Czarne in Galicia: “Podziemny Muranów” (PL)
25.06.2024 - 17:00 / Galicia Jewish Museum, ul. Dajwór 18The history of Muranów is a story spanning from paradise-like landscapes of the 18th century to the hell of the Umschlagplatz. It was a beautiful place that became dark and terrifying. “My God, where is Gęsia Street?” asked a chauffeur who had been raised there and was looking through the ruins of the ghetto for traces of his street. Like many other people after the war, he was searching in vain for landmarks that would remind him of his old life. How can we imagine old Muranów today? In his book, Jacek Leociak reads this unique palimpsest: the post-ghetto space where the entire street grid was changed, the new streets were given new names, and new houses were erected. He recalls the marketplaces on Gęsia and Świętojerska streets that once teemed with life, the tenement houses of Nalewki, the former Plac Broni. He focuses especially on what lies beneath the ground. He describes life in the ghetto during the uprising: creating hiding places and shelters in basements, and finally building underground bunkers. He cites the stories of the silent witnesses of the Shoah that are hidden in the ruins: everyday objects, pots and pans, keys, a rotten and burnt diary.
“The world is to be thrown under the wheels of history in order to stop them,” we read in a testimony that was found in a milk can buried in the basement of 68 Nowolipki Street. Jacek Leociak, like an archaeologist, collects these traces and superimposes images of old Muranów onto the contemporary, lively district to commemorate what escapes our imagination.
This event is part of the project “20 for 20. A Series of Meetings with 20 Authors for the Galicia Jewish Museum’s 20th Anniversary”. The project was financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland from the Fund for Promoting Culture.
