Moja stara kamienica i powstańcza barykada
My Old Tenement with a Barricade from the Uprising

Summary/Abstract: This article revolves around a single picture taken during the Warsaw Uprising of August-October 1944 (ill. 9), which was displayed at the exhibition „It remained only on photograph...” (Pozostało tylko na fotografii...) organised in May 2000 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Institute of Art’s founding as part of the Polish Academy. This picture was taken by an amateur photographer active during the Uprising called Jerzy Chojnacki, pseudonym Chojna (d. 1988) on 11th or 12th August. It depicts the tenement house at 28 Długa Street. In front of it stand insurgents of the famous Parasol division, together with a brigade. The article’s author may also be made out: a fair-haired boy in the depths of the gateway who was born and lived in this tenement house, in one of the outbuildings. Subsequently, he worked in the building reconstructed on the previous one’s site for 27 years, since the original tenement house was all but completely destroyed in 1944 (ill. 10) to be reconstructed from scratch (ill. 11) as part of the Institute of Art (IS PAN). The author recalls the appearance of the former building, raised in the mid-19th century and its outbuilding (which was older, possibly belonging to the complex of the nearby Krasiński Palace), the shops, storehouses and inhabitants it accommodated. For instance, in the author’s flat refuge was given to Bronisław Hellwig, pseudonym Bruno, who participated in the assassinations of two highly-ranked functionaries of the SS and German police on 1st February and 6th May 1944 respectively. This photograph permits the reader to become familiar with the original shape of the tenement house’s facade, together with the appearance and position of the barricade raised on the night of lst-2nd August, blocking Długa Street at its narrowest point and protecting the entrance to Barokowa Street. Digitalized and reedited material

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