Historian lays out vision for new Holocaust museum in Warsaw

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Historian lays out vision for new Holocaust museum in Warsaw

2018-12-15 00:24 Last Updated At：00:30

The Warsaw Ghetto Museum should be an ambitious state-of-the art facility —"the major Holocaust museum in Poland" — when it opens in 2023, its newly appointed chief historian said Friday.

The Polish government announced plans in March to create a museum dedicated to the Jews who were imprisoned in the Warsaw ghetto and then tortured and murdered by German forces during their World War II-era occupation of Poland.

But Daniel Blatman, a Holocaust historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, described a mission for the museum that is much broader and more ambitious.

"What I would like to achieve is a wide perspective of Jewish life and death during the Nazi occupation through the perspective of the history of the Warsaw ghetto," Blatman said, describing plans to address the experiences of Jews elsewhere in Poland, including in the many other ghettos created by the occupying Germans.

"I want this to be the major Holocaust museum in Poland," Blatman said.

He presented his vision at a news conference in Warsaw and in a separate interview with The Associated Press.

Blatman noted that while Poland has many authentic World War II memorial sites, like Auschwitz and other former Nazi death camps, and a major museum in Warsaw dedicated to the 1,000-year presence of Jews in Polish lands, it actually has no major museum dedicated only to the Holocaust.

Polish Jews numbered about 3.3 million on the eve of the Holocaust and most were murdered. While much can be learned at Auschwitz, with exhibitions housed in old barracks and the remains of structures where human beings were gassed and burned, that death camp was used mainly to kill Jews transported from elsewhere in Europe.

Poland's Jews — who made up 10 percent of Poland's population — were mostly killed in other death camps, including Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibor, Blatman said.

One guiding principle of the new museum will be to portray the fate of Poland's Jews as part of both Jewish history and Polish history.

"Polish Jews who perished during the Holocaust perished as Polish citizens of Jewish origin. And I believe that the right way to present the history of that in Warsaw is to find ways to integrate it into the overall picture of this city under Nazi occupation," he said at the news conference. "There was a wall separating Jews and Poles during the Holocaust but that wall was created neither by Jews nor by Poles. It was created by the Germans."

Another key aim will be to portray the unique experiences of religious Jews under Nazi occupation.

The 65-year-old's own family history was shaped by the Holocaust.

His father was a Polish-born Zionist who at 17 left to settle in Israel in 1936 — three years before German dictator Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland that unleashed the war. His father returned to Warsaw for a visit in 1938 which turned out to be the last time he saw his parents, who probably died in the ghetto. Nine brothers and a sister of his father's perished at the Treblinka death camp.

"I grew up with a sense of a black hole because of my father's experiences," Blatman said. "He never recovered from not being able to get his parents out of Poland before the war and not knowing exactly how they died."

The museum is to be housed in a former children's hospital established by Jewish philanthropists in the late 19th century and which during World War II was enclosed within the ghetto's walls. Extensive renovations are needed. Museum director Albert Stankowski and other officials are considering adding extensions to the building or digging below ground level to create more floor space.

Other top positions must still be filled, including a chief curator, more historians and a design team.

The museum is scheduled to open in 2023 on the 80th anniversary of the uprising by Jews in the Warsaw ghetto.

Macron outlines his vision for Europe to become an assertive global power as war in Ukraine rages on

2024-04-26 00:49 Last Updated At：00:52

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday that Europe could “die” if it fails to build its own robust defense as Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, or if it fails to undertake major trade and economic reforms to compete with China and the U.S.

Macron urged Europeans to become more ambitious in a fast-changing world to face the challenges of war, fierce trade competition, energy scarcity, climate change and increasing authoritarianism.

In a nearly two-hour speech at Sorbonne University in Paris, Macron said that the continent is divided and “too slow and lacks ambition” at a time when the 27-member European Union needs to become a superpower, defend its own borders and speak with one voice if it wants to survive and thrive.

“Our Europe today is mortal,” Macron said. “It can die and that depends solely on our choices,” he added. He called on people to make those choices now because, “it’s today that Europe is between war and peace.”

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year, is an existential threat and Europe isn't armed enough to defend itself when “confronted by a power like Russia that has no inhibitions, no limits,” Macron said.

‘Our ability to ensure our security is at stake," Macron said. “Russia mustn’t be allowed to win.”

Europe now has the “good fortune” of having the Biden administration’s commitment to supporting Ukraine, Macron said. But, in a year of key elections around Europe, in the U.S. and elsewhere, support may fragment or disappear entirely, he added.

“Europe must become capable of defending its interests, with its allies by our side whenever they are willing, and alone if necessary,” Macron said.

Strong armies, a European rapid intervention program and force, tanks, a missile shield and other weapons, produced in Europe, will need the support of “a joint diplomatic force that will speak with one voice and build bridges with Africa and Latin America,” the French leader said.

“Only then will Europe show that it's not a United States’ lap dog, and that it also knows how to talk to other regions of the world,” he said.

France has been a firm supporter of Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, and Macron has often clashed with other Western leaders as he has insisted that Europe must stand by the country at any cost. The French president alarmed European leaders by saying recently that sending Western troops into Ukraine to shore up its defenses shouldn’t be ruled out.

Referring to trade practices of China and the U.S., Macron said “the two world powers have decided not to respect the rules of global trade” by shoring up protections and subsides while Europe’s industry remains open and is stuck in overregulation.

“Let’s do the same, we are in competition,” Macron said.

“We must buy faster, we must produce more and we must buy more that is made in Europe. That is key,” Macron said.

Thursday's speech came less than two months before a pivotal European Parliament election.

Macron, an avid advocate of a united and assertive Europe, also rallied support for his centrist Renaissance party before the June 6-9 vote as far-right parties lead the moderate coalitions in the polls. He called for safeguarding democratic values as the “authoritarian model” was becoming “more popular” across the continent.

The war in Ukraine and immigration are top priorities for European Union voters, according to polls. Far-right parties have gained support by criticizing Macron’s government policies on both issues. Macron acknowledged divisions on immigration policies, including on asylum and deportation rules for those who have arrived to Europe illegally.

He emphasized the need for an effective response and Europe-wide coordination for curbing illegal immigration, closer cooperation with immigrants' countries of origin and a unified, relentless fight against human traffickers.

Macron criticized the idea of striking an agreement, as Britain as done, with countries in Africa and elsewhere to transfer immigrants there.

“This is a betrayal of our values that ultimately leads us to dependency on other counties,” Macron said.

The British government earlier this week approved a law allowing the deportation of some migrants who enter the country illegally to Rwanda.

Macron lost his majority in France’s most influential house of parliament, the National Assembly, after the 2022 election to the far-left coalition and the far-right National Rally party.

The social situation in France remains tense as Paris prepares to host the Olympic Games this summer, amid protests from teachers and police officers, and farmer demonstrations in recent weeks. The protests follow huge rallies last year against Macron’s ultimately successful proposal to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Barbara Surk reported from Nice, France. Lorne Cook contributed to this report from Brussels.

Historian lays out vision for new Holocaust museum in Warsaw

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Historian lays out vision for new Holocaust museum in Warsaw

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