DSH ON TOUR | “Warsaw Anew” in Berlin

On Tuesday, 24 March, a new exhibition opened at the Berlin branch of the Pilecki Institute, which was packed to the rafters. Guests included representatives of the media, museums, think tanks and the world of politics, among them CDU Member of Parliament Roderich Kiesewetter. The exhibition is a slightly altered version of “Warsaw Anew. Press Photographs 1945–1949”, currently on display at the History Meeting House. At the opening, speeches were given by the head of the Berlin branch of the Pilecki Institute, Hanna Radziejowska, the exhibition curators Anna Brzezińska and Katarzyna Madoń-Mitzner, and the Polish Ambassador to Berlin, Jan Tombiński, chargé d’affaires ad interim.

The exhibition consists of a selection of several dozen photographs showing postwar Warsaw from the second half of the 1940s. Against the backdrop of almost total destruction, the photographs form a collective portrait of the people of Warsaw rebuilding their city and their lives. Through the images of young photojournalists, we observe the city’s rebirth up close and feel its energy. The photographs were taken by young reporters associated with photo agencies that operated just after the war, including Jerzy Baranowski, Stanisław Dąbrowiecki, Wojciech Kondracki, Jan Tymiński, Stanisław Urbanowicz and Zdzisław Wdowiński, as well as the cameramen Wiktor Janik and Karol Szczeciński. The Berlin presentation was prepared by the Pilecki Institute in cooperation with the History Meeting House and the Capital City of Warsaw.

“Warsaw is a city with a special history, a history of struggle for freedom, but also a history of reconstruction. Perhaps everyone speaks like this about their own city, but for us, the people of Warsaw, it has a unique meaning. We love Warsaw and always return to it, even when it is damaged, when only ruins remain. This is what this exhibition is about. Not only about ruins and destruction, but above all about the spirit of Warsaw and the strength that allows one to rise after a catastrophe and start anew,” said Hanna Radziejowska, head of the Berlin branch of the Pilecki Institute.

“This history does not belong only to the past,” she stressed, referring to current events. “Looking today at what Russia is doing to Ukraine, at the successive attacks, including the recent drone strikes on Lviv and the mass bombardments, we can clearly see how much Warsaw’s experience remains relevant. The fates of these cities are linked. Just as Warsaw once did, Ukraine today must fight its own battle for freedom and democracy.” No other European capital suffered destruction as extensive as Warsaw’s. In the left-bank part of the city, the urban fabric was almost completely annihilated. About 84 percent of the buildings disappeared, including as many as 90 percent of industrial and historic structures and nearly three quarters of residential buildings.

“Photography is the most important tool for telling the story of what happened,” said Katarzyna Madoń-Mitzner. As she pointed out, around 30,000 photographs from that period have survived and have already been digitised, although it is known that at least 18 million were taken. “The Polish Press Agency therefore still has an enormous amount of work ahead,” she added. Madoń-Mitzner noted that the photographs on display are extraordinary, but are also accompanied by a certain sadness. “This is also the story of a Poland cut off behind the Iron Curtain,” she emphasised. That is why, at the time, they did not make their way into the global canon of photography documenting the destruction of the Second World War.

As she added, many similar photographs remained unknown for years. “Such images were not in the archives. They fell victim to censorship. This is how the communist dictatorship operated.” She also stressed that the exhibition does not focus solely on the reconstruction of the city. “This is not only an exhibition about the rebuilding of Warsaw, but about the work of people.”

“Photographers simply walked the city, documenting places, people and children, capturing life as it was,” said the second curator, Anna Brzezińska. As she pointed out, when the Soviets entered Warsaw, only about 900 people hiding in the ruins were found…