No time to waste. A museum worker from Chernihiv about escaping from shelling and working with Jewish history in Krakow

For many people who went abroad after the full-scale invasion, the new experience meant “starting over” in an unfamiliar city, in a foreign language environment, among new people.

Before the war, Viktoriia Mudrytska worked at the Chernihiv Historical Museum named after V.V. Tarnovskyi. Now she is in Krakow and continues her professional work at the Galicia Jewish Museum.

This museum is relatively new - it was officially opened in 2004 in a restored building of a former furniture factory. We meet with Ms. Viktoriia in the museum's coffee shop. There are explanations on the tables about what is considered kosher and what is not (in English, Polish, and Ukrainian). There's a corner for children, and a bookstore and souvenirs opposite. All the things that are most often found in the guest area of European museums.

She donated her savings to the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Viktoriia Mudrytska says that the great war caught her in Chernihiv. The day before, she could not believe that a full-scale invasion would begin, so even after the first explosions, she went to work in the morning. She and her colleagues felt responsible for the museum, and, perhaps, psychologically, they were clinging to something stable and familiar.

“On the first day [of the full-scale invasion], we were working in the museum, opening the showcases with the most valuable exhibits and moving them to the storage, to the basements,” she recalls.

The evacuation of the exhibits was no longer possible, and its organization was not even planned.

Viktoriia left her apartment and moved in with her acquaintances, Svitlana and Volodymyr Vlasenko, who soon became her true friends. Their house in the suburbs of Chernihiv seemed safe. But it was not for long.

“It was the most terrible night — I remembered everything I had learned in medical classes. Svitlana and I realized that if there was a fight, someone might get wounded. So we prepared everything we could. Instead of tourniquets, we used dog collars. We were lucky: we didn't need them...” Viktoriia Mudrytska recalls that period.

The shelling intensified, so they decided to leave soon. They did the right thing because the house was seriously damaged later. It is unknown whether they would have survived if they had been in the house then.

After five days on the road, Viktoriia ended up in Poland. When the great war began, she donated almost all the money she had to the Armed Forces. At the time, it seemed like the right decision - she thought that if she was killed, at least it would be useful for the Defense Forces. So the museum worker from Chernihiv found herself abroad without any savings.

But there was no time to complain — she had to fight. She immediately started sending her CV everywhere she could. So on March 11, 2022, she crossed the border into Poland, and on March 27, she started working.

The way to the museum in Krakow

Back in Chernihiv, the museum worker was involved in the history of Jews and the Holocaust: she created exhibitions, wrote articles, and for more than 10 years curated a scientific seminar on Jewish history organized by the Hesed Esther Jewish Charitable Foundation, the Chernihiv Jewish community, and later the Chernihiv Historical Museum named after V.V. Tarnovskyi.

“I don't have Jewish roots, but such difficult but very important topics have always bothered me,” she explains.

In addition, she had previously completed an internship abroad. It so happened that the colleagues she talked to at conferences gave her recommendations in Poland. And the Galicia Museum opened several vacancies for employees from Ukraine. Viktoriia Mudrytska was hired for a position in the education department.

The Galicia Museum itself was created by British photographer Chris Schwartz. Together with another Briton, Professor Jonathan Weber, they explored Jewish heritage in Polish Galicia. After a decade of work and filming in Polish towns and villages, the Galician Jewish Museum was born. The exhibition “In the Footsteps of Memory” became its centerpiece.

Thanks to other exhibitions and a rich program in the early years of its existence, the museum became one of the key institutions that revived interest in Jewish culture in Poland. Every year, the museum is visited by tens of thousands of people from many parts of the world, of all backgrounds and ages. Thus, the museum has become part of the Polish-Jewish cultural landscape of Krakow.

A month and a half after startingwork, Viktoriia gave the museum director a tour in English. Now she is actively studying Polish, speaking it well at the everyday level, but needs a higher level for her professional work. In total, Viktoriia has three working languages at the museum: Polish, English, and Ukrainian.

Ukrainian museums need European approaches

According to Viktoriia Mudrytska, the Galicia Museum differs significantly from the Chernihiv Historical Museum named after V.V. Tarnovskyi, where she worked before the full-scale invasion. First of all, it does not have original exhibits, except for some exhibitions.

“In contrast, in the Chernihiv museum, the vast majority of items are originals (which is what I miss here). But there has always been a lack of space for storage, exhibitions, and displays,” themuseum worker notes.

The problem for many Ukrainian museums is their premises. Most often, these are historical buildings where redevelopment or creation of open spaces is impossible for technical reasons. They also suffer from poor ventilation and temperature conditions in exhibition halls. Unfortunately, many Ukrainian museum workers can only dream about coffee shops, bookstores, and children's corners in museums.

“Galicia” is a modern museum. Its location in the building of two former factories allows to “play” with space: sometimes the space is completely redesigned — the interior is updated with specially invited designers.

The department where Viktoriia Mudrytska works pays considerable attention to educational work. It also involves Ukrainian refugees.

“Last year, we organized many events for the Ukrainian community in Krakow: excursions, lectures, concerts, film screenings, workshops, and events for children,” says Viktoria.

For more than a year, the museum hosted a day center for children from Ukraine, where they played, studied, ate, and went on excursions. This is also a way of healing the trauma of war, integrating Ukrainians into Polish society, and giving them a better understanding of the language and an environment for communication.

“What I like most here is the large number of different educational seminars and workshops. Topics related to stereotypes, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, disinformation, hate speech, memory, and war trauma are all worked on together with young people from different countries. This is very important for our common future,” emphasizes Viktoriia Mudrytska.

Disregarding and devaluation of another person just because they are different is the cause of many problems. According to the museum worker herself, we can see this in the tragic experience of World War II, and, unfortunately, in our modern history. That is why “Galicia” works a lot with teachers, including Ukrainian ones.

New temporary exhibitions are constantly opening here, and they are also held in the open air, in Schindler’s Yard. There are also traveling exhibitions. The museum experience she has gained over the years in Ukraine is now helping her in Poland.

“Together with another museum worker, Ukrainian Vira Baldyniuk, we created an exhibition called 'On the Way Home' about Ukrainian women in Krakow. We found them, interviewed them, and Ukrainian photographer Iryna Myronenko took a series of photographs commissioned by the museum,” saysViktoriia.

Thanks to the project, the stories of women from Bucha, Sievierodonetsk, Hostomel, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and other cities were heard in Krakow. Later, the exhibition was seen in Rome, and recently Barcelona was the next stop.

“The world needs to know about our people,” Viktoriia is convinced.

According to the Chernihiv woman, living in Krakow is not cheap, given the large number of tourists and students. Now there are more Ukrainians here, who also need to live somewhere. But the salaries, like in Ukrainian museums, are close to the minimum wage.

“I try to help our people as much as I can. We donate to the Armed Forces; I keep in touch with my colleagues in Chernihiv and continue to work on projects that we started before the full-scale invasion,” says Viktoriia Mudrytska at the end of the meeting.

Author: Iryna Synelnyk