Polish president praises 'magnificent' Jewish museum
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
04.03.2016 11:52
President Andrzej Duda visited Warsaw's POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews on Thursday evening.
President Andrzej Duda (R) visits the Warsaw museum, accompanied by museum director Dariusz Stola (L). Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk
The museum, which opened in its entirety in October 2014, represents one of the largest cultural investments in the Polish capital in recent years.
“The museum is magnificent - not only the wonderful architecture of the building, but above all the exhibition, which shows 900 documented years of shared history,” Duda said.
“It is a museum that everyone should see,” he continued.
Duda said that the entwined history of the Polish and Jewish nations “of course had its better and worse moments” over 900 years,“but it was generally a history of good coexistence.”
The president expressed his hope that young Jews from Israel and the United States, while visiting Holocaust sites, will also visit the Warsaw museum.
About 3 million Polish Jews perished during World War II as a result of the extermination policies of the Nazi German occupiers. Poland's underground state, which served the Polish government-in-exile in London, operated a council of aid to Jews [Żegota]. However, recent historiography, confirmed by Poland's state Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) has highlighted that some ethnic Poles carried out pogroms against Jews during the war. (nh)