100 years after his last solo exhibition.
80 years after his death –
Marian Ruzamski's work returns to the public eye.

Art as Testimony

Works of art can express the unspeakable. They transmit history not only in facts, but also in emotions – and connect us with the experiences of those who created them. The exhibition "Marian Ruzamski. The Art of Memory" is dedicated to an artist who impresses not only with his extraordinary color world and depth, but also with his fate. Ruzamski was deported to Auschwitz during World War II and died in the Bergen-Belsen camp in 1945. His works, created in Auschwitz, are a silent resistance to forgetting – an expression of hope in times of greatest darkness.

The artist Marian Ruzamski (1889-1945)

"Despite enthusiastic reviews and exhibitions in the most prestigious salons of the Second Republic, he never managed to establish himself among the leading Polish painters of the 20th century. Even after the Second World War, it remained impossible to restore him to the collective memory." – Tadeusz Zych, 2025

Marian Ruzamski was a sensitive observer of his surroundings. His paintings depict portraits, landscapes, and everyday scenes – always imbued with a profound humanity. He is one of the artists whose work was almost wiped out by persecution. This exhibition presents his complete oeuvre comprehensively for the first time – a homage to a great Polish painter and witness of the Shoah.

The dramatic upheavals of the last century shaped Marian Ruzamski's life: Born in 1889 in Lipnik near Bielsko-Biała, he came from a culturally diverse family. His mother was a French Jew, his father a Polish notary. In 1914, the young, highly talented artist, then a citizen of Austria-Hungary, was forced to interrupt his scholarship in Paris and leave France because he was declared an "enemy alien" at the outbreak of war. During World War I, Russian troops deported him to Kharkiv. He returned from the turmoil of the revolution, severely traumatized, to the now-free, young Polish state. During the German occupation of Poland in World War II, Ruzamski was denounced as a Jew and homosexual in 1943, deported by the Nazis to Auschwitz, and later deported to Bergen-Belsen, where he died 80 years ago on March 8, 1945, shortly before the end of the war.

But although Ruzamski's life was overshadowed by war, persecution, and violence, his works tell a different story. His paintings are characterized by a profound humanity, everyday scenes, and an almost floating lightness—as if another, peaceful century were passing us by. These are poetic, haunting images that evoke summer landscapes, not terror and destruction.

The inspiration: Marian Turski (1926–2025)

The idea for the exhibition goes back to Marian Turski – historian, journalist, and Auschwitz survivor. Throughout his life, he fought against forgetting, for democracy and human rights.

His words, "Auschwitz did not fall from the sky. It began with small manifestations of intolerance and anti-Semitism, with racism. That is what we must remember: It did not begin with gas chambers," serve as a reminder to us to this day. Turski oversaw the creation of this exhibition until shortly before his death. His foreword to the catalog was completed a few days before his death on February 18, 2025. The exhibition is dedicated to him.

The Art of Remembrance

In 2025, the end of the Second World War will be commemorated for the 80th time – an occasion to pause and reconsider how we remember the catastrophic events of the first half of the 20th century. The exhibition featuring the works of Marian Ruzamski is an artistic contribution to this commemoration. It focuses on an individual fate that is exemplary for many, while simultaneously demonstrating that remembrance is not only a warning but also a cultural heritage. At a time when historical narratives are increasingly being questioned, the exhibition sets a precedent for the importance of art as a medium of historical awareness. It reminds us that the path to reconciliation leads through understanding – and that this understanding often begins in the silence of a painting.

The exhibition was created in collaboration with the Tarnowski-Castle Museum in Tarnobrzeg and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. It is supported by the Foundation for German-Polish Cooperation, the Polish Institute Düsseldorf and the Gerd Kaimer Civic Foundation Solingen, as well as other sponsors. Following its initial presentation at the Museum Center for Persecuted Arts, the exhibition will be shown in Tarnobrzeg, Ruzamski's last home, and in spring 2026 at the Palace of Fine Arts in Kraków, where Ruzamski held his last solo exhibition 100 years earlier.

In preparation for this exhibition, the German-Polish conference "Remembering the Past, Shaping the Future" on the life and work of Marian Ruzamski and the fight against antisemitism took place on 4 and 5 September 2024 at the Center for Persecuted Arts.