Putting things back
The exhibition “Putting Things Back” is the first initiative of its kind in Poland, based on the private collections of Jewish families from Breslau and created in collaboration with them. What can we learn about family life, the community, and the city during that time? What was Jewish bourgeois life like – private, religious, cultural, and professional?
Design: musk kolektyw
Client: Urban Memory Foundation
Location: Wrocław, OP ENHEIM Gallery
Project: November 2023 – March 2024
The exhibition will answer these and other questions by presenting nearly a hundred objects, photographs, and documents lent to us by twelve families of former Breslau residents, now scattered around the world. The display will cover the period from the 18th century to the present and will be available in Polish, English, and German. The strength and cultural value of the objects lie in their connection to individual, personal stories that are simultaneously woven into the history and topography of the city.
Packed belongings, whether only the most necessary items or entire possessions – everyday objects, furniture, books, family mementos, artworks, and unexpected trinkets – left with the Hadd, Freund, Herz, Tischler, Zadik, Falk, Sklarz, Peritz, and many other families from pre-war Breslau during the Nazi persecutions. Like their owners, these items were never meant to return.
