Hideouts: Architecture of Survival

Impromptu hiding places show the architectural creativity of Jewish people fleeing from persecution

During the Holocaust, approximately 50,000 Jews survived in occupied Poland and Ukraine by seeking shelter in unlikely hiding spots. Driven by necessity, they were forced to take refuge in unexpected and inhospitable spaces such as tree hollows, closets, basements or sewers—remaining there for hours, days and sometimes even months. Architect, scholar and artist Natalia Romik has identified and studied several such hideouts that still exist today. Her research accentuates the material and spatial dimensions of living in hiding, gathering the evidence of vernacular architectural creativity employed under life-threatening conditions. Romik views hideouts as concealed monuments to the ingenuity of Holocaust survivors and their helpers. This interdisciplinary catalog makes tangible the fragile physical reality of these places and addresses the fundamental question of the function of architecture in relation to the history of violence and our culture of commemoration.