The Labyrinth; The Testimony of Marian Kolodziej

[David Morris]

http://thelabyrinthdocumentary.com/about-the-film/synopsis.html

*Memory, art, love, and hell collide as an Auschwitz survivor finally
confronts the horrors of his past after 50 years of silence.*

*“I built Auschwitz because I arrived there in the first transport. It was
also true that for almost fifty years I did not speak about Auschwitz. But
nevertheless throughout that whole time Auschwitz was present in everything
I did.”*

*-Marian Kolodziej*

Marian Kolodziej was on one of the first transports to enter Auschwitz. He
was given number 432. He survived and never spoke of his experience for 50
years. After a serious stroke in 1993, he began rehabilitation by doing pen
and ink drawings depicting the experiences he and others endured in the
concentration camp. These drawings, in their skeletal detail, are a
gripping depiction of the pain, death, and horrors of the camp. While most
of the drawings represent the memories of a young man’s hellish experiences
in Auschwitz, some tell stories of small acts of kindness and dignity.

Marian’s story of survival, of persistence, of life before, during, and
after Auschwitz are a testament to the human spirit. Marian’s drawings and
art installations, which he called The Labyrinth, fill the large basement
of a church near Auschwitz and draw visitors into the horrific reality of
the holocaust.

'This is not an exhibition, nor art. These are not pictures. These are
words locked in drawings…I propose a journey by way of this labyrinth
marked by the experience of the fabric of death…It is a rendering of honor
to all those who have vanished in ashes.'
-Marian Kolodziej

In The Labyrinth, Marian takes the audience on a journey through his
drawings and art installations. Through the blending of his testimony and
the graphic drawings, we explore the memories and nightmares of a man, who
like so many others buried experiences deep within. Why would a
confrontation with death late in life, trigger the need to record his
long-suppressed memories? And why in this graphic, metaphorical way? This
documentary raises these questions in a visually stunning way.

Marian was in the same roll call and cell block as Fr. Maximilian Kolbe,
who voluntarily took the place of a prisoner condemned to death and was
subsequently executed. This self-less act became legendary in Auschwitz and
inspired the entire camp---somehow an act of love and courage stood as a
testament to good in the face of overwhelming evil. Marian’s numerous
drawings of Kolbe are stark and iconographic. Kolbe is now a saint in the
Catholic Church.

This is eyewitness testimony that is unique in the annals of documenting
the Holocaust. Marian is a Polish Catholic, who has used his drawings to
give testimony to the horrors of Auschwitz and of the world today, and
whose body of work provides a testament to suffering and ‘man’s inhumanity
to man.’
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