The best known photographic record of the uprising comprises around 50 photographs taken for the so-called Stroop Report, prepared by general Jürgen Stroop for the SS chief Heinrich Himmler.
“One of our main ideas was not to consider this material. The exhibition is from the Jewish perspective, the perspective of victims, so it was a contradiction to illustrate this content with German propaganda material,” said curator Zuzanna Schnepf-Kołacz.
This led her to the only known other photographs of the uprising taken from inside the ghetto: 12 blurry prints, apparently taken by a Polish firefighter, Zbigniew Leszek Grzywaczewski, stored at the
Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.
A letter written in 1968 by Hilary Laks, a Warsaw Jew who had survived the Holocaust and emigrated to the United States, explained the origin of the prints: “Risking his own life, Leszek managed to take a number of photographs. Knowing this, I approached him about 10 years ago with a request to send me these photos.”
There was also a tantalising clue: “The negatives are still in Leszek’s hands. Any additional information can also be obtained from him. As long as he’s alive, of course.”
