AROUND US A SEA OF FIRE

from Warsaw Insider June 2023 #322

The Buzz

POLIN’s newest exhibition highlights the fate of civilians during the Ghetto Uprising to stunning effect…

Sharply contrasted against Warsaw’s blue summer skies, POLIN’s latest temporary exhibition is a dark, oppressive, and almost stifling experience. Yet it is also essential. Opened to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Jewish Ghetto Uprising in April, this unique exhibition – reputedly the first of its kind in the world – flips the commonly told narrative by overlooking the story of the Jewish insurgents to instead focus on the civilians instead.

The first such civic rebellion in Nazi-occupied Europe, the Ghetto Uprising was launched in the face of insurmountable odds on April 19th, 1942. Yet despite a collection of arms that was limited to just two sub-machine guns, 17 rifles and 500 pistols, the tenacity of the Jewish fighters – many of whom were armed with little more than humble petrol bombs – frustrated Nazi efforts to quash the revolt. Only on May 16th was Jurgen Stroop finally able to report to Himmler that “Jewish Warsaw had ceased to exist”.

But whilst the heroic story of Jewish Warsaw’s suicidal resistance has been told many times, far less is known about the 50,000 civilians trapped in the crossfire – that is until now. Anchored around the written testimony of twelve Ghetto inhabitants, the exhibition pursues several different strands – perhaps most touching of all, we learn what it was to love whilst chaos reigned supreme.

With the Ghetto later levelled by the Nazis, physical exhibits form a minority – rather than looking, expect to be reading whilst here. However, for those whose attention spans aren’t that generous, there are also several everyday artefacts, many of which were recovered during the construction of POLIN. Among these are combs, coins, inkpots and spectacles.

Moreover, the exhibition presents several never-seen-before photographs – included in this are those taken covertly by a Polish fireman who was called into action to ensure the Ghetto inferno would not spread to the Aryan side of Warsaw. Shot by Zbigniew Leszek Grzywaczewski, these were only recently discovered having been stored away in an attic. Utterly compelling, the experience arguably peaks towards the end inside a warren of rooms purposefully designed to evoke the suffocating, claustrophobic sense of sheltering in a cellar.