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Warsaw - Cornerstone laid for Museum of Polish Jews |
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Rabbis look on as cantors from the US perform in front of the Ghetto monument in Warsaw
An earlier groundbreaking ceremony for the planned Museum of the History of Polish Jews took place in 2007 in the presence of the Polish president, but bureaucratic obstacles then held up construction.
On Tuesday, museum officials and politicians gathered again at the museum site in the heart of the former Warsaw Ghetto. With a hammer, Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz and others symbolically removed old bricks from the remains of a previous building on the site.
Poland's Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski said the museum would be "a very important address on the cultural map of Europe and the world."
Museum officials say construction will cost around 150 million zlotys ($47 million) and should be completed in 2012.
The museum will feature exhibits on the Holocaust, but its primary goal will be to remember the Jewish life that flourished in Poland before the Holocaust.
Jews lived in Poland for a millennium, receiving refuge when they were expelled from other European lands. But they also faced varying degrees of discrimination. When Hitler's forces overran Poland during World War II, they imprisoned Jews in ghettos and death camps, nearly exterminating what had been a community of about 3.5 million.
"The museum will show the fullness of (Jewish) life, although, as we all know, it will be situated in a place marked by death," Gronkiewicz-Waltz said.
During the ceremony, Jewish cantors from the U.S. sang in remembrance of those killed in the Holocaust.
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Read Comments (11) — Post Yours »
1
Jun 30, 2009 at 07:48 PM Anonymous Says:
I would never go there. First they kill us with glee, and now want to bild a memorial to us and charge us to see it. Thats all of European history in a nutshell.
2
Jun 30, 2009 at 11:43 PM Anonymous Says:
how much could they exhibit? there arent any photographs prior to say 1860. what history was saved? so much destroyed? its a nice memorial. nice to see though.
3
Jul 01, 2009 at 08:02 AM Five Towns Resident Says:
I have to agree with poster #1 here. Its the height of temerity for the Poles to open such a museum. First they persecute Jews for centuries and then they want to make money off you to view the remains.
Besides, I can't see how this museum will survive financially. Who's going to visit it? The occasional Jewish tourist? The gentile Poles certainly won't go (they'll probably try to burn it down) and there aren't any Jews left in Poland to see it.
4
Jul 01, 2009 at 08:23 AM ZR Says:
“ I have to agree with poster #1 here. Its the height of temerity for the Poles to open such a museum. First they persecute Jews for centuries and then they want to make money off you to view the remains.
Besides, I can't see how this museum will survive financially. Who's going to visit it? The occasional Jewish tourist? The gentile Poles certainly won't go (they'll probably try to burn it down) and there aren't any Jews left in Poland to see it. ”
There are some Jews, though not too many, still living in Poland. Chabad has shluchim in Warsaw and Krakow for the Jews who still, surprisingly, live there. My brother went there for a couple of weeks as a visiting Shliach, about 2 years ago. During his journey around the country he met many old and lonely Jews still living there despite the strong Anti-Semitism that still exists 60 years after the Holocaust.
5
Jul 01, 2009 at 08:59 AM Shmuel Says:
I have to disagree with most of the above comments, as I have said before No country was good for the Jewish people before the war including the US, remember the st Louis, but we have to remember that for nearly 1,000 years Poland was for the most part better then any other country in Europe for the development of Yiddishkite. It was the home of the Rema, Bach, the home of Elimelech of Lejansk Gur, Bobov and so many other Great Rabbanim to many to list. f it was so bad and there was a better place Yiddishkite would have developed somewhere else.
As far as the museum goes there will be no entry fee. It Will be a required visit for Polish students so that they can learn the truth about Jewish history in Poland and not just about the Holocaust. There will be a Kosher cafeteria in the museum one of the few places you will find Kosher food in Warsaw (under the kashrut of the Chief Rabbi of Poland)
Also there is a growing religious Jewish presense in Warsaw. There is a Kollel, a Jewish school, minyanim and much more and then there is the Chabad who also have many services available. Sad to say there is also an active reform movement.
There are also services in other towns in Lodz there is a Kosher hotel with a minyan and 2 kosher restraunts with an adjoining mikva and many programs for the local Jewish community.
In Krakow besides the Chabad there is Rabbi Pasch from Israel running Jewish programs for locals and visitors.
Again I am not apoligizing for the past but things are better in Poland then in other countries in Europe.
Those that are worried that the government will be in control of the museum and its contents should know that there is a governing board of 15, 6 were apointed by the Poles and 9 are from the Jewish community and they do not plan to overlook the bad events such as Jedwabne and Kielce in the exhibits.
to learn more about the museum go to their website www.jewishmuseum.org.pl
6
Jul 01, 2009 at 01:01 PM Five Towns Resident Says:
To be perfectly honest, I'd sooner visit a Jewish museum in Germany than one in Poland. Germany has really tried to atone for its Nazi past (even though some, like me, cannot forgive them no matter what), while Poland has never admitted its complicity in the Shoah.
7
Jul 01, 2009 at 02:24 PM frater Says:
“ To be perfectly honest, I'd sooner visit a Jewish museum in Germany than one in Poland. Germany has really tried to atone for its Nazi past (even though some, like me, cannot forgive them no matter what), while Poland has never admitted its complicity in the Shoah. ”
I'm sure the museum will function correctly without you honoring it by your presence.
8
Jul 01, 2009 at 02:34 PM frater Says:
“ I have to agree with poster #1 here. Its the height of temerity for the Poles to open such a museum. First they persecute Jews for centuries and then they want to make money off you to view the remains.
Besides, I can't see how this museum will survive financially. Who's going to visit it? The occasional Jewish tourist? The gentile Poles certainly won't go (they'll probably try to burn it down) and there aren't any Jews left in Poland to see it. ”
"The gentile Poles certainly won't go" This alone shows how little you know. One of the biggest festivals of Jewish culture takes place every year in Krakow and most of the dozens of thousands of attendees are gentile Poles.
9
Jul 01, 2009 at 04:14 PM anonymous Says:
“ I have to disagree with most of the above comments, as I have said before No country was good for the Jewish people before the war including the US, remember the st Louis, but we have to remember that for nearly 1,000 years Poland was for the most part better then any other country in Europe for the development of Yiddishkite. It was the home of the Rema, Bach, the home of Elimelech of Lejansk Gur, Bobov and so many other Great Rabbanim to many to list. f it was so bad and there was a better place Yiddishkite would have developed somewhere else.
As far as the museum goes there will be no entry fee. It Will be a required visit for Polish students so that they can learn the truth about Jewish history in Poland and not just about the Holocaust. There will be a Kosher cafeteria in the museum one of the few places you will find Kosher food in Warsaw (under the kashrut of the Chief Rabbi of Poland)
Also there is a growing religious Jewish presense in Warsaw. There is a Kollel, a Jewish school, minyanim and much more and then there is the Chabad who also have many services available. Sad to say there is also an active reform movement.
There are also services in other towns in Lodz there is a Kosher hotel with a minyan and 2 kosher restraunts with an adjoining mikva and many programs for the local Jewish community.
In Krakow besides the Chabad there is Rabbi Pasch from Israel running Jewish programs for locals and visitors.
Again I am not apoligizing for the past but things are better in Poland then in other countries in Europe.
Those that are worried that the government will be in control of the museum and its contents should know that there is a governing board of 15, 6 were apointed by the Poles and 9 are from the Jewish community and they do not plan to overlook the bad events such as Jedwabne and Kielce in the exhibits.
to learn more about the museum go to their website www.jewishmuseum.org.pl ”
I disagree with you. I was in the Lodz Ghetto and liberated in Buchenwald. What you cite is true the Rema, Bach and other resided in Poland but Poland always harbored , nurtured and acted antisemitic acts even in Buchenwald. Poland is like the Roman Idol Janus , two faced, Jews were saved and Jews who escaped from the concentration camp were killed by the Armia Krajowa. In post-war Poland there was a progrom in Kielce. So there you go. My family my mother comes from Lemberg/Lvov and my father A'H from Boryslaw. These were antisemitic are and will be full of rishes. Any of you should obtain a movie named Shoah and you would be surprised of the latent hate
10
Jul 01, 2009 at 04:43 PM frater Says:
“ I disagree with you. I was in the Lodz Ghetto and liberated in Buchenwald. What you cite is true the Rema, Bach and other resided in Poland but Poland always harbored , nurtured and acted antisemitic acts even in Buchenwald. Poland is like the Roman Idol Janus , two faced, Jews were saved and Jews who escaped from the concentration camp were killed by the Armia Krajowa. In post-war Poland there was a progrom in Kielce. So there you go. My family my mother comes from Lemberg/Lvov and my father A'H from Boryslaw. These were antisemitic are and will be full of rishes. Any of you should obtain a movie named Shoah and you would be surprised of the latent hate ”
What you say about Armia Krajowa is an unfair generalization. There were crimes - most notably during Polish underground insurrection in 1944 when a couple of AK soldiers murdered several Jews. But that wasn't the policy of the AK. During the same insurrection, another AK unit liberated a few hundred Jewish prisoners from a Gestapo prison - most of those people fought alongside the AK afterward. There were Jews in Armia Krajowa, there was an interview with one of them in a recent issue of Polish journal "Rzeczpospolita", he said everybody in his unit knew he was Jewish and he never had a problem.
I read the Shoah script and wasn't "surprised". And it's not a final proof of anything - just a modern movie. Moreover, Lanzman diminished his credibility by repeating groundless canards.
12
Jul 01, 2009 at 09:06 PM Shmuel Says:
“ To be perfectly honest, I'd sooner visit a Jewish museum in Germany than one in Poland. Germany has really tried to atone for its Nazi past (even though some, like me, cannot forgive them no matter what), while Poland has never admitted its complicity in the Shoah. ”
I am happy to say that you really do not know the truth about Poland during the time of the communist government you are right but since 1989 poland has consistantly recognized and asked forgivness for any and all crimes committed by poles against the Jewish people. Most signicantly President Krawshnefski's statement at the dedication of the memorial at Jedwabne. They also are the only country that made it a law that no work is allowed to be done in a Jewish cemetery or holocaust related site with out supervision of the official rabbinic commission.
also we should remember that the germans did not trust Poles to guard the camps because there were many Poles. More then from any other country , recognized by Yad Vashem. Remember Irena Sendler who risked her life on a daily basis to save Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto.
By the way Germany has a very strong Neo-nazi movement where as there is NON in Poland.