The Warsaw Ghetto: The Destruction of Polish Jewry in Forty Original Paintings.

The Polish artist Jozef Kaliszan was born in Wilchin, (Poland), in 1927. Barely escaping a grueling regime of forced labor, Kaliszan grew up with the daily specter of Nazi brutalities. These events were indelibly etched on his young mind and as his preoccupation with art grew, he became determined to portray these events graphically. Though collectively titled “The Warsaw Ghetto” the work here uses the Warsaw Ghetto as a metaphor for the destruction of Polish Jewry, with images drawn from other ghettos as well as concentration and extermination camps. The graphic narrative depicts the horrors of the Holocaust, recounting the terror, cruelty and sadism which became the lot of the Jews of German-ruled Poland. The complete suite of forty collage-like paintings is divided into four units of ten panels each, namely: • Exodus - Ingathering to the Ghetto. • Ghetto - Life in the Ghetto. • Ghetto Fighting - The revolt. • Massacre - The destruction of the Ghetto. “The Exodus” illustrates the humiliation of the Polish Jewry as everything they owned was taken from them - their rights, their homes, their very souls. “The Ghetto” graphically shows the Jews completely isolated from Aryan society as they were herded into one densely populated sector surrounded by walls and barbed wire. Their life in the Ghetto was one of prayer and of suffering. “Ghetto Fighting” shows their stand against the Nazi machine bent on destroying them. They stood and fought, for they had nothing left to lose. The final chapter, the “Massacre,” shows in vivid detail the merciless bombardment and death of the Ghetto. It is precisely Kaliszan’s ability to capture the entire scope of this time - the initial shock, the brutality and the final horror - that makes his art so impactful and such an important contribution. Kaliszan’s complete suite “Warsaw Ghetto” was published in folio-format by Thomas Yoseloff, New York, in 1968. Offered here are the original completed paintings. Kaliszan died in 2007.