Praying Hitler in Warsaw ghetto sparks emotion

A statue by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan of Adolf Hitler praying on his knees in Warsaw, Poland, on Friday Dec. 28, 2012. The work, titled "HIM," has been drawing visitors since it was installed last month. The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned the work's placement in the former ghetto as "a senseless provocation." / AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski

Last Updated 11:35 a.m. ET

WARSAW, Poland A statue of Adolf Hitler praying on his knees is on display in the former Warsaw Ghetto, the place where so many Jews were killed or sent to their deaths by Hitler's regime, and it is provoking mixed reactions.

The work, "HIM" by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, has drawn many visitors since it was installed last month. It is visible only from a distance, and the artist doesn't make explicit what Hitler is praying for, but the broader point, organizers say, is to make people reflect on the nature of evil.

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The prankster art of Maurizio Cattelan

In any case, some are angered by the statue's presence in such a sensitive site.

One Jewish advocacy group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, this week called the statue's placement "a senseless provocation which insults the memory of the Nazis' Jewish victims."

"As far as the Jews were concerned, Hitler's only `prayer' was that they be wiped off the face of the earth," the group's Israel director, Efraim Zuroff, said in a statement.

However, many others are praising the artwork, saying it has a strong emotional impact. And organizers defend putting it on display in the former ghetto.

Fabio Cavallucci, director of the Center for Contemporary Art, which oversaw the installation, said, "There is no intention from the side of the artist or the center to insult Jewish memory."

"It's an artwork that tries to speak about the situation of hidden evil everywhere," he said.

The Warsaw ghetto was an area of the city which the Nazis sealed off after they invaded Poland. They forced Jews to live in cramped, inhuman conditions there as they awaited deportation to death camps. Many died from hunger or disease or were shot by the Germans before they could be transported to the camps.

The Hitler installation is just one object in a retrospective of Cattelan's work titled "Amen," a show that explores life, death, good and evil. The other works are on display at the center itself, which is housed in the Ujazdowski Castle.

The Hitler representation is visible from a hole in a wooden gate across town on Prozna Street. Viewers only see the back of the small figure praying in a courtyard. Because of its small size, it appears to be a harmless schoolboy.

"Every criminal was once a tender, innocent and defenseless child," the center said in a commentary on the work.

Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said he was consulted on the installation's placement ahead of time and did not oppose it because he saw value in the artist's attempt to try to raise moral questions by provoking viewers.

He said he was reassured by curators who told him there was no intention of rehabilitating Hitler but rather of showing that evil can present itself in the guise of a "sweet praying child."

"I felt there could be educational value to it," said Schudrich, who also wrote an introduction to the exhibition's catalogue in which he says art can "force us to face the evil of the world."

On Friday, a stream of people walked by to view the work, and many praised it.

"It had a big emotional impact on me. It's provocative, but it's not offensive," said Zofia Jablonska, a 30-year-old lawyer. "Having him pray in the place where he would kill people — this was the best place to put it."

Cattelan caused controversy in Warsaw in 2000 when another gallery showed his work "La Nona Ora" — or "The Ninth Hour" — which depicts the late Pope John Paul II being crushed by a meteorite. That offended many in Poland, which is both deeply Catholic and was John Paul's homeland.

[LDesonme]

Maybe he could add a statue of Israel's PM, Sharon's son, and all the Zionists. One showing them using the bodies of Palestinian children for the building blocks for a temple. People could at least ascertain the message, just as the Nazi's were evil, not all Germans, so Zionists are pure evil, not all those of Jewish faith.

[pammmmmm]

Maybe he is kneeling before the public execution that he deserved. A beheading.

[chipsmydog]

I have no respect for artists who believe being insensitive and irrational is an indication of transcendent insight.
Portraying John Paul at the moment of destruction and then Hitler in a posture of sincere contrition smells like an atheistic ideology.
One guaranteed reality is that Hitler, at this moment, would give anything to have never arrived before God Almighty with his Christ-less resume handcuffed to his wrist.
I'd like to propose a new idea for this artist: A self portrait of his lower jaw dragging the ground as he faces the Holy God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to receive his perfectly just, eternal sentence from on High.

[laurenminouche]

Every time I hear some pig-headed person remarking that Hitler was an atheist (because there must be no other explanation for his actions, right?) I shake my head.
Correction. Hitler was raised Roman Catholic and expressed multiple times that the Holocaust was a holy endeavor. If you actually knew your history, you may have noticed the Nazi Prayer for Hitler:
"Leader, my Leader, given to me by God, protect me and sustain my life for a long time."
As well as numerous quotes from Mein Kampf:
"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
So no, Adolf was not "Christ-less."
In reality he was the complete opposite.

It's an interesting piece, both controversial and thought provoking. The artists beliefs, or lack-there-of, shouldn't have anything to do with it. You sourpuss.