{"id":17958,"date":"2023-04-25T15:42:23","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T13:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/2023\/04\/25\/halina-birenbaum-visited-the-treblinka-museum\/"},"modified":"2023-04-25T15:42:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T13:42:24","slug":"halina-birenbaum-visited-the-treblinka-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/2023\/04\/25\/halina-birenbaum-visited-the-treblinka-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Halina Birenbaum visited the Treblinka Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On April 20, 2023, the Treblinka Museum was visited by Mrs. Halina Birenbaum, a Holocaust survivor, Polish-Israeli writer, poet and translator. She was born on September 15, 1929. During World War II, she was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto, the German concentration camp in Majdanek, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbr\u00fcck and Neustadt-Glewe. In 1947, Mrs. Halina emigrated to Israel, where she started a family and lives to this day.<\/p>\n

During numerous meetings around the world, Halina Birenbaum promotes the difficult history of World War II and the Holocaust. She talks about Treblinka in her poetry. She is the author of the books: \u201cHope is the last to die\u201d (Nadzieja umiera ostatnia), 1967, \u201cReturn to ancestors’land\u201d (Powr\u00f3t do ziemi praojc\u00f3w), 1991, \u201cScream for remembrance\u201d (Wo\u0142anie o pami\u0119\u0107),1999, \u201cFar and near echoes. Meetings with young people\u201d (Echa dalekie i bliskie. Spotkania z m\u0142odzie\u017c\u0105), 2001,\u201d Life is dear to everyone\u201d (\u017bycie ka\u017cdemu drogie), 2005, \u201cIt’s not the rain, it’s people\u201d (To nie deszcz, to ludzie), 2019, \u201cFrom the history of my life after the Holocaust. Memories\u201d (2022). She also writes poetry: \u201cEven when I laugh\u201d (Nawet gdy si\u0119 \u015bmiej\u0119), \u201cNot about flowers\u201d (Nie o Kwiatach), \u201cWords cannot convey\u201d (Jak mo\u017cna w s\u0142owach) “My life started from the end” (2010). In 1999, she was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In 2001, she received the title \u201cPerson of Reconciliation\u201d. In 2018 she became an honorary citizen of the Capital City of Warsaw.<\/p>\n

Using the beautiful language of literature and poetry, she popularizes the history of the German Treblinka II Death Camp. Mrs. Halina Birenbaum supports the activities of the Treblinka Museum on the international forum with a great commitment.<\/p>\n

During the visit she was accompanied by her younger son Beni, who has visited Poland for the first time. Among the guests there were also representatives of the “Memory of Treblinka” Foundation, Ewa Tele\u017cy\u0144ska-Sawicka and Pawe\u0142 Sawicki; Monika Tutak-Goll, the author of an interview with Mrs. Halina published in the book entitled “It’s not rain, it’s people”; Marek Fiuk, the designer of the “Meritorious for the Treblinka Museum” medal. The meeting with Mrs. Halina was attended by youth and teachers from School Complex in Kos\u00f3w Lacki (Poland) along with the Director Hanna Przesmycka and students from Stanislaw Staszic School Complex in Ma\u0142kinia G\u00f3rna (Poland) together with Mr. Wojciech Hada\u0142a.<\/p>\n

The director of the Museum, Dr. Edward Kop\u00f3wka, presented Mrs. Halina Birenbaum with the \u201cMeritorious for the Treblinka Museum\u201d medal. The motto engraved on the obverse of this medal are her words: \u201cTeaching about the Holocaust is teaching about humanity\u201d. The director also read a poem \u201cJourney\u201d by Mrs. Halina Birenbaum, written on October 28, 2021. This poem was included in the post-conference publication \u201cTreblinka – ostrzega i przypomina!\u201d (Treblinka warns and reminds!). The gathered guests listened to three songs performed by Witold Radomski, a resident of Kos\u00f3w Lacki, a physical education teacher at the Primary School in Kos\u00f3w Lacki, a social and cultural activist. He performed the poem “Go and visit Treblinka”, which was written after Halina\u2019s return from Poland in September 1986. The poem was originally written in Hebrew. Halina mostly writes her poems in Polish and then translates them into Hebrew. The poem \u201cDo you see me, mom?\u201d written in April 1983 and \u201cThank you for love\u201d from March 1985 also were musically performed. These three works come from the book of poems \u201cEven when I laugh\u201d. The next two poems were read by Ilona Fla\u017cy\u0144ska from the research and publishing department of the Treblinka Museum. These were the poems: \u201cIn those times\u201d, written on March 12, 1983 from the book of poems \u201cEven when I laugh\u201d, and the poem \u201cWith myself\u00a0 from myself about myself\u201d from Halina’s latest book entitled \u201cFrom the history of my life after the Holocaust. Memories\u201d.<\/p>\n

Halina told about her experiences related to the occupation, the Warsaw Ghetto and Treblinka. She talked about her family and how she remembers her father, who died in Treblinka. She also spoke about her relationship with her mother and about her experiences in concentration camps. The gathered people learned how come that Mrs. Halina started writing. She told the history of when she found a pencil at Majdanek and decided to describe the arrival of a transport to the camp on a piece of cement sack. She said that she was doing better in her life, when she wrote. Another incentive was the trial of one of the leading war criminals, Eichmann, in Jerusalem in 1961. During it, everyone, i.e. judges and radio broadcasters, focused on the technical and logistical matters of the Holocaust. Mrs. Halina asked herself: \u201cWhere are the feelings we were experiencing then?\u201d Only since then she became brave enough to speak openly about her experiences. She told about the difficult time when she had raise her children without a family that could support her. Mrs. Halina willingly and very interestingly answered a number of questions. After a short rest, she went to the area commemorating the Treblinka II Death Camp. At the central monument, she met Jewish youth from Panama, who were reading her poem \u201cGo and visit Treblinka\u201d. Young people were taking part in the “March of the Living”. When they found out that there was such an extraordinary person among them, they asked her for a few words. Halina willingly devoted her time to them. The young people listened to her with great interest and emotion. They were very happy that they could meet a witness of history so close to them.<\/p>\n

Halina Birenbaum paid tribute to the victims murdered in the camp by laying flowers. She was accompanied by the Director of the Museum Dr. Edward Kop\u00f3wka, who lit a candle. We would like to express our gratitude to Mrs. Halina for devoting her time to meet with us at the Treblinka Museum.<\/p>\n

We wish you a lot of health and success in your personal and artistic life.<\/p>\n

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] On April 20, 2023, the Treblinka Museum was visited by Mrs. Halina Birenbaum, a Holocaust survivor, Polish-Israeli writer, poet and translator. She was born on September 15, 1929. During World War II, she was imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto, the German concentration camp in Majdanek, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravensbr\u00fcck and Neustadt-Glewe. In 1947, Mrs. Halina emigrated […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aktualnosci","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17958"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17960,"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17958\/revisions\/17960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muzeumtreblinka.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}