Helgläsning från Polen

I ett utskick från Culture.pl som jag fick igår fann jag en intressant artikel om konstnärerna som levde i Warszawas getto.

Det är varken långa eller omständliga presentationer, så jag rekommenderar sidan för helgläsning. Lär känna Władysław Szpilman som ackompanjerade Wiera Gran, författaren Władysław Szlengel (det är han på bilden) bildkonstnären Gela Seksztajn och andra.

Saklig upplyses det att de flesta av konstnärerna i gettot "reste iväg för att aldrig komma tillbaka" - vi vet alltför väl vad de orden betyder.

Jag citerar helt kort från sidan vad som skrivs om Gela Seksztajn:

"Gela Seksztajn, painter, born in 1907 in Warsaw, died probably during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Luckily many of her works were saved and are now part of the Ringelblum Archive. Her will includes the following sentence: "I ask not of praises, all I want is to preserve the memory of me and my talented daughter Margelit…

She was one of approximately 100 creators, who made up the artistic Jewish community of the capitol. She wasn’t very famous, she began to reach artistic maturity and gain critical acclaim as late as in 1938. She specialized in watercolours and drawings. She painted realistic portraits, still lives and landscapes maintained in toned, harmonic colour schemes.

Today she is one of the best-known figures of the closed district. Over 300 of her drawings, gouaches, and watercolours from the years 1930-1942 are part of the Warsaw Ghetto Archive. The collection includes also her biography, her and her husband’s wills and other personal documents. The archive was created at the initiative of Emanuel Ringelblum (1900-1944), who founded the conspirational group "Oneg Szabat" (Satuday’s Joy) which collected and edited various materials. Seksztajn’s husband Izrael Lichtensztejn (1904-1943) apart from being a writer and a teacher was also a member of this underground group. He participated in the hiding of the first part of the archive in 1942. He filled one of the 10 chests that were at his disposal with Gela’s works. By doing so he preserved the memory of the artist and her work."