by tskzThe Society of Friends of the Kutno Region, the National Archive in Płock together with their partners: the Kutno Cultural Centre, the Regional Museum in Kutno and the Municipal and District Public Library in Kutno would like to invite everyone to the opening of the exhibition titled: They Used to be Our Neighbours – The Jews of Kutno. The event will take place on Wednesday, 1st March 2023, 5.00 pm at the Kutno Cultural Centre. The honorary patronage over the exhibition is held by the Social and Cultural Association of Jews in Poland.
The exhibition will be open from 1st March 2023 until 30th April 2023
The introductory speech will be delivered by Janusz Pawlak, PhD
The exhibition has been arranged as part of the project “They Used to Be Our Neighbours – The Jews of Kutno” which has been co-financed by the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland
Content development: Bożena Gajewska / Exhibition design: ZAZA Projekt Paulina Andryszczak
The admission is free.
The project has been launched by the Society of Friends of the Kutno Region. The honorary patronage over the project and exhibition is held by Kutno City Mayor, Bat Yam (Israel) – Kutno’s partner town, the Kutno Council for National Remembrance, the Jewish Kutno Group (descendants of Kutno Jews) and the Social and Cultural Association of Jews in Poland. The exhibition is co-hosted by the National Archive in Płock. The project partners also include: the Regional Museum in Kutno, the Municipal and District Public Library in Kutno and the Kutno Cultural Centre.
To inspire you to visit the temporary exhibition titled “They Used to be Our Neighbours – The Jews of Kutno” let’s quote the following words of Rabbi Byron L. Sherwin: “It is only when one understands what existed in Poland before the Holocaust that one can truly see the extent of the loss”. This quotation perfectly reflects what happened in Kutno during the Second World War and the German occupation. The loss that our city, Kutno, suffered as a result of the Holocaust of the Jewish community is just enormous. We will only realise the magnitude of this loss if we learn at least a little about the history of Kutno’s Jews, their enormous contribution to the economic life of our city, to culture and science, to the development of the civil society overall. When we learn the history of our Jewish neighbours before 1939…
It is worth spending at least a few dozen minutes to learn about the history of the Jewish community which lived in Kutno for several centuries aware of its roots, and which co-created our city for the future generations.
It is good to take a look at the photographs of former Kutno residents who fought on many battlefronts during the Second World War, created the state of Israel and struggled for its independence.
It is also worth realising that apart from Shalom Ash, who is the most famous figure born in Kutno, there are other Jewish residents of Kutno whose life stories are remarkable.
It is also worth learning about the history of the Jewish residents of Kutno and their descendants who, despite living all around the world, have never forgotten where they come from. The generation of Survivors and their families have created the Kutno Book of Remembrance, from which we contemporary people can learn about the fate of Kutno’s Jews. You will be able to see what this Book is about… The next generation of descendants of Kutno Jews established the Jewish Kutno Group, which nurtures the memory of Kutno’s Jewish community and maintains a content-rich website about Jewish Kutno. These are also the themes of the exhibition…
Therefore, let us meet at the opening of the exhibition on 1st March 2023 at 5:00 pm at the domicile the Kutno Cultural Centre to discover the wealth of the centuries-old Jewish heritage in Kutno, which was irretrievably lost during the Holocaust. Then we will easily perceive the extent of the losses suffered.
Bożena Gajewska
Project coordinator and author of the exhibition:
“They Used to be Our Neighbours – The Jews of Kutno”.
The Leader of Dialogue
