First Year of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum

March 2nd will be the first anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum. Today, the museum is a team of dedicated people working on a scientific program, temporary exhibitions, publishing, investment and promotion. Its first outdoor exhibition was organized in July 2018 and was dedicated to the history of the Bersohn and Bauman Hospital. The MGW exhibition team is getting ready for the next exhibition, this time about the history of Sienna and Śliska streets, where the future seat of the museum – the above-mentioned Bersohn and Bauman Hospital – is located. On the anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, another exhibition, this time devoted to Nathan Rapaport – the author of the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes – will be unveiled. In 2019 the museum is preparing for the first time for a series of Ghetto Uprising anniversary events, together with the Cultural Association of Jews in Poland. In November, a three-day international conference will be held on the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.

The museum already has a research team that works under the guidance of a world-famous historian, Professor Daniel Blatman from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Professor Blatman is one of the most important scientists dealing with the subject of the Holocaust.

The permanent exhibition of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum will be located in the historic building of the former Bersohn and Bauman Hospital for Children. The hospital was founded 140 years ago by Jewish philanthropists and treated little patients regardless of their faith. The building is located in the former ghetto area. Here, not only children were treated but also research into hunger disease was carried out. During the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, the building hosted the field hospital of the Polish underground army unit Chrobry II.

The hospital building is a historical monument, a witness of the capital`s 19th, 20th and 21st century history – something unique in a town that was almost completely destroyed during the war.

The Warsaw Ghetto Museum leased the building from the authorities of the Mazovia Province in 2018 and is now making efforts to purchase the whole property. Internal functional usability inspections are being carried out inside and around the premises. The museum is preparing to announce an international architectural competition. In near future the logo of the Museum will also be selected in a similar way.

In January 2019, the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv organized a series of conferences for the Museum in Israel. Together with prof. Daniel Blatman we met there with journalists and guides. Many articles on the subject were published in the Israeli media. Among them there is a comprehensive account in The Jerusalem Post. The museum team is in constant contact with Jewish community in Poland and information meetings are attended by, among others: representatives of the Jewish Historical Institute Association, the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland, the Jewish Religious Community in Warsaw, Chabad Lubawicz , JCC, Second Generation Association, Association of Jewish Veterans and Victims, Nissenbaum Foundation and many more. Most of the events organized by the Warsaw Ghetto Museum are attended by the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich. The museum’s management wants the permanent exhibition to be created jointly with the participation of the Polish Jewish community.

Together we can act for the future generations.

Dyrektor Albert Stankowski