It tells the story of the Polish capital under German occupation during World War II, with a focus on the 1944 Warsaw Uprising as well as the city’s postwar reconstruction.
The event is being held at the Bank of Japan, which was one of the few buildings that survived the destruction of Hiroshima in the atomic bombing in 1945.
The exhibition consists of 70 display boards and several multimedia booths, in which visitors can listen to the testimonies of former Warsaw Uprising fighters.
They can also watch Damian Nenow’s 2010 film City of Ruins, which shows Warsaw’s total destruction during WWII.
A separate section of the exhibition documents the Polish nation’s effort to bring the capital back to life after the war.
A programme of film screenings accompanying the event includes Andrzej Wajda’s masterpiece Canal and Jan Komasa’s City '44 and Warsaw Uprising. This last film was made on the basis of newsreels from 1944.
The exhibition has been organized by the Polish capital's Warsaw Rising Museum and the Warsaw-based Adam Mickiewicz Institute, in partnership with the Polish Institute in Tokio and the Municipal Authorities of Hiroshima,
In a statement for the media, Jan Ołdakowski, director of the Warsaw Rising Museum, said: “The exhibition shows Warsaw as a beautiful and modern city that paid a terrible price for freedom in WWII. However, it was brought back to life like the phoenix from the ashes and now it is a dynamic metropolis and the capital of a free Poland."
Ołdakowski added: "The exhibition in Hiroshima, the city that also survived its death, is truly symbolic. The postwar reconstruction of both cities due to huge social involvement is a remarkable message of hope for the future."
On the event’s opening day, representatives for the organisers planted a tree in tribute to the late Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, who had close links with Japan and whose legacy includes a piece entitled Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima.
The exhibition runs until February 5.
(mk/gs)
Source: Warsaw Rising Museum, PAP