English Section

Exhibition in Japan tells story of 1944 Warsaw Uprising

05.11.2024 20:30
"Warsaw: Phoenix from the Ashes" is the title of a touring exhibition on the tragic 20th-century history of the Polish capital, now open in Tsuruga, Japan.
Photo: Press kitWarsaw Rising Museum
Photo: Press kit/Warsaw Rising MuseumImage: Warsaw Rising Museum

The exhibition tells the story of Warsaw under German occupation during World War II, focusing on the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and the city’s postwar reconstruction.

The event is being held at the Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum, which houses artifacts documenting the plight of Polish orphans who arrived in Japan in the 1920s, as well as Jewish refugees from wartime Europe in the 1940s.

The exhibition features display boards and multimedia booths, allowing visitors to hear testimonies from former Warsaw Uprising fighters.

Visitors can also view Damian Nenow’s 2010 film City of Ruins, which depicts the total destruction of Warsaw during WWII.

A separate section of the exhibition documents the Polish nation’s efforts to rebuild the capital after the war.

Film screenings accompanying the exhibition include Andrzej Wajda’s masterpiece Canal and Jan Komasa’s City '44 and Warsaw Uprising.

The exhibition is organised by the Polish capital's Warsaw Rising Museum and the Warsaw-based Adam Mickiewicz Institute, in partnership with the Polish Institute in Tokyo and Polish and Japanese local authorities. 

Jan Ołdakowski, director of the Warsaw Rising Museum, has told the media that the exhibition portrays Warsaw "as a beautiful and modern city that paid a terrible price for freedom" in WWII.

"Yet, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, it was brought back to life and is now a dynamic metropolis and the capital of a free Poland," he said.

The exhibition was previously on display in Hiroshima, Osaka and Sapporo.

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Source: Warsaw Rising Museum