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Warsaw Ghetto Museum seeking artifacts: officials

04.04.2023 09:30
The Warsaw Ghetto Museum under construction in the Polish capital is seeking artifacts, officials have said.
A section of the historic wall of the Warsaw Ghetto at 62 Złota Street.
A section of the historic wall of the Warsaw Ghetto at 62 Złota Street.Photo: Adrian Grycuk [CC BY-SA 3.0 pl (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/pl/deed.en)]via Wikimedia Commons

The newly founded museum is scheduled to open this year to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

It will be one of the most modern Polish museums and "its founding will fill the painful gap that has existed so far in the network of Polish institutions of this type," according to the Polish Cultural Institute in New York.

The Warsaw Ghetto was completely destroyed by Poland's German occupiers, and the vast majority of its inhabitants were murdered, the institute noted.

It said: "This presents a difficult task for the emerging institution. To this day, very few artifacts have survived – objects that could become exhibits, and which were either in the area of ​​the Warsaw Ghetto during its existence, or were the property of refugees from the Ghetto hiding (in Warsaw or outside it) later."

The Polish Cultural Institute in New York added: "Polish institutes around the world, including ours, want to help the new museum. If you happen to have any such related artifacts, and you would like to donate (or lend) it to the emerging facility, please contact us. We encourage you to donate gifts to us, and we will pass them on to the employees of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum."

The Warsaw Ghetto, established in the autumn of 1940, was the largest of all the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Europe during World War II. In the summer of 1942, at least a quarter of a million of its residents were sent to the Treblinka extermination camp.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which broke out on April 19, 1943 and lasted until May 16, was the first uprising in German Nazi-occupied Europe and the largest act of armed resistance by Jews in World War II. It is estimated that about 13,000 insurgents died in the ghetto during the revolt.

Some surviving Jewish combatants later fought in the Warsaw Uprising, launched by Poland's underground Home Army (AK) on August 1, 1944.

The Polish president in December 2018 paid tribute to the last surviving Warsaw ghetto fighter who died in Israel at the age of 94.

More information about the Warsaw Ghetto Museum can be found at www.1943.pl.

(gs)

Source: instytutpolski.pl