Post date: Jan 03, 2013 7:19:17 PM
A controversial statue depicting Hitler praying is displayed in the Warsaw Ghetto, a district of the Polish capital where some of the worst atrocities of the Nazi regime took place.
WARSAW, POLAND (JANUARY 3, 2013) (REUTERS) - A figure of Adolf Hitler praying on his knees has failed to spark controversy in Poland, but raised voices of criticism abroad after going on display in a street which during World War II belonged to the Warsaw ghetto.
The installation by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, titled "Him", has been placed in a district of the Polish capital which was the sene of the worst atrocities of the Nazi regime.Between 1940 and 1943, the Germans herded some 400,000 Polish Jews into a walled-off 3.4 square kilometre (1.3 square mile) area of the Warsaw, which was dubbed the Warsaw Ghetto, and eventually killed or sent to death camps at least 300,000 of them.
The Hitler statue is visible from a hole in a wooden gate and viewers can only see the back of the small figure praying in a courtyard.
The installation has attracted large numbers of visitors since it was unveiled last month, and some reactions have been positive, exhibition curator Justyna Wesolowska said.
"It is really funny, for me it's very positive that locally we are receiving only positive reactions. I think that maybe the world only heard two slogans. I don't want to offend anyone, but I have a feeling that not everyone saw this installation. If they had come here and seen the installation, "Him" on Prozna, then I think their reactions would be toned down," said Wesolowska.
Only those who have seen frontal photos of the figure on the Internet could recognise the unmistakable but rather youthful-looking face of the German dictator with his trademark moustache gazing heavenwards.
Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said the location of the installment offended the sensibilities of some people, aware of the events which took place in the WarsawGhetto.
"I wouldn't say that it tarnishes the memory (of the Holocaust), because the memory is there, no matter what the art is. But I would say that the placing of the statue is so provocative not on the moral level, but just on the sensibility level, that it begins to be on the other side of appropriate and it really was an inappropriate place to where to place it," Schudrich told Reuters.
"This is not to ban art, but it is to say that while we believe in full freedom of expression and for the showing of art, we also have an extra special responsibility to be sensitive to the feeling of Holocaust survivors and others who survived the bestiality and the murder of Hitler," Schudrich added.
The director of Jerusalem's Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a museum which focuses on the history of the Holocaust, was much more critical, condemning the artwork as 'tasteless'.
"So to put a statute like this in the hall of the Warsaw Ghetto is so tasteless. It is just merely a way of getting a headline and drawing attention to his work and unfortunately in this case we have no choice but to denounce it and to protest which of course leads to publicity for this sculptor," he said.
Cattelan is known for his provocative artworks, particularly a 1999 work showing Pope John Paul II being struck down by a meteor.