A square in Częstochowa to be named after Samuel Willenberg

In 2020, the Institute of National Remembrance initiated a year- long exhibition and educational project on the basis of 14 sculptures by Samuel Willeberg depicting people and situations he remembered particularly vividly during his imprisonment at Treblinka. These unique sculptures, constituting the world heritage of the Holocaust, were brought by the IPN from Israel for the purposes of the project.

With regard to the Institute’s initiative, we are all the more pleased to note that the square on Strażacka Street in Częstochowa will be named after Samuel Willenberg. What is more, this is also the location of the Memorial to Częstochowa Jews, a commemoration designed by Willenberg himself and unveiled in the autumn of 2009. It is worth mentioning that the Institute of National Remembrance was one of the institutions supporting the initiative of naming the square, from where the Jews of Częstochowa were deported to death camps such as Treblinka during the war, after Samuel Willenberg.

In 2020, the Institute of National Remembrance initiated a year- long exhibition and educational project on the basis of 14 sculptures by Samuel Willeberg depicting people and situations he remembered particularly vividly during his imprisonment at Treblinka. These unique sculptures, constituting the world heritage of the Holocaust, were brought by the IPN from Israel for the purposes of the project.

The IPN’s exhibition „The Image of Treblinka in the Eyes of Samuel Willenberg” was intended not only to educate about the tragedy of the Holocaust, but also to familiarize the younger generation with the author of the sculptures, a Jew from Częstochowa, a soldier of the September campaign, a prisoner of Treblinka, a participant in the camp rebellion, a Warsaw insurgent, and an advocate of reconciliation between Polish and Jewish nations.

After the ceremonial opening of the exhibition in Warsaw on 28 January 2020, with the participation of Ada Krystyna Willenberg, the widow of the artist, the sculptures were presented at the IPN branches in Lublin, Cracow and Kielce, as well as in Gdańsk (at the Museum of the Second World War) and Częstochowa (at the Częstochowa Museum). On the basis of the exhibition, a virtual tour in Polish and English was also created. It is available here.

Source: IPN