Julia Pirotte und ihre Fotografien im Nachkriegspolen

On July 4, 1946, the photo journalist Julia Pirotte, accompanied by an officer, boarded a train from Warsaw to Kielce, where local inhabitants had carried out a pogrom that same day. Approximately 40 Holocaust survivors were murdered and 80 others were injured, some of them seriously. lt was the largest pogrom in postwar Poland and prompted a large emigration wave of Jews from the country. 

The editor-in-chief of the Polish Soldier magazine, where Pirotte was employed at the time, entrusted her with the task of documenting the events. As one of the few photo journalists on site, she stayed in Kieke until the day of the funerals.Some of the pictures she took on location as a photographer are currently on display in the exhibition »The Determining Gaze. Images of Jewish life in Postwar Poland.«

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Julia Pirotte's death on July 25, 2000, Dr. Monika Heinemann, historian and curator of the exhibition, will present these and other photographs by Julia Pirotte in a special guided tour. She integrates the images into the contradictions of Jewish experience in postwar Poland and Julia Pirotte's eventful biography.