Fall 2011: Opening reception for Photographic Exhibit, 'Polish Heroes: Those Who Rescued Jews'

Opening Reception: Saturday, Nov. 5, 5 p.m.
UAA/APU Consortium Library

"Polish Heroes" consists of photographs, with accompanying text, of 21 Polish men and women honored by Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, as "Righteous Among the Nations." These people, living in or near Krakow, are among the more than 6,000 non-Jewish Poles recognized by Yad Vashem as having been actively involved in saving Jews from threat of death or deportation at risk to his or her life, liberty or position.  Almost 24,000 persons from 45 nations have been so honored. These people risked everything to save others with no reward for themselves. Today the thousands of descendants of those they saved live around the world. Their actions are testimony to the ancient Talmud truth, "He who saves one life saves the world entire."
 
The exhibit is a cooperative project of the Galicia Jewish Museum, the Auschwitz Jewish Center and the Polish/American/Jewish Alliance for Youth Action. Originally organized as part of a series of events to pay tribute to those Poles recognized by Yad Vashem, it opened at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow in 2006. Since that time the exhibit has travelled to many venues, among them Stanford University, the University of Washington and the Virginia Holocaust Museum. It provides an extraordinary opportunity to reflect on moral behavior under the greatest stress in the most horrible of times.
 
The exhibit is available by courtesy of the Consul General of the Republic of Poland for Los Angeles. It is sponsored locally by the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Poland for Alaska and the University of Alaska Anchorage Department of History.
 
A reception to open the exhibit will be held at 5 p.m., Nov. 5 on the third floor of the Consortium Library. For information, please contact Professor Jerzy Maselko at (907) 786-4697 or afjm1@uaa.alaska.edu.