Krakow Pharmacy
Created by Amali F., Thomas W., Leo S. & Max K.
The story of a Polish pharmacist who risked his life to help Jewish people in the Krakow Ghetto by providing medicine and support (1941-1945)
The Pharmacy’s Rebellion
Artist Statement
Our Holocaust artifact is called “The Pharmacy’s Rebellion”, which memorializes the efforts of Tadeusz Pankiewicz, who protected many Jewish people in the Krakow Ghetto using his pharmacy named “Under The Eagle Pharmacy”. We wanted to symbolize Pankiewicz’s quiet rebellion against the Natzis, providing medical support, and even offering to keep religious memorabilia for Jewish people. We wanted to show how Pankiewicz was showing courage in the face of the many nazi surrounding him. We want the viewers to feel a sense of secrecy, and also hope.
From the beginning of our project, we wanted to show how Pankiewicz subtly used the protection that the Nazis gave him to help Jewish people. We wanted to create an artifact that both had a big emotional impact, but still needed the viewer to look closer to see the symbolism that represented Pankiewicz’s subtle efforts. We tried to make it so that every component of our artifact had both a literal and metaphorical meaning because we really wanted to create a subtle undercurrent of mystery and secrecy, but also just enough so that it would be easy enough to derive.
The Under The Eagle Pharmacy was a sanctuary for Jewish people in the midst of Nazi territory, and a smothering ghetto. We represented this by surrounding the table with Nazi colors and memorabilia. For the items on the table, the eagle represents the name of the pharmacy of course, but there was also a deep metaphorical meaning of the eagle. The eagle is also the imperial symbol of the Nazis, and Tadeusz was quite literally “under the eagle”, as he was in his pharmacy, and also using the protection of the Nazis (who are the eagles) to protect the Jewish people. Pankiewicz was using the eagle for protection, and also using the eagle for a safe haven to protect Jewish people. However, the eagle could also be a danger, as if the Nazis found Pankiewicz helping Jewish people, he would immediately be executed. Pankiewicz knew this, and had the courage to quietly resist against the Nazis. We decided to also put a syringe on the table because we are memorializing Pankiewicz, and a pharmacy. The more metaphorical part however, was to represent the many ways that Pankiewicz helped the Jewish people with medicine. He provided Jewish people with medicine that wasn't in stock, and this saved many lives. He also smuggled in sedatives for babies, so that they wouldn’t make any sound while being smuggled out, and also while they were searching for Jewish people hiding in the basement.
Lastly, the Star of David shadow which is being cast on the back wall was one of the most meaningful, and also most difficult components of the project to pull off. The Star of David represents the religious memorabilia and records of who was shipped off. The reason that we decided to make the star a shadow on the back wall was also a part of the idea that Pankiewicz was very secretive about what he did to help Jewish people. The shadow also represents how Jewish people were disappearing, and also losing their identity and sense of self when they were being moved by Pankiewicz. We also made the star the biggest, and made the star overbearing everything else because we wanted to show how Pankiewicz helped the Jewish religion prevail through these very difficult times. The Jewish people’s conviction to keep on going and to live overcame the extremely difficult times that they endured, and their beliefs never died out.
We used wood boards to create the framing of our artifact. We also used cardboard and wood sticks to build our table. We cut out old cloth to cover our table, and then we 3D printed our eagle and Star of David. Lastly, we laser cut meaningful quotes on wood slabs, and attached them to our artifact frame. We had to make a very difficult decision, because initially, we wanted to build an eagle to symbolize our ideas, but quickly realized that an eagle didn’t represent subtle courage, but rather courage up front to the face of the enemy, so we decided to change our idea because we couldn’t find a good way to make that eagle seem like it was having a quiet rebellion. After some hard thinking, we came up with what we have now. One of the elements of art that we used was value. We used a flashlight to cast a powerful shadow of a David’s Star on the back wall of the artifact because we wanted to show how the beliefs of the Jewish people hadn’t completely died out, but their conviction was still a shadow of what it once was. Another element of art that we used was color. We chose the colors black, red, and brown because they were nazi colors, and also colors that represented the ghetto. The ghetto was always dreary and glum, and also was full of Nazi colors and soldiers, which is why we chose our colors. Our two principles of design, emphasis and contrast worked together to form our artifact. When a viewer first looks at our artifact, they are immediately drawn to the big shadow of the David’s Star in the background, and that shadow is the emphasis of the piece. We also made sure that the shadow in the back looked bigger than the other components of the artifact. We made it bigger because we thought we should make it clear that it has a more powerful idea behind it than the others.
