The exhibition will be on display at the Pilecki Institute in New York City.
Risking one’s own life to save another person is one of the most extraordinary acts of courage. The exhibition Between Life and Death. Stories of Rescue during the Holocaust pays tribute to those who, despite the threat of imprisonment, deportation, or death, chose to help persecuted Jews during the Second World War. By bringing together the stories of rescuers and survivors, the exhibition explores the complexity of human relationships under the varied and extreme conditions of the war. Each story is placed within a broader historical context, helping visitors better understand how local circumstances shaped both the possibilities for rescue and the chances of survival. One of the aims of the exhibition is to demonstrate that the decision to help was profoundly influenced by local realities – for example, the circumstances facing rescuers in Warsaw were fundamentally different from those in Paris.
The exhibition presents stories of the rescue of Jews from fifteen European countries – Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom – highlighting the experiences of both rescuers and survivors. One of the panels is dedicated to diplomats from Poland, Japan, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark, whose efforts to save Jews took place in Germany, France, Hungary, Lithuania, and Switzerland.
This initiative is a collaborative project between ENRS, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and the Silent Heroes Memorial Centre. It was first presented at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels in January 2018. Since then, it has been displayed in numerous locations across Europe and Japan, including Amsterdam, Bratislava, Vilnius, Budapest, Bucharest, Bern, Dresden, Osaka, Yokohama, Tsuruga, Gifu, Szczecin, Gdańsk, Strasbourg, Bad Ischl, Dublin and New York City.
