder and massacre - a plaque in a forest clearing or a ramshackle Synagogue in some forgotten village. The result, intelligently themed and starkly displayed, offers some idea  of the breadth and banallity of the war crime. A bookshop, café and information point provide further reason to visit.


* The Galicia Jewish Museum is named after the region of Galicia, which was a colloquial name for the southeastern lands of Poland, annexed to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1772 and 1795. The capital of the province was Lwów (L'viv, now in Ukraine), and Krakow was the second city.

The province of Galicia ended its official existence in 1918 when, following the First World War and the reestablishment of Polish independence, it was given to Poland and renamed Matopolska. At the end of the Second Worls War and the border changes in central and eastern Europe, the old territory of Galicia was divided between Poland and Soviet Union. Today, the eastern territories of Galicia, including the city of L'viv, are located in Ukraine.

Watch my interview with Tomasz Strug, Deputy Director of Galicia Jewish Museum.



Shalom! Aleichem.

Suporte cultural:  SOUL avec L'Integration d'Association avec Israel et dans le Monde/Fr .

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