The outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in April 1943 was a heroic act of bravery. It was a response to the Germans' intended final annihilation of the inhabitants of the closed quarter. Even during the ongoing battles, the military began demolishing further quarters. The ghetto area was systematically set on fire and leveled to the ground.
Photographic documentation of the destroyed Warsaw after the end of World War II was often characterised by deliberate symbolism. Jan Bułhak and his son Janusz, upon their arrival in the city in the autumn of 1945, began working on a series of "photographic paintings" that represented a new incarnation of the idea of Polish photography, resembling dramatic, ancient landscapes. These photographs emphasised the pathos of the city's destruction but also its enduring spirit, continuity, and the power of culture (https://magazynszum.pl/fotografie-z-lat-1915-2016/, accessed on 7 April 2021).
Many of these photographs were used for propaganda purposes and were published, among other forms, as postcards. The postcard from the collection of the District Museum in Leszno, like others from that period, captured the effects of German military actions. The postcard shows a heap of debris, remnants of the demolished ghetto. Piles of bricks and a tangle of metal structures illustrate the scale of destruction, documenting and accusing the perpetrators. Under the photograph, there is an imprint: on the left side - "WARSZAWA, (WARSAW)" on the right - "Getto" (Ghetto). On the reverse, in the upper left corner, there are details about the photographers: "Fot. J. Bułhak i Syn" (Photograph by J. Bułhak and Son), and in the lower left corner, there is the publisher's logo: "CZY/TEL/NIK" (READER) in a simple frame. Next to it is the series number: "Ser. Wa Nr 5" (Warsaw Series No. 5).
Jan Bułhak (1876-1950) was an outstanding artistic photographer and an advocate of the concept of "native photography," emphasising Polish values. In 1919, he became the head of the Artistic Photography Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius. In 1947, he co-founded the Association of Polish Photographic Artists. His son Janusz (1906-1977) was a composer and photographer (https://culture.pl/pl/tworca/jan-bulhak, accessed on 7 April 2021).
The postcard was donated to the collection of the Judaica Department by Jerzy Reich from Leszno in 1998.
Dariusz Czwojdrak
