03/02/2025
"..Imre Hollo's graphics documenting the extermination in the Walim Mines
So far, only a part of the graphics made during the war by Imre Hollo, a Hungarian Jew who survived the hell of the German concentration camps Auschwitz and the Gross-Rosen branch in the Owl Mountains, has been widely known. All of them are presented in the Walim Mines. Copies of them were made available by the Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum in Budapest.
On December 28, 2018, an exhibition of graphics made during World War II by Imre Hollo, a Hungarian Jew, was officially opened. He experienced the nightmare of life in the Budapest ghetto, then transport and stay in German concentration camps - first KL Auschwitz, and then a branch of KL Gross-Rosen in the Owl Mountains. Until now, only a part of his graphics, which are a shocking document of the subsequent stages of extermination carried out by N**i Germany, have been widely known.
Now, not only history researchers will have the opportunity to see 49 graphics that Imre Hollo donated to the collections of the National Museum in Budapest in the 1950s. Łukasz Kazek and Mateusz Kudła, while filming a documentary in Budapest under the working title "Trustee", obtained permission from the institution's management to copy and present the graphics in the Walimskie Adits. This is part of the Riese underground complex in the Owl Mountains. It was built by the Germans during the war, who used the slave labor of prisoners from the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, prisoners of war and forced laborers to carry out this huge investment.
– Imre Hollo stayed in the Gross-Rosen branch in Kolce (German: Dörnhau), currently located in the Głuszyca commune in Wałbrzych district. It was located on the premises of a carpet factory and it was there that, risking his life, he secretly created graphics – says Łukasz Kazek. – He created graphics on the back of A4 cardboard advertising brochures that he found on the premises of the factory. He used inks such as blue and black. There are also color illustrations. Among them, one documenting Hollo's stay in Auschwitz. Hollo recreated images from the period of his stay in the Budapest ghetto, transport and stay in KL Auschwitz from memory. However, he drew what he saw while staying in the Gross-Rosen branch as he went along. He hid graphics in the mattresses of the beds that were in the room where prisoners with typhus were kept. The Germans avoided this place for fear of disease.
The permanent exhibition of 49 graphics by Imre Hollo presented in the Walimskie Adits is described in five languages: Polish, Czech, German, English and Hungarian. This thread will also be included in the film "The Trustee". This dream was expressed by Lajos Erdélyi, one of the last living former prisoners of the Gross-Rosen KL branch in the Owl Mountains. It was captured in Imre Hollo's graphics. He also helped Łukasz Kazek and Matuszów Kudla identify many other people captured in the graphics, both victims and torturers.
– We established contact with Mr. Lajos thanks to Dorottya Diosa – a Hungarian woman who lives in Poland, and whose grandfather was a prisoner in the Gross-Rosen branch in Głuszyca during the war. She also helped us as a translator. In this way, we learned from Mr. Lajos, among other things, that the originals of Imre Hollo's graphics are in the collections of the National Museum in Budapest – explains Łukasz Kazek.."
Dotychczas powszechnie znana była tylko część grafik wykonanych w czasie wojny przez Imre Hollo, węgierskiego Żyda, który przeżył piekło niemieckich obozów koncentracyjnych Auschwitz i filii Gross-Rosen w Górach Sowich. W Sztolniach Walimskich są prezentowane wszystkie. Ich kopie udost....
