Herstories: 20th Century Jewish Women in Europe

An exhibition entitled “Herstories: In the footsteps of Jewish women in Europe” has opened at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków, southern Poland.

The exhibition offers insights into the history of 20th-century Europe through the biographies of seven Jewish women from Poland, Germany, Greece, Spain, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

The biographies of Rosa Rosenstein, Irena Wygodzka, Lisa Pinhas, Rosl Heilbrunner, Vera Szekeres-Varsa, Katarína Löfflerova and Ludmila Rutarova are presented through a selection of documents and photographs, alongside interviews, memoirs and accounts.

Their stories reveal not only individual views and decisions but also their roles in society, their survival strategies, as well as their worlds falling apart and then being rebuilt in the postwar years. This way the unique story and experience of each woman — juxtaposed and intertwined with one another — reveals the complexity and diversity of 20th century European Jewish history.

In organizing the exhibition, the Galicia Museum cooperated with museums in Greece, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Spain. Located in Kraków’s former Jewish district of Kazimierz, the Galicia Jewish Museum aims  to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and celebrate the Jewish culture of Poland’s historic Galicia region.

Click here for more information on the Herstories exhibit at the Galicia Jewish Museum.

Click here for more info on the Herstories Project in general, including more info on each of the women.