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Around memory–June issue of Oś Magazine
The exhibition Memory Photographs, by former Auschwitz prisoner Marian Kołodziej at the St. Maximilian Kolbe Center in Harmęże, is some of the most moving testimony to the reality of the camp. In Oś you will find an interview with this outstanding painter and stage designer, and our cover features one of his works, a self-portrait of a man who says, “through the line I draw, I remember the thousands of people who died there. This is a form of honoring their memory.”
The theme of memory recurs in many places in this issue of Oś, and above all in connection with two anniversaries. June 14 marked 69 years since the arrival in Auschwitz of the first transport of Polish political prisoners from Tarnów (Marian Kołodziej was one of them, and he obtained number 432).They recall their first days in the camp Through accounts from the archives. June 7 this year comes 30 years af ter the visit to the Auschwitz site by John Paul II. We publish photographs from that day and an article by the Rev. Manfred Deselaers from the Center for Dialogue and Prayer.
Also devoted to memory is an artistic project by Anna Zosik at the International Youth Meeting Center. Through June 19, everyone interested can leave their testimony in any form they choose on the walls of the “Memory Workshop.” We also publish an interview with the artist.
Aside from this, our June issue features the My Past Neighbors art contest organized by the Jewish Center, and an educational program directed at penitentiary inmates and prepared jointly by the Museum and the Penal Service, as well as a text about the workshops at the IYMC on “The Language of the Perpetrators and the Language of the Victims.”
