The three largest concentrations of Jews in inter-war Europe were in Warsaw, Łódź and Berlin, and in inter-war Poland: Warsaw, Łódź and Lwów [presently Lviv, Ukraine]. In Warsaw and in Berlin, to which the war brought the greatest destruction, the memory of the traumatic events was profoundly present, as testified to by the numerous monuments. It’s a different story in Łódź and Lviv, which twice changed its national affiliation. These two cities can be characterized as regions of forgetting, which have only been capable of regaining their lost memory in recent years. The sites shown in these photographs make us reflect upon how the memory of the Holocaust is shaped in each of these cities, and in what circumstances. After the presentation, participants will be invited on a short stroll through Łódź.

Piotr Piluk – photographer, reporter and documentary filmmaker. He has been working on a project called Traces of Presence for many years, showing Jewish remains in the city spaces of Central and Eastern Europe. He is a member of the main council of the Jewish Cultural and Social Association in Poland, and works as an editor for ‘Słowa Żydowskiego / Dos Jidisze Wort’ magazine in Warsaw. He has received scholarships from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York and the Goethe Institute in Berlin.