The Petőfi Bicentenary in 2023 is an exceptional opportunity for our gallery to commemorate the genius of the poet’s life and the tragic fate of a 20th century literary translator.
In May 1944, Rabbi Samuel Birnfeld, a religious scholar, completed his translation of Sándor Petőfi’s János Vitéz (John the Valiant) into Hebrew. Later that year, on 20 October, he was taken from his apartment in Pest by the Arrow Cross, first to be chained up and then to Austria on the death march. In his rucksack he carries the Tanach, Antal Szerb’s History of Hungarian Literature and manuscripts of Petőfi’s Hebrew translations. He died of starvation in the Felixdorf camp on 28 December, aged 38.
Birnfeld also produced colour illustrations for Petőfi’s poems. Fortunately, the manuscript and the illustrations have survived and copies of them are on display at Gallery 2B. And these documents also serve as the starting point for our new exhibition: the story of the rabbi and the fabulous adventures of the hero János the Valiant are drawn by Gábor Roskó on a roll of paper several metres long in the gallery space. The process of creation can be followed from 22 May to 24 May, on site.