Program accompanying the exhibition "1945. Not the End, Not the Beginning"

Exhibition tours with museum guides

• Selected Saturdays at 12 noon:
• 15 March, BUY A TICKET →
• 29 March, BUY A TICKET →
• Tickets: regular 35 PLN, reduced 25 PLN

Is it possible to start over when everything that was familiar has ceased to exist? Is it possible to rebuild one’s life after losing everything? We invite you to join us for a unique guided tour of the temporary exhibition "1945. Not the End, Not the Beginning," during which you will hear the story of the first postwar years from the perspective of Polish Jews.

Curator-guided tours

• Selected Saturdays:
• 22 March – Anna Bikont, 12 noon, NO SEATS
• 22 March – Anna Bikont, 2 PM, BUY A TICKET →
• Tickets: regular 35 PLN, reduced 25 PLN

The war ended 80 years ago. Crowds took to the streets of cities and towns, people kissed their liberators, threw flowers at them, danced. Many Holocaust survivors remembered that on that day, they wept. Those who survived had lost almost everything—their nearest and dearest ones, their communities, their homes, and their sense of purpose. But for every survivor, no matter how grief-stricken, exhausted, or dumbstruck, the end of the war meant that they had to reinvent and rebuild their lives from scratch. What decisions did the survivors make? How did they manage to rebuild their world after the catastrophe? Where did they find their place on earth? We tell these stories through the experiences of selected individuals.

Anna Bikont "Not the end, not the beginning. The post-war choices of Polish Jews"

• 12 March (Wednesday), 6PM
• Free admission

• Thursdays, 8PM
• Chair – Mikołaj Grynberg

In our podcasts, we will explore the most important issues, dilemmas, and experiences that accompanied Jews immediately after the war. Through conversations with eyewitnesses, historians, anthropologists, and psychologists, we will reveal the complexity and drama of Jewish fate in the postwar era, in the years immediately after the Holocaust. The podcasts will combine historical narration, excerpts from memoirs, expert commentary, and contemporary reflections on the memory of this difficult and complex era.

Episode 1. Perseverance: Halina Birenbaum

• 20 March, 8PM

The life of Jews in Poland immediately after the war was marked by both tragic experiences and complex moral, social, and existential dilemmas. This period brought exceptionally difficult challenges, arising from the extreme conditions Jews faced after the end of World War II. Questions of identity, security, relationships with neighbors, and the decision to emigrate were all multidimensional. Still, despite immense loss and suffering, many sought to rebuild their lives—preserving the memory of the past while also searching for new hope. After the war, many Jews faced a profound question: Who am I now? Those who survived the Holocaust often felt alienated. For many, survival had meant hiding their Jewish identity. After the war, some struggled to reconnect with their religion or culture, while others chose to continue living in secret.

About an Artefact: Returns and beginnings. On Jewish women in the immediate postwar years

• 20 March (Thursday), 6PM–7.30PM, download free ticket →
• Conference room A, POLIN Museum

A meeting devoted to the postwar lives of Jewish women, illustrated through the stories of figures represented in the Polin Museum’s collection: Tonia Lechtman, Helena Berla, Paulina Włodawer, and Halina Olszewicka. We will present women from different backgrounds, each with a different wartime experience, making different life choices. Their journeys serve as examples of the diverse paths taken by Jewish women in the immediate postwar reality.

Guests:

• Dr Marta Frączkiewicz
• Dr Monika Stępień

Chair:

• Olga Wróbel

Hidden identity

• 27 March (Thursday), 6PM
• Free admission

Among the key topics that will be raised in the discussions are historical reasons for hiding Jewish identity, including assimilation, conversion, as well as psychological effects of concealing identity and how this impacts an individual’s sense of self. We will also talk about the phenomenon of "transgenerational trauma"— how fears and dilemmas related to hidden identity are passed down to children and grandchildren. We will ponder over hidden identity in the context of communism and People’s Republic of Poland (PRL), in other words: how state-driven antisemitic policies affected Jewish identity and on what levels—personal, familial, and societal levels. Rediscovering Jewish roots or return to those roots by the descendants of the people who had once hidden their true identity will surely be an interesting thread in the discussions. What challenges did the descendants face? What it meant to them to discover their Jewish roots?

Guests:

• Stanisław Krajewski
• Anna Bikont
• Jan Borowicz

Chair:

• Anna Wacławik

POLIN Reading Room

Educational activities

Guided tours of the temporary exhibition

Series of podcasts

Discussions