Category: Uncategorized

Warsaw: A divided city

Warsaw: A City Divided Wednesday 19 April 2023 at 8 pm, ART Cinema, Cihlářská 19, Brno During World War II, occupied Warsaw was divided by a wall - a Jewish ghetto grew up there, where not only Jews from Warsaw but also from other parts of Poland and Germany were forcibly relocated. Conditions were inhumane, and in 1942 regular deportations to the Treblinka extermination camp began. Some of the ghetto inhabitants decided to make a desperate and heroic gesture - to die in battle. On 19 April 1943, exactly eighty years ago, the uprising broke out. It was brutally suppressed by the German soldiers and the ghetto was razed to the ground. Warsaw was to become a model Nazi city, and German architects were working on plans for a massive rebuilding. Canadian filmmaker and historian with Polish roots, Eric Bednarski, discovered by happy accident a unique documentary - amateur footage from the ghetto, shot by a young Polish man who risked his life in the process. Apart from the Nazi propaganda films, this is the only surviving material depicting the daily life of the ghetto's inhabitants.Bednarski became interested in the wartime fate of Warsaw and decided to map it. In addition to the unique archival footage, his film also features survivors, as well as architects and urban activists. We follow the destruction of the city as well as its post-war reconstruction and the efforts to embody the memory of the vanished Polish-Jewish metropolis in its streets, not only in the form of monuments and museums.Directed by Eric Bednarski, 2019, 71 minutes, Polish with Czech and English subtitles.The discussion after the film will be attended by Martin Reiner from Mehrin - Moravian Jewish Museum and Lucie Zakopalová from the Polish Institute in Prague.The screening is co-organized by Kino Art, the Polish Institute in Prague and Malý Mehrin as part of the Days of Polish Culture in Brno: https://dpk.brno.cz/

Warsaw Ghetto Diary

Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto Tuesday, April 25, 6 p.m., Malý Mehrin Museum, Vídeňská 14 We would like to symbolically commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising with a debate over the diary of Adam Czerniaków, the head of the Jewish Council (Judenrat) of the ghetto. Czerniaków kept his diary from September 1939 until his death in July 1942, when he passed away by his own hand. He was reacting to the order to compile deportation lists for the Treblinka extermination camp, before which he failed to save the children from the local orphanage. From a historical and literary point of view, the diary is a document of paramount importance. The lines are not only an authentic source of their time, but also provide a powerful intimate testimony of the author's inner world. The book was published under the title The Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto by Sefer Publishing House, translated by Jiří Červenka.The invitation to the discussion was accepted by historian Jiří Friedl, a leading expert on modern Polish history and Czech-Polish relations, who lectures at Masaryk University and the University of Defence in Brno. Another guest will be NDBrno actor Vladimír Krátký, who will perform excerpts from the diary. The evening will be hosted by historian Táňa Klementová.The programme is held as part of the Days of Polish Culture in cooperation with the Polish Institute in Prague.

Meeting with documentary filmmaker MARTIN ŠMOK

Date: 27 March 18:00 After the spring break (13-19 March) we will follow up with a meeting with documentary filmmaker MARTIN ŠMOK, who will introduce the IWalk mobile app in detail. You can download this virtual guide, which connects the testimonies of Brno's witnesses with the places where crucial events in the story of the Jewish community in our city took place, for free on your phone. But it's definitely worth hearing about the circumstances of the creation of this excellent tool directly from the creator; Martin Šmok is a very entertaining and evocative narrator.

Guided tasting of great kosher wines from the Lower Austrian winery HAFNER

Date: 9 March 17:00 A guided tasting of great kosher wines from the Lower Austrian winery HAFNER combined with a talk about what kosher wine is and how it is made. The tasting will be moderated and commented by the legendary chef of the Bratislava kosher restaurant Chez David LADISLAV POLÁK. Again, the entrance fee is voluntary, but the event is limited to 30 participants for obvious reasons. Participation must therefore be confirmed by e-mail muzeum@malymehrin.cz.

Discussion with KATHI DIAMANT about Kafka's Last Love: The Mystery Of Dora Diamant

Link to Facebook event Date: 2 March 18:00 American writer Kathi Diamant has been tracing the story of Franz Kafka's last love for Dora Diamant for forty years.Her book Kafka's Last Love was published in 2003, based on years of research and study of original sources, including Kafka's original diaries, notes, and most importantly, correspondence between him and Dora that was confiscated by the Gestapo.The book has been translated into 8 languages and has won numerous prestigious international awards. The author herself, Kathi Diamant, continues to research and discover more previously unknown facts about both Kafka and his relationship with Dora. To this end, she also founded the Kafka Project http://www.kafkaproject.com/. This unique lecture and discussion is the first event of the newly opened Little Mehrin Museum. The talk will be hosted by journalist Judita Matyášová, will be held in English and will be simultaneously interpreted into Czech. LIVE STREAM HERE ON FB AND YOUTUBE CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/@mehrin-moravskezidovskemuzeum. Admission to the event is voluntary.