Mural - Chłopiec żydowski - Piotr Saul and Damian Idzikowski, 2016

The mural on ul. Łagiewnicka 35 in Bałuty depicts a portrait of a Jewish boy imprisoned in the Łódź ghetto during the Second World War. It was created in October 2016 as part of the "Children of Bałuty – Murals of Memory" cycle, and was painted by Piotr Saul and Damian Idzikowski.

The Children of Bałuty cycle

The project "Children of Bałuty – Murals of Memory" has been carried out since 2012 and commemorates children of various nationalities held in the Łódź ghetto, known as Litzmannstadt Ghetto. Alongside portraits of Jewish children, the cycle also includes images of Polish children imprisoned in camps within the ghetto and Romani children from a Romani camp established in 1941. The project concept was developed by Katarzyna Tośty.

Artists and portrait

Piotr Saul, assistant at the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, and Damian Idzikowski, a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź, painted the portrait based on archival photographs from the time of the ghetto. The mural on Łagiewnicka was created as part of the fifth edition of the cycle, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the deportation of Jews from Western Europe to the Łódź ghetto in October 1941, when approximately 20,000 people from Frankfurt and Prague arrived in Łódź.

Łódź ghetto

The ghetto operated from February 1940 to August 1944 and at its peak had up to 220,000 residents. During its liquidation, only 7,000 to 13,000 people survived. By 2016, 21 murals had been created as part of the cycle, forming what is known as the Path of Murals of Memory in the Bałuty district.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Łagiewnicka 35, Bałuty, Łódź
• Access: public transport to Bałuty, mural on the building façade on the main street of the district
• What to expect: mural accessible from the street 24 hours a day, one of the stops on the Path of Murals of Memory dedicated to children of the Łódź ghetto