On the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which falls on 27 January, Krzysztof Głażewski undertook to interpret Marian Kołodziej's works in the form of animation. The mapping will be displayed on the facade of the Museum tower from 30 January to 1 February between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
The musical backdrop is the soundtrack to the film Strefa interesów (The Zone of Interest), composed by Mica Levi. The digital reproductions of the photographs come from the collection of the St. Maximilian Centre in Harmęże.
Marian Kołodziej (1921–2009) – artist and stage designer, one of the first prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau with camp number 432. Until the end of the war, he was held in concentration camps in Groß-Rosen, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen and Mauthausen-Gusen. After liberation, he returned to Poland. He created theatre and film set designs and was associated with the Wybrzeże Theatre in Gdańsk for many years. His series of drawings, Klisze pamięci – labirynty (Memory Clichés – Labyrinths), is a poignant, personal account of the hell of the camps. The artist's works are currently housed in the Franciscan church in Harmęże, and the drawing ‘Kolbe Saves’, depicting self-sacrifice for another human being, is on display in the permanent exhibition of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, describing the experience of life in concentration camps.
In the words of the event's producers:
No publication, exhibition or film can convey the hell that was the German concentration and extermination camp system. Despite efforts to create as accurate a story as possible about the immensity of the crimes and suffering, historians and artists will always face the challenge of describing the indescribable. Aware of these limitations, we decided to give voice to the works of one of the concentration camp prisoners, Gdańsk set designer and artist Marian Kołodziej.