Zanis Lipke Memorial Museum

Maza Balasta street 8 in Kipsala is a place where Zanis Lipke saved lives of 57 Jews during the World War II hiding them in a pit under a shed. The memorial building is the BLACK SHED – a symbolical shed under which people were hidden and saved. Image of the building is inspired by old fishermen pitch black sheds characteristic to Kipsala island. Image of the museum ideologically and visually resembles Noah Ark and inverted boat – both being places for shelter. The territory of the museum is surrounded by solid black wooden fence. Passage through the enclosed tunnel that begins by the large entrance gate bears no suggestion of the real scale and structure of the building and it takes a while for the visitor to locate its center with the hidden bunker under the ground.

The visitors are emotionally directed along the pathways within the shed, then they ascend to the attic and arrive at the well through which one can see the pit in the basement, designed 3x3x3 meters wide with wooden plank beds resembling the room of the historic bunker. The attic is the main exhibition hall of the museum. Through the roof sparse sun beams enter the dusky room from the desired freedom outside. On the ground floor there is another detour around the bunker. A sukkah is built above the bunker – a symbolic Jewish divine temporary shelter from the cruel world, the desired home with painted transparent paper walls and small windows. Construction materials: wood-frame building; overlapping wood plank roof and facade; plank and wooden printed concrete walls, plank and wet polished concrete floors; plank ceilings. Construction is passive house due to heat isolation system providing constant low temperature.
Building is funded by donations raised by Society “Zanis Lipke Memorial”.