By Amy Glassman-Boiko
(AJNews) – Samantha Kassel fondly describes her great uncle (by marriage) Wolf “Willie” Woznica’s gentle kindness, generous smile, and the pride he took in his family and work. “He was easy to be around; his presence was calm and cheerful. His eyes sparkled with warmth. It was always Willie and Dora [his wife], never just Willie. They were a true duo,” says Kassel.
Growing up, Samantha and her cousins were aware that Willie and his wife Dora had survived the Holocaust – they had seen the tattoo on his arm, but it was not something that was ever discussed directly. As she got older, she learned bits and pieces of their story, like how Willie was interned at Auschwitz-Birkenau or how Dora survived a death march, but it wasn’t until the past year, prior to co-creating One Thread, Six Million Lives, that she learned the full scope of Willie and Dora’s experience by watching and listening to their testimonies in full.
Inspired by Willie, this past year Samantha joined forces with arts professional, Brandon Hearty, to create the exhibit One Thread, Six Million Lives which launched on January 5th and is now on display at Calgary Central Library. Using historical narrative, testimony from Willie, facsimile documents, and 3D replicas, the exhibit poignantly traces mechanisms of Nazi persecution through the lens of Willie’s experience. One of the central themes of Willie’s story, referenced in part of the title, ‘One Thread,’ was Willie’s occupation as a tailor which saved his life multiple times during the Holocaust.
“Very early on we really wanted to reference Willie’s occupation as a tailor, [as it] was such a part of how he survived,” shared exhibit co-creator, Brandon Hearty. Hearty explained that if they look closely, patrons can find subtle references to this in the artistic design of the exhibit such as the two panels which have a very light fabric covering and the image of Willie, which depicts him with an iron on his belt and other tailoring tools.
Hearty first became involved with Calgary’s Jewish community two years ago when Calgary Jewish Federation’s Holocaust and Human Rights: Remembrance and Education department brought the Violins of Hope exhibit to the National Music Centre, where he worked at the time. Now, despite working full-time at Contemporary Calgary and caring for a young family, Brandon continues to volunteer his time and talents to Calgary’s Jewish community and the broader Calgary community, driven by the desire to build a better society in which he lives and be an example to his kids.
“I’ve got two young children and I’m trying to teach them what community means and what neighbours are and how it’s important to expand your circle beyond just your family and your own faith community,” shares Brandon.
For both Brandon and Samantha, volunteering their time to create this exhibit from scratch was a labour of love with an extensive, creative, and research-heavy process. Aside from Willie’s testimony, Brandon and Samantha not only drew heavily on resources from Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum but also found themselves deep diving into the Polish internet to draw on information specific to Willie’s life in Będzin, Poland. Some of the most labour intensive and visually gripping parts of the exhibit included recreating Willie’s displaced persons certificate, his photograph from the DP camp where he can be seen wearing his prisoner uniform from Auschwitz, and the detailed 3D printed model of the Auschwitz I gate entrance, “I didn’t know what everything was going to look like until like the day before it [the exhibit] was installed,” said Hearty.
What stands out to Samantha the most about Willie’s experience is not only that these events could happen, or that he survived them, but that “he went on to build such a peaceful, hopeful, and productive life afterward.” She hopes that people will remember when learning about the Holocaust that if it happened once, then it can happen again. “We saw how persecution built gradually, and we must never again ignore the early warning signs. The questions we ask, the choices we make, and the actions we take shape our society – I hope to live in one that pushes back against propaganda, scapegoating, and bigotry, no matter how convincingly they may be disguised.”
One Thread, Six Million lives will be on display until February 2 at Calgary Central Library’s Shaikh Family Welcome Gallery (the main area through the front doors). It is free of charge and open to all.
This exhibit was put on in partnership with Calgary Jewish Federation’s Holocaust and Human Rights: Remembrance and Education department and Calgary Public Library, generously supported by the Balaban Family, the Krell Family, Viewpoint Foundation, and donors to the Human Rights and Holocaust Education Fund at Calgary Public Library Foundation.
Amy Glassman-Boiko is Calgary Jewish Federation’s Holocaust and Human Rights: Remembrance and Education Coordinator.
this exhibit is about my father and I am totally impressed with this article that you wrote. it is so important for people to remember what happened years ago. the amazing part was that my father lived an amazing happy life with my mother and said he went through hell during the war and nothing else could be as bad. Samantha and Brandon did an amazing job with this exhibit