Exhibition : Putting Things Back. Jewish Breslauers and their Objects
Temporary exhibition
pl. Solny 4, Wrocław
Event program
Packed things, only the most necessary or all belongings – everyday items, furniture, books, family souvenirs, works of art and non-obvious trinkets – left with the Haddas, Freunds, Herzs, Tischlers, Zadiks, Falks, Sklarzs, Peritzs and many other families from pre-war Breslau during the Nazi persecution. Like their owners, they were never to return.
This is the first initiative of this type in Poland based on private collections of Jewish families from Breslau and has been created in cooperation with those very families. What can we learn about family life, community life and city life at that time? What was Jewish urban life like – private, religious, cultural and professional?
The exhibition answered these and other questions by presenting almost a hundred objects, photographs and documents lent to us mainly by twelve former Breslauer families, friends of the Urban Memory Foundation, currently living in Belgium, the Netherlands, Israel, Germany, Sweden, Great Britain and the United States. The strength and cultural value of the presented objects lies in their connection with individual, personal stories, embedded in the history and topography of the city. The exhibition covered the period from the 18th century to the present day and was available in Polish, English and German.
The exhibition was accompanied by an artistic project and a program of events including meetings with the descendants of some of those Breslau Jewish families. The artistic project by visual artist Anna Schapiro appeared in the tenement house itself, the former home of Jewish family Oppenheim, where the OP ENHEIM is currently located.
The exhibition was opened until September 29, 2024.
Opening hours in September:
▪️ Wednesday | 10:00–18:00
▪️ Thursday, Friday | 14:00–19:00
▪️ Saturday, Sunday | 13:00–19:00
The entrance was free.
Curators of the exhibition: Dr. Małgorzata Stolarska-Fronia and Dr. Maciej Gugała
Key consultants and experts: Dr. Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Prof. Marcin Wodziński, Dr. Aleksandra Janus, Dr. Juliet D. Golden, Dr. Tamar Cohn Gazit, Stephen Falk, Donald Falk, Daniel Ljunggren and Prof. Tim Buchen
Producers: Łukasz Adamski, Małgorzata Sobolewska
Project management: Agnieszka Jabłońska (UMF) with the support of Karolina Jara (OP ENHEIM & German-Polish Foundation for the Protection of Cultural Monuments) and Tomasz Woydyłło (UMF)
Exhibition designers: Musk Kolektyw
Objects conservation: Anna Szlasa-Byczek, Mateusz Jasiński
Translations, editing and proofreading of texts: Dr. Juliet D. Golden, Anna Nowogońska, Steffen Wirsing
Supporting researchers: Dr. Wojciech Tworek, Dr. Monika Piechota, Dr. Danuta Płókarz, Celine Skrippek
Multimedia: Paweł Romańczuk – Małe Instrumenty (recording of pieces from the symphony; PL voice-over), Anna Skotarczyk (editing of film materials), Bartłomiej Szewczykowski (audio editing and correction), Steffen Wirsing (DE voice-over)
PR & Promotion: Martyna Chrzanowska-Przystupa (MH+), Dominika Fedyk-Wolanin (MH+), Maria Majchrowska (OP ENHEIM)
Accompanying Program: Akcelerator Obywatelski Spark Foundation
Partners and funding
The Urban Memory Foundation and OP ENHEIM Foundation were co-organizers of the exhibition. Project partners are the German-Polish Foundation for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, Viktor Oppenheim Haus, WOMAK Holding SA, the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław, Akcelerator Obywatelski Spark Foundation, the City Museum of Wrocław and MultiMemo project partners: FestivALT, Zapomniane Foundation, JCC Warsaw, Formy Wspólne Foundation, the Foundation for the Documentation of Jewish Cemeteries, CEJI – A Jewish Contribution to an Inclusive Europe, the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg and the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg.
The exhibition was co-funded by the European Union (part of the MultiMemo project, CERV program), the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation, the Department of Culture of the Wrocław Municipality and the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland.
Photos: Jerzy Wypych