BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME;VALUE=TEXT:CES: Polish Historical Politics and the Future of POLIN (Museum of the history of Polish Jews) PRODID:-//Harvard events data//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:event_1323278_0 SUMMARY:CES: Polish Historical Politics and the Future of POLIN (Museum of the history of Polish Jews) DESCRIPTION:

Speaker:
Dariusz Stola

Director, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

POLIN, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, has been considered one of the best examples of progress in Polish-Jewish dialogue and relations after 1989. It's core exhibition, which opened just three years ago, has attracted more than 1.3 million of visitors and earned the top European museum awards. However, this year the museum and its Director, Dariusz Stola, have been under attack from the Polish government for “politicizing” the museum and for not representing the “Polish raison d'etat” (state interests). The attack was prompted by the recent exhibit at POLIN, “The Stranger at Home – On March 68”, featuring the events around the anti-Semitic campaign that started in March 1968 and which led to 13 000 Polish Jews leaving the country.

Dariusz Stola criticized the recent controversial Holocaust-Speech bill approved by the Polish Parliament’s upper house that aimed, according to its authors, to “protect Poland's reputation and ensure that historians recognize that Poles as well as Jews, perished under the Nazis”.

Director Stola will address the issues related to this debate and discuss the future of the Museum.