Righteous Among the Nations Exhibition recounts Polish people during World War II

Pictured here with Dr Matthew Potter, Curator of Limerick Museum, Karolina Mack, Malgorzata Halwa-Zderkiewicz, Kamila Turzynska and Lidia Zeglinska organizers of the Righteous Among the Nations exhibition from the Janusz Korczak’s Saturday Polish School. Picture: Keith Wiseman.

Righteous Among the Nations Exhibition recounts Polish people during World War II

The Righteous Among the Nations exhibition has officially been opened last week, Thursday, May 24 in the Glazed Street of Limerick City and County Council’s Corporate Headquarters on Merchant’s Quay, Limerick.

The Righteous Among the Nations exhibition is hosted by Limerick Museum and organized by the Janusz Korczak’s Saturday Polish School in Limerick and the Limerick branch of the Military Unit of Jozef Pilsudski Strzelec.

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Dr. Matthew Potter, Curator of Limerick Museum, with Kamila Tuvzynska, Malgorzata Halwa Zderkiewicz and Linda Zeglinska organizers of the exhibition from the Janusz Korczak’s Saturday Polish School. Picture: Keith Wiseman.

The name of the exhibition is taken from the ‘Righteous Among the Nations” non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust and are given official recognition by Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.  According to Yad Vashem, Poland has the largest number of ‘Righteous Among the Nations”, with 6,700, representing one-quarter of the total.

Many of these Polish rescuers risked their own lives and often did not survive their sacrifice. Poles carried out rescue this work as individuals and in groups; they were both lay and clerical; they saved children and adults; they provided shelter, food and false documentation.

Speaking at the opening of The Righteous Among the Nations exhibition, Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Cllr Stephen Keary said, “Around 3 million Jews who lived in pre-Second World War Poland were murdered by the Nazis, representing half of all Jews killed in the Holocaust or Shoah between 1941 and 1945.  The Righteous Among the Nations Exhibition illustrates how in extraordinary circumstances, many ordinary Poles sheltered, assisted and rescued Jews during this terrible era.”

“This exhibition is a description about solidarity, courage, and outstanding heroism, death, survival, and remembrance of the Holocaust. Congratulations to the Polish community in Limerick for organizing it and to Dr. Matthew Potter, Curator of Limerick Museum for hosting it.”

Speaking about The Righteous Among the Nations exhibition, Dr. Matthew Potter, Curator of Limerick Museum said, “Limerick Museum is delighted and proud to work with the Polish community in Limerick to mount this important exhibition. For four hundred years, Poland was home to the world’s largest Jewish community. The Jews of Poland were granted rights like nowhere else in Europe and were even granted their own autonomous legal system. As a result, three-quarters of the world’s Jews lived in Poland, which became known as the Jewish Paradise.”

In 1939, the Jewish paradise became the Jewish hell when the Germans invaded Poland. During the Second World War, one-fifth of the Polish population, six million Poles were killed, of whom half were Jews.

Dr. Potter highlighted one example of heroic Poles who helped their Jewish neighbors, that of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma who lived in the village of Markowa in South-east Poland. In 1944, they were sheltering eight Jews when they discovered by German police. The Jews were murdered first and then Józef and Wiktoria Ulma were shot.

The six children began to scream at the sight of their parents’ bodies so they were also shot. The children were: Stanisława, aged 8, Barbara, age 7, Władysław, age 6, Franciszek, age 4, Antoni, age 3 and Maria, age 2. Wiktoria Ulma was expecting another child that was due to be born just days before the execution.

The Righteous Among the Nations exhibition will continue on the Glazed Street at Limerick City and County Council’s Corporate Headquarters on Merchant’s Quay until 8 June 2018. Opening times are 9 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday and entry is free.

For more information on the Righteous Amon the Nations Exhibition, go here.

For more stories on exhibitions in Limerick, go here.