Mural - Prisoner of the camp for Polish children - Piotr Saul and Damian Idzikowski, 2016

At ul. Wojska Polskiego 116 in Bałuty, on a building wall, a portrait of a child wearing striped prisoner clothing has been painted. The mural is part of a cycle commemorating children held in Łódź during the German occupation and presents one of the victims of the camp for Polish children and young people, which operated on the nearby ul. Przemysłowa.

Camp for Polish children

From December 1942 to January 1945, a German camp operated here intended exclusively for children and young people aged 6 to 16, the only concentration camp of this type in the Third Reich. Between two and three thousand minors passed through it, with approximately two hundred deaths documented. The person shown in the mural at Wojska Polskiego 116 was one of this group, although their name has not survived in any source accompanying the portrait.

Prisoner without a name

The authors of the cycle based the portraits on archival photographs, but in most cases without the possibility of identifying the person depicted. From the entire series dedicated to the children of Bałuty, only Abramek Koplowicz is known by name and surname, a Jewish poet who lived in the years 1930-1944, commemorated by a separate mural nearby. The remaining portraits, including the one at Wojska Polskiego 116, speak to the fate of the camp prisoners as a whole, not to individual history.

Authors and cycle

The mural was painted by Piotr Saul, associated with the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, and Damian Idzikowski from the Łódź Academy of Fine Arts, following the concept of coordinator Katarzyna Tośta. The project is run by the Association "Na co dzień i od święta" with the support of the Museum of the History of Poland in Warsaw, in the programme "Patriotism of Tomorrow". Nearby, at number 112 of the same street, stands another mural in the cycle with the same descriptive title, dedicated to another camp prisoner.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Wojska Polskiego 116, Bałuty, Łódź.
• The mural is located on the external wall of the building, in public space, accessible without restrictions.
• At ul. Mikołaja Reja 13 there is another portrait of a child from the same camp, Boy from the camp for Polish children.
• Closer to the former entrance to the camp, at Przemysłowa 13a, stands Prisoner of the camp for Polish children.
• Broader context to the history of Łódź children during the occupation is provided by the Marek Edelman Dialogue Centre.
• This is a place of remembrance; it is appropriate to maintain quiet and solemnity here.