Presentation of the works by Gabi von Seltmann is the second artistic activity in the new Rotating Gallery. “The Great Synagogue Restores Memory” is a video recording of a multimedia art project held in public space. On 19 April 2018, on the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, an image of the Great Synagogue rising from rubble appeared on the wall of the Blue Tower skyscraper which today stands in the Synagogue’s location. The projection on the wall was repeated several times. In the Rotating Gallery, “The Great Synagogue Restores Memory” is accompanied by another video work titled “Dedications to Bashert.” Both projects are connected by the figure of Jewish poet Irena Klepfisz and by fragments of her poem.

13-22 July, during museum opening hours, in the last gallery of the Core Exhibition

The year 2024 marks POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews’ 10th anniversary. To celebrate this occasion, we want to make the voices of Jewish artists heard by creating a rotating, lively, polyphonic space in the last gallery of the Core Exhibition—a space for Jewish artists to express themselves.

The year 2024 marks the thirteenth edition of the March of Remembrance, in which we will walk the streets of Warsaw to commemorate the victims of the Great Liquidation Action in the Warsaw ghetto on its 82nd anniversary.

The march will start on July 22 at 18:00 from the Umschlagplatz monument in Warsaw (10 Stawki St., corner of Dzika St.) and will follow a symbolic route through Stawki, Andersa, Anielewicza, Zamenhof streets, and will end at 5 Dzielna St, where an art installation will be unveiled, we will also hear a cantor’s song and fragments of the rabbis’ writings.

Event on Facebook

On 10 July 1941, soon after the Soviet forces’ withdrawal and after the German troops entered the North-East Polish town of Jedwabne, the local Polish people began to gather the Jews from the town and the surrounding area in the town square. The Jews were publicly humiliated, and several were killed. A few dozens, including the rabbi Avigdor Bialostocki, were then selected to destroy a Lenin’s monument nearby. The group was then led to an earlier prepared mass grave in a barn where they were murdered and buried together with the Lenin’s bust. The remaining several hundred Jews were led to the same barn. They were doused with diesel before the barn was locked and set on fire. The mass murder was committed by several dozens of local people with many more witnessing it. The German forces in town didn’t take an active part in the pogrom, but they have most likely encouraged it in the spirit of Reinhardt Heydrich’s doctrine about encouraging local populations to take part in pogroms.

Jewish pogrom in Kielce took place 78 years ago. The persecutors of their Jewish neighbours were Poles, and the tragic events took place in Poland just liberated from Nazi occupation.

The events known today as the “Kielce pogrom” took place primarily in the building at Planty 7/9 street, where about 200 people lived and where offices of Jewish institutions (Jewish committee, congregation, Kibbutz Zionist party Ichud, etc) were located.  Pogroms of the Jewish population were also reported in other locations in Kielce, as well as on trains passing through the city on that.

40 people were murdered during the Kielce pogrom (including three Polish nationals). Two people were murdered on Leonard Street. 35 people were injured.

World Refugee Day is an international day designated by the United Nations to honour refugees around the globe. It falls each year on June 20 and celebrates the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution. World Refugee Day is an occasion to build empathy and understanding for their plight and to recognize their resilience in rebuilding their lives.

17 May was chosen to commemorate the decision to remove homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1990. The day aims to coordinate international events that raise awareness of LGBT rights violations and stimulate interest in LGBT rights work worldwide. LGBTQ+ rights are human rights that still need to be defended.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken released the 48th annual Human Rights Report. The entire report can be found on the U.S. Department of State’s website, with the Poland chapter.

The Poland chapter will be available on the U.S. Embassy website later today and we will post the Polish translation as soon as it is available.

As Secretary Blinken wrote in the preface, the year covered by this HRR coincided with the 75th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the authors of the UDHR, “The destiny of human rights is in the hands of all our citizens in all our communities.”

We gather again beacause we remember. We remember what happened. We remember those that fought. We remember those that died. And we remember those that kept that memory alive: Marek Edelman, Jacek Kuroń, Zofia Kuratowska, Anka Kowalska, Lechosław Goździk, Mirosław Sawicki, Symcha Rotem Rathajzer alias „Kazik”, Noemi Korsan, Chawka Raban, Julia Hartwig and many others.

Like Marek Edelman, we see the commemoration of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising as a matter of grassroots social memory. We do not want to and cannot take part in official celebration as they are full of empty national rhetoric. We want the memory of the ghetto uprising to be independent of national and political interests. That is why we meet every year to create a community of living social memory and to include the next generation in it. Be with us on this day, bring your family, friends, colleagues!

When: April 19, 2024, at 12:00

Where: Józefa Lewartowskiego 6, Szmul M. Zygielbojm Monument

Facebook event

On 21 March we commemorate 1960 South African police massacre of a peaceful Sharpeville, against the apartheid pass laws.

This day reminds us of the need to eliminate, once and for all, the xenophobia, discrimination, and racism in all their forms.

On 17 October, the National Electoral Commission announced the results of the parliamentary elections. The United Right, with a score of 35 % of the votes, did not receive sufficient support for the continued exercise of power. Three groups, which have so far represented political opposition have von a greater trust mandate: the Civic Coalition, the Third Way and the New Left, with a total of 54% votes.

74 % of those eligible to vote took part in the elections, including almost 70 % of the total population of young people. Such a high turnout has not only set a record in the history of democratic Poland, but has placed us in the top 5 of the  European countries with the highest voter turnout. It is a great success for the civil society and a serious commitment for those who are now in power.

A period of great mobilisation of the civil society around this most important act of parliamentary democracy – namely the general elections, has come to its closure. Poles have reaffirmed their commitment to democracy, freedom and civil liberties, the right to decide who will rule on their behalf and how they will be exercising it. This is evidenced not only by the record turnout, but also by the unprecedented commitment of tens of social organisations and many thousands of people in the decision to work towards equal, universal and fair elections, conducted in the pre-election period and on election day itself.

Their actions – monitoring the law and the electoral process, monitoring the way in which the elections are organised, the way in which the election committees conducted their campaigns and financed them, observing the process of casting votes and counting them, numerous educational and information campaigns and social campaigns encouraging participation in voting – all these activities are solid evidence for their civic maturity and accountability. They are also an expression of the effectiveness of solidarity among social organisations.

Social organisations, in order to meet social expectations, have also formulated and presented cross-party, civic proposals for legal changes and specific social policies in the area of restoring the rule of law, protecting the rights of women, minorities, people with disabilities, the care for climate and environment, education, culture, public media, social activity. This action stemmed from the sense of responsibility for the shape and future of the Polish state and the integrity of our community. We showed that we havea vision of Poland, in which everyone can feel at home and participate in creating solutions concerning it; furthermore, that we can inspire political groups to engage in dialogue and programmatic debate.