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Still from chapter 3 – "Hunger" / Animation: Bartosz Tymosiewicz

"Last soup – yesterday at twenty to one. Nearest – same time today. Much time has already passed. How much is left? Eight hours. Although, in fact, the last hour, which is from twelve, doesn't count. Then you are in the kitchen, drunk with the smell of food. You can already see the soup. It seems that there are actually only seven hours left," wrote Lejb Goldin in August 1941.

"The parting from life in Treblinka or Auschwitz lasts from 10 to 15 minutes, and our life can be compared to that of a person sentenced to death in a locked cell, whose request for pardon has already been rejected and whose execution is delayed for some reason unknown to him. There may also be a miracle that will save him. He may even have that hope for a brief moment, but only for a moment. Most of the day and night, he falls from side to side as a result of death pains, mortal fear," wrote Abraham Lewin in his diary on December 16, 1942. Then, three months after the end of the great deportation, the prisoners already knew what "resettlement" was. Some of them prepared to put up armed resistance to the Germans.

We present a list of animations accompanying the emotional and existential states experienced by people imprisoned in the ghetto.

Chapter I: Separation

E. (Eliahu Różański), February 1941

Interpreted by Mateusz Damięcki

Animation: Agnieszka Mastalerz

Artistic supervision of the series: Jacek Papis

Music: Michał Jacaszek

Chapter II: The Limits Imposed by Walls

Abraham Lewin, June 30, 1942

Interpreted by Martin Budny

Animation: Michał Bojara

Artistic supervision of the series: Jacek Papis

Music: Piotr Leniewicz, Jacek Papis

Chapter III: Hunger

Icchak Berensztein, 1941

Interpreted by Martin Budny

Animation: Bartosz Tymosiewicz

Artistic supervision of the series:: Jacek Papis

Music: Piotr Leniewicz, Jacek Papis

Chapter IV: Fear

Abraham Lewin, July 29, 1942

Interpreted by Martin Budny

Animation: Karolina Kotowska

Artistic supervision of the series: Jacek Papis

Music: Piotr Leniewicz, Jacek Papis

Chapter V: Timelessness

Lejb Goldin, August 1941

Interpreted by Martin Budny

Animation: Jakub Woynarowski

Artistic supervision of the series: Jacek Papis

Music: Piotr Leniewicz, Jacek Papis

Chapter VI: The Limits of Intimacy

Halina Szwambaum, January 11, 1942

Interpreted by Martin Budny

Animation: Karolina Kotowska

Artistic supervision of the series: Jacek Papis

Music: Michał Jacaszek

Chapter VII: The Limits of Compassion

Szaul Stupnicki, early 1942

Interpreted by Martin Budny

Animation: Bartosz Tymosiewicz

Artistic supervision of the series: Jacek Papis

Music: Michał Jacaszek

Chapter VIII: Uncertainty

Natan Smolar, spring/summer 1942

Interpreted by Martin Budny

Animation: Jacek Papis

Zdjęcia: Jan Klima, Piotr Leniewicz

Artistic supervision of the series: Jacek Papis

Music: Michał Jacaszek

Chapter IX: Faith

Kalonimus Kalman Szapiro, Warsaw ghetto tzadik, February 14, 1942 (Polish only)

Read by: Jerzy Radziwiłowicz

Animation: Jakub Woynarowski

Artistic supervision of the series: Jacek Papis

Music: Michał Jacaszek

Chapter X: My Harmony

Zofia Breustedt, September 6, 1941

Interpreted by Martin Budny

Animation: Michał Bojara

Artistic supervision of the series: Jacek Papis

Music: Piotr Leniewicz i Jacek Papis

Chapter XI: The Limits of Life

Gustawa Jarecka, October 1942

Interpreted by Magdalena Lamparska

Animation: Agnieszka Mastalerz

Artistic supervision of the series: Jacek Papis

Music: Piotr Leniewicz, Jacek Papis

Fragments of the accounts of the ghetto inhabitants are excerpts from the catalog of the exhibition Where Art Thou? Gen. 3.9”, edited by prof. Paweł Śpiewak.

The exhibition Where Art Thou? Gen 3:9 can be visited at the Jewish Historical Institute until August 31, 2021.

The exhibition is part of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the closing of the Warsaw Ghetto, organized by the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute. It was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport.