back...Presentation of the exhibition “Nauczono nas płakać bez łez...” in the main square in Zgierz

"I was so exhausted that I cried and prayed for death," wrote Halina Cubrzyńska-Kryszkiewicz, a former inmate of the camp on Przemysłowa Street, in her memoirs. Similar quotes can be found at the Museum's exhibition “Nauczono nas płakać bez łez...” ["We were taught to cry without tears..."], which was presented today in the main square of Zgierz. The event is part of a series of commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the establishment of a branch of the camp for Polish children in Dzierżązna. The exhibition was followed by a historical debate at the Zgierz Municipality Office.

The exhibition “Nauczono nas płakać bez łez...” shows the history of the German concentration camp for Polish children on Przemysłowa Street through the prism of selected prisoners' biographies.

- “The exhibition consists of selected biographies of prisoners of the German concentration camp for Polish children in Łódź. A separate part of the exhibition consists of selected biographies of the camp’s perpetrators,"explained Dr. Ireneusz Piotr Maj, Director of Muzeum Dzieci Polskich – ofiar totalitaryzmu [Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism].

The exhibition was accompanied by a debate on the history of the camp on Przemysłowa Street and its branch in the village of Dzierżązna near Zgierz. The participants of the discussion talked about the latest findings of the Museum’s researchers concerning the creation and operation of places of execution of the youngest Poles during World War II, the fate of individual prisoners, and the camp’s supervisors.

The exhibition was organized to commemorate the 80th anniversary of establishing a branch of the camp for Polish children in Dzierżązna. The first transport of Polish prisoners to the camp took place on March 16, 1943.