Departure night

The multi-figure composition probably refers to the deportation of Jews from the Białystok ghetto. After its liquidation in August 1943, Celnikier was sent to the prison in Łomża, and from there, in November of the same year, to the Stutthof camp. The group of people in the foreground has been shown in the convention of old art: with isokephaly – heads on the same level, with a few exceptions. Among the assembled we can distinguish men, women and a few children. Giving, as it were, instructions to future viewers, Celnikier pointed out that such a gathering could only take place in the ghetto, because in the camps the individual groups were already separated from each other.

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