A New Chapter Begins

A New SPRING 2013 REPORT ChApter BegiNs ASSOCIATION OF THE JEWISH HISTORICAL INSTITUTE OF POLAND 14/04 (FM) Honorable Donors, Dear Friends, On the front page of this photoreport you can see Nearly five hundred individuals from all the Jewish organizations in Poland and distinguished guests met for the first time at the Museum to celebrate a curve dividing the building of our Museum. As you its inauguration. On this occasion Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich placed the klaf and blessed the Museum’s mezuzah. It is made of an original brick excavated from the former Nalewki Street in the heart of the prewar Jewish quarter in Warsaw. (MS)(KD) know, in the architect’s vision it symbolizes the crossing C M Y K Nxxx,2013-04-19,A,010,Bs-4C,E1 of the Red Sea. With the opening of the building, if you A10 N THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2013 will, we have crossed our Red Sea. When we fully open WARSAW JOURNAL New Museum Helps Poland Rebuild a Bridge to Its Jewish Past Polish society and history. the Museum, i.e. launch the Core Exhibition, we will all From Page A1 “You can’t put the pieces back nation’s victim status after a his- together again, but you can build tory of centuries of conquest, par- bridges,” said Barbara Kirshen- tition and occupation. blatt-Gimblett, a Canadian-born – including the heads of state – set foot in the Promised ethnographer in charge of the Among civic leaders here there is a strong sense that Poland will permanent exhibition. “They’re never fully recover from its 20th- fragile, but you can build them.” century traumas until it recog- Her father left Poland in 1934 at Land. It would not have been possible without you, nizes its Jewish past, and the mu- the age of 17. While working on seum is seen as a major step. the project, she learned to speak “Jewish memory is becoming Polish and acquired Polish citi- part of Polish memory,” the chief zenship last year. dear and honorable Donors. I thank you for this from rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said in Maciej Bulanda, 23, who with an interview at the new Museum his father designed the brick me- of the History of Polish Jews, zuza holder, became interested in “and the building we’re sitting in his Jewish great-grandmother as the bottom of my heart. is the best example of that.” a teenager, learning that she had About 3.3 million Jews lived in three brothers who perished in Poland at the outbreak of World the Holocaust and even finding War II. The last census showed a two of their graves in Lodz. mere 7,508 people identifying “Our parents’ generation did themselves as Jews in 2011, and not have the courage or inclina- that was a leap from the 1,133 who tion or interest to find out about said they were Jews in 2002. that,” Mr. Bulanda said of the Clad in glass panels on the out- growing interest among young side, the museum has a curved Poles in exploring their Jewish passageway inside that runs pasts. “We were brought up in a from front to back, almost like a completely different world.” Marian Turski natural canyon, which the build- That does not mean it is always ing’s architect has compared to easy. The same poll that exam- Chairman of the Museum Council, Vice Chairman of the parted Red Sea. A meticulous ined the question of Jewish ver- recreation of the colorful painted sus Polish suffering found that 61 ceiling of a wooden synagogue is percent of students said they complete, but coiled cables rise “would be unhappy” to learn a the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland from the bare concrete floor, boyfriend or girlfriend was Jew- waiting to be connected to the ish, while 45 percent would rather multimedia displays that have PHOTOGRAPHS BY PIOTR MALECKI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES not have a Jew in their family. yet to be installed. Michael Schudrich, above, Po- “When you’re 7 years old and Although it chronicles centu- MusMuMususeseumumm off thet th HistoryHistoHi land’s chief rabbi, placing a playing football in the courtyard, ries of Jewish history in Poland, off Polish PPolii h JewsJewJ wss mezuza at the Museum of the in a fight you hear people using Left: Waldemar Dąbrowski, Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Culture for thethe museumMuseum was not an exclu- Opening, Dr. Jan Kulczyk, Distinguished Benefactor, BarbaraGypsy or Jew as swear words,” JA History of Polish Jews. Left, a sively Jewish undertaking. The recreated synagogue painting. Mr. Bulanda said. Polish government, Jewish ALEJALEJA 3 MAJA After the museum announced a Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Program Director of the Core Exhibition, Shana Penn,groups Executive and private donors Director of Taube Philanthropies,WarsawWarsaW rsa awPiotr Wiślicki, Chairmandesign of competition for the mezu- worked together to raise roughly depicts women, children and the za, Mr. Bulanda brought up the ROYALYALA VistulaVistuula elderly trudging to their deaths. $100 million. The city provided BAATHSATHS PARKPA K possibility of entering at the fam- the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, Rabbi Michael Schudrich,the land free of charge and, Chiefalong Rabbi of Poland. (MS) RiverRivever On the other stand armed fig- ily dinner table. His father, An- with the federal government, BalticB Sea ures, representing the brave but drzej, an architect, had the idea of A doomed fighters of the Warsaw covered the construction costs. ALEJAA A using a brick. POOLAANNDN JOZEFAOZ Right: The symbolic ceremony was covered by the New York Times (Photo: PiotrThe Association Małecki of the Jewish for NYT) KA ghetto uprising, which began on They used old maps of the city BECKAEC Historical Institute of Poland WWarsawaw April 19, 1943. to find where Nalewki Street raised money for the permanent LoLLododzdz When the permanent exhibi- once ran and excavated a spot in tion at the museum is complete, it exhibition, which was not ready 1 MILEM what is now a public park and for this week’s soft opening but will tell the story of the Holo- was once the foundation of No. 10, will be ready next year. THE NEW YORK TIMES caust, as well as the difficult No. 12 or the retaining wall be- chapters in Polish-Jewish rela- tween them. “Economically we are not a percent answered Jews; and 25 poor country anymore,” said Wal- tions, including the murders of Piotr Wislicki, chairman of the percent said Poles. demar Dabrowski, the minister of summer. “When the Jewish na- passionate opposition. Writing in camp survivors after the war and Association of the Jewish Histori- Poles are particularly sensitive culture’s liaison to the museum. tion and the Polish nation, when the leading newspaper, Gazeta the Communist government’s cal Institute, speaking to an audi- “As a society it is healthy to be we are together, when we look in Wyborcza, the Holocaust scholar about the Nazis’ decision to build 1968 anti-Semitic campaign. But ence in the museum’s auditorium morally capable of doing such a the same direction, it is great for Barbara Engelking said, “This is death camps on occupied Polish it also covers the thousand-year after the mezuza was unveiled, A new chapter began on April 14, when the Jewish the official ceremonies guests entered the Museum of thing.” us, great for Poland and great for a small fragment of Warsaw that territory. It was on a visit to War- history of Jews in Poland, from recalled: “When I was a little boy While many significant dona- the world,” said Mr. Kulczyk, belongs to the Jews and that saw in 1970 that Chancellor Willy the shtetls to the cities, from suc- I was afraid to look up when tions came from American organ- whose worldwide holdings in- should not be appropriated.” Brandt of Germany dropped to cessful businessmen to pioneer- someone said the word Jew. I had izations and individuals, Poland’s clude oil, real estate and beer. When 1,250 Warsaw high his knees in front of the Monu- ing Yiddish writers. the urge to run. As a young man I 18/04 richest man, Jan Kulczyk, who is It has not always been easy. A school students were recently ment to the Ghetto Heroes. Organizers and curators repeat only told my close friends, swear- organizations met for the first time at the Museum. On the History of Polish Jews for a special commemorative not Jewish, gave $6.4 million last proposal to build a monument to asked which group suffered more The large black stone and the same phrase over and over ing them to secrecy.” Poles who risked their lives to in the war, Poles or Jews, nearly bronze monument remains a again: “This is a museum of life.” “Today,” Mr. Wislicki said, “I Hanna Kozlowska contributed re- save Jews during the Holocaust half, 44 percent, said the two moving icon of suffering and They hope to remind visitors of am standing in front of you proud that special day the Chief Rabbi of Poland unveiled concert. Performing were the Israel Philharmonic porting. on the same square has provoked groups had suffered equally; 28 martyrdom. On one side, a relief the centrality of Jewish life to to be a Polish Jew.” and blessed the mezuzah that symbolizes new Orchestra Richter String Quartet, the Sinfonia beginnings and new life. Varsovia Orchestra conducted by Krzysztof On April 19, we marked the 70th anniversary of the Penderecki and Henri Seroka, cantor Yaakov Lemmer Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

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