At the end of 2025, a new exhibition entitled ‘We Are Rooted in Łódź’ opened at the Dialogue Centre, curated by Patrycja Dołowy and Michał Adamiak.
The exhibition tells the story of pre-war, wartime and post-war Jewish Łódź through the lives of nine survivors of the Łódź ghetto: Chava Rosenfarb and Henryk Morgentaler, Marian Turski, Hana Svirski, Eliezer (Lolek) and Rachel Grynfeld, Róża and Mojżesz Zilbar, and Leon Weintraub.
They came from different backgrounds: working class, Jewish poor, Jewish intelligentsia, factory owners and landlords, Bund activists and Zionists, from Orthodox and assimilated families. They spoke different languages: Polish or Yiddish, some knew Hebrew, but also German or Russian. Their parents were from here or came from nearby and more distant towns. They survived the Holocaust in hiding, thanks to lucky breaks, sometimes someone's help, and survived the camps and death marches. After the war, some returned to Łódź, others did not want to return, and still others emigrated in the 1940s and 1950s in the wake of the events of 1968: to Israel, Canada, Sweden, and Australia. Their individual stories illustrate the diversity of views and attitudes and the complexity of the fate of Łódź Jews. However, they are all connected by the city, which remains an important place for them, even if they only visit it in their memories. They are also connected by the trees in the Survivors' Park.
The title of the exhibition is a quote from Halina Elczewska, a survivor of the Łódź ghetto and initiator of the Survivors' Park. She wanted the planted trees to be a trace of their presence here, and the park to be a space of remembrance and, above all, of life.
The exhibition is available in Polish, English and Polish Sign Language under QR codes.
You can read more about it at the link
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Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. The project is co-financed by a grant from the City of Łódź.
