I am sad to write that Chris Schwarz, the founder and director of the Galicia Jewish Museum passed away this week from prostate cancer.
I had the privilege to meet Chris Schwarz through my work. He was an extraordinary human being. If you are ever in Krakow, go to the Galicia Jewish Museum to see his amazing, life’s work.
From the Galicia Jewish Museum website, a description of the museum and their permanent exhibition. [The catalogue of the permanent exhibition Photographing Traces of Memory is beautifully produced in English and Polish and is highly recommended.] :
The Galicia Jewish Museum exists to celebrate the Jewish culture of Galicia and to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust, presenting Jewish history from a new perspective.
The permanent exhibition, Traces of Memory, is a contemporary look at the Jewish past in Poland.
The exhibition features the work of photographer Chris Schwarz, with texts by Prof. Jonathan Webber (UNESCO Chair of Jewish and Interfaith Studies, University of Birmingham, UK). Over a period of twelve years, they traveled together town by town and village by village, gathering material that offers a completely new way of looking at the Jewish past that was destroyed in Poland. The exhibition pieces together a picture of the relics of Jewish life and culture in Polish Galicia that can still be seen today, interpreting these traces in a manner which is informative, accessible, and thought-provoking.
The exhibition is divided into five sections, corresponding to the different ways in which the subject can be approached:
Section 1 is entitled Jewish Life in Ruins, with all the sadness of confronting the past.
Section 2, Jewish Culture as it Once Was , displays remaining signs of the original culture.
Section 3, Sites of Massacre and Destruction shows the horror of the Holocaust.
Section 4, How the Past is Being Remembered recognizes the efforts to preserve the traces of memory, and
Section 5, People Making Memory Today, shows people involved in recreating the memory of the Jewish past in Poland today.
A talented photographer, Chris came to Poland on an unrelated job, filming a documentary. He noted that the remains of Jewish life in Galicia were going undocumented. He was concerned that the existing iconography of the Holocaust and Jewish life [in Poland] were very limited. He then proceeded to make it his life’s work to rectify the situation.
In addition to producing and hosting high quality exhibitions and housing an excellent bookstore, the gallery has since become a center of community life, with concerts and classes, and a newsletter that chronicles local Jewish activities and culture.
I hope they continue to go from strength to strength in fitting tribute to Chris.
Chris Schwarz went about his chosen path in a thoughtful, humble way, with a sense of humor and irony, a clear purpose, and a wonderful, sensitive way with people. He was a special human being. He will be greatly missed.
Found an old website of his which describes work he has done.
Update: From the August Newsletter of the Galicia Jewish Museum:
Messages of condolences can be sent to
info@galiciajewishmuseum.org
from where they will be taken and placed in the official Book of Condolence at the Museum.
