Temporary exhibition “The Image of Treblinka in the Eyes of Samuel Willenberg” at the Museum of the Second World War

From 15 July 2020 the exhibition “The Image of Treblinka in the Eyes of Samuel Willenberg” will be available to visitors of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk. The exhibition will feature sculptures showing the tragic fate suffered by the prisoners of the German extermination camp in Treblinka. Free admission.

October 1942. Young Samuel Willenberg is sent to the German extermination camp in Treblinka. The first thing he has to do is take off his shoes and tie them together by the laces. The German Reich collected and reused all the belongings of its victims. Willenberg, saved by his friend from Częstochowa, is the only one to survive among 6 thousand people deported from the Opatów Ghetto and starts his everyday life in the horrors of the extermination camp. He memorizes different situations like paintings: musicians in grotesque tailcoats playing for the prisoners going to death, a man who makes sure that nobody stays in the latrine for more than a minute, a figure with a barrow collecting bottles from the victims, shaving heads to women who arrive at the camp or sorting murdered prisoners’ clothes.

The whole horror of human humiliation, witnessed by Samuel Willenberg is expressed in 15 bronze figures showing the tragedy, from which only death can liberate.

Thanks to the courtesy of Ada Krystyna Willenberg, widow of the artist, and the Institute of National Remembrance which brought the sculptures from Israel and organised a Polish nationwide exhibition, from 15 July to 13 August you will be able to see this tragic story, the testament of the prisoners of the German extermination camp in Treblinka.

Place: level -2, Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk
Duration: from 15.07.2020 to 13.08.2020

We invite you to visit the exhibition.