Plaque honours Jewish fighters in 1944 Warsaw Uprising

Officials have unveiled a plaque to commemorate two notable members of the Polish capital’s Jewish community who fought in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Germans.

Photo:

Twitter/IPN

The ceremony to honour painter Perec Willenberg and his son Samuel took place on Tuesday, the 79th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, Polish state news agency PAP reported.

It also came a day before the 80th anniversary of a revolt in the German death camp of Treblinka II, of which Samuel Willenberg was a survivor, according to officials.

The memorial plaque has been installed on the façade of a residential building at 60 Marszałkowska Street in Warsaw, where Perec Willenberg, a noted painter of synagogue frescoes in interwar Poland, lived and worked during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

The unveiling of a plaque commemorating Perec and Samuel Willenberg took place today at 60 Marszałkowska Street in Warsaw. The plaque funded by the IPN and placed on the building façade is available in three languages: Polish, English, and Hebrew.

Ada Krystyna Willenberg,… pic.twitter.com/K90GZncNXf

— Institute of National Remembrance (@ipngovpl_eng) August 1, 2023

In the building’s basement, Perec Willenberg made a wall painting of Jesus Christ, which survives to this day, officials told reporters.

The deputy director of Poland’s state-run Institute for National Remembrance (IPN), Mateusz Szpytma, said "the Jewish artist created his beautiful drawing of Christ during a big bombardment" and the residents believed the painting had helped them survive the wartime aerial strikes and the Warsaw Uprising, the IAR news agency reported. 

Israel’s ambassador to Poland, Yacov Livne, said he was happy at the unveiling of the plaque, which commemorates the building’s Jewish residents and the joint struggle of Poles and Jews against the Nazi German occupiers.

Livne added: “Hopefully more such plaques will be installed in Warsaw and other cities, reminding us not only how Jews died, but also how they lived on Polish land for a thousand years.”

The Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, said he had met Samuel Willenberg in person, adding that Willenberg had survived the Treblinka camp "thanks to having a place to return to."

At that time Perec's son, Samuel Willenberg was fighting against the Germans during the Warsaw Uprising, and in this house, he had met with his father a year earlier following his 1943 escape from Treblinka.

Decades later Samuel, an artist in his own right created a series of… pic.twitter.com/YNeqLoSXVM

— Institute of National Remembrance (@ipngovpl_eng) August 1, 2023

Meanwhile, Samuel Willenberg’s widow Ada Willenberg thanked everyone for helping commemorate the legacy of her husband and his father.

She added that the Polish Institute for National Remembrance was showcasing Samuel Willenberg’s Treblinka-themed sculptures around the country and that on Wednesday they would be shown during anniversary ceremonies on the site of the former Treblinka camp, the IAR news agency reported.

(pm/gs)

Source: IAR, PAP