us-005578-irn41976-irn1180
type: RecordSet
archival history: The drawing was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 by Halina Olomucki.
biographical history: Halina Olszewski (later Olomucki/Olomucka) was born on November 24, 1919, in Warsaw, Poland, to Andrzej and Margarit-Hadassa Olszewski. She had an older brother, Moniek, born in 1909, and two sisters. Her parents ran a newspaper distribution service. Her father died in 1924. The family was Jewish but not observant. Halina attended a Yiddish speaking elementary school, then a public gymnasium. Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939. German troops entered Warsaw on September 29. Halina and her family were relocated to the ghetto. Jews had to wear armbands with Judenstern, valuables were confiscated, and forced labor was required. Halina had drawn constantly from an early age and she continued to do this in the ghetto. She felt an urgent need to record daily life, even though, as she recalled:"I was in the same condition as every other person all around me. I saw them close to death but I never thought of myself close to death.... My job was simply to write down, to draw what was happening" Halina depicted the misery and suffering of life in the ghetto, where nearly 100,000 people died within the first fifteen months from disease and starvation. She also recorded events such as selections, deportations from the Umschlagplatz, or holding place, near the railroad station, and the destruction of Dr. Janos Korczak’s orphanage. While doing forced labor outside the ghetto, Halina smuggled drawings out to a Polish friend in the Aryan section, dropping small packages of drawings as her brigade walked by. On some occasion, Halina also smuggled in food for her family In May 1943, after three days of waiting in the Umschlagplatz without food or water, Halina and her mother were put into a crowded train car and taken to Majdanek concentration camp. Her mother was sent to be killed upon arrival. Halina survived four selections done to separate those to be gassed from those to be used as laborers. One day, a guard came into the barracks and asked if there was anyone…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Drawing in pencil on paper adhered to medium weight black paper by pressure sensitive tape on each corner. It is an expressionistic portrait of a man or woman's face, staring straight ahead with large, dark, anguished eyes, surrounded by shaded lines. The face has high angular cheekbones, a long nose, slightly downturned closed lips, and dark unkempt hair. The head seems to float in space, supported by the right hand pressed under the chin. The face has shading overall and there are sketched lines in the background. back, pencil : 25
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
has beginning date: 1947-01-01
has end date: 1947-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: fra
has or had subject: 1106
has or had subject: 904
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn1180
is or was included in: us-005578-irn41976
record resource extent: overall: Height: 12.875 inches (32.703 cm) | Width: 9.625 inches (24.448 cm) pictorial area: Height: 8.500 inches (21.59 cm) | Width: 5.500 inches (13.97 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Drawing created by Halina Olszewski (later Olomucki) in Warsaw after the war. After Nazi Germany occupied Poland in September 1939, Halina, her mother Margarit-Hadassa, and siblings were interned in Warsaw Ghetto. Hannah did forced labor, but she felt her real job was to record the misery and suffering of ghetto residents. Halina smuggled drawings to a non-Jewish friend outside the ghetto. In May 1943, she and her mother were sent to Majdanek where her mother was killed on arrival. Halina was selected for labor. In July, she was transferred to Auschwitz-Birkenau. After she was put on an art detail, she hid pencil stubs and using any paper she could find, secretly drew pictures of camp life. Other prisoners asked her to draw them or their loved ones to preserve their memory and show the world what happened. She hid artwork in the camp, much of it recovered postwar. On January 18, 1945, Halina went by death march to Ravensbrück and Neustadt-Glewe, where she was liberated on May 2, 1945. She returned to Warsaw and found no surviving family members.
title: Fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto, Poland, 1947 Halina Olomucki portrait of a resistance fighter