Erecting a Monument for Those Who Perished - conversation
In conversation with Mikołaj Grynberg, Krystyna Budnicka will retell her story, lighting a symbolic candle to commemorate the heroes, both male and female, who perished in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
- 19 April (Monday), 6 PM
- live streaming at POLIN Museum Facebook profile>>
- Converastion in Polish without simultaneous English translation
Born in 1932, Krystyna Budnicka is one of the very few survivors from the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. During the armed combat, she hid in the sewers. As a little girl, the youngest of all her siblings, she was lovingly protected by the family members and friends. She survived thanks to them, even though her relatives were less lucky. After the war, Krystyna was unable to talk about her wartime experiences for a long time. Years later, having made contact with the Children of the Holocaust Association, she learnt how to share her story. She used to travel to visit schools and various institutions all across Poland and abroad. Initially, she would get very emotional while recalling the death of people who did not even have their own graves. With time, she turned talking about them into her mission, claiming that recalling the victims is akin to erecting a monument of sorts. As long as we think of someone or talk about them, this person continues to live through our memory.
Mikołaj Grynberg (b. 1966) – photographer and writer, psychologist by profession. He published three collections of interviews: Ocaleni z XX wieku (2012), Oskarżam Auschwitz. Opowieści rodzinne (2014), Księga wyjścia (2018) as well as two volumes of prose: Rejwach (2017) and Poufne (2020). Mikołaj has dealt with the history of Jews in Poland for many years now. In his books, he chooses the form of a dialogue while focusing on meeting people and opening up to their stories. He was nominated to Julian Tuwim Literary Prize (2019) for his literary oeuvre, and was a finalist of the 2018 Nike Literary Award.
