Polish PM: the Museum of the History of Polish Jews is a ‘priority’

http://ejpress.org/article/40463

16/Nov/2009 15:21

PARIS (EJP)---Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told French eminent personalities that the building of a Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw constitutes a priority for his government.

Tusk met last week at the Polish embassy in Paris with the board members of the European Association of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Among them, Auschwitz survivor and former Minister and European Parliament President Simone Veil, former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, former President of the European Commission Jacques Delors and international lawyer Samuel Pisar.

Corinne Evens, president of the association, and Maurice Bidermann, also took part in the meeting. They welcomed the opening of such a dialogue with the Polish authorities.

The Polish Prime Minister spoke of his country’s financial commitment in favour of the museum whose construction works started in June in Warsaw on the site of the former Ghetto.

Tusk also insisted on the “intellectual and historical engagement” of his government and of the “new Poland” that he represents.

He also confirmed the European and international dimension of the project whose realization, he said, will be done with all the “trustees” of the History of the Jews of Poland in order to create the basis of mutual confidence.

The association stressed that a strong will to work together in view of the realization of this great project was clearly affirmed during the meeting.

The Museum, who is dedicated to preserving the lasting legacy of Jewish life in Poland and of the civilization created by the Polish Jews in the course of a millennium, will open its doors in 2012.

Some 3,5 millions of Jews lived in Poland before the Holocaust, the largest Jewish population in Europe.