By Ambassador Marek Jeziorski
Remarks by the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland, Marek Jeziorski, at the opening of the exhibition “They Risked Their Lives – Poles Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust” , Tirana, Sept. 28, 2015.
I cordially welcome you at the opening of the exhibition “They Risked Their Lives – Poles Who Saved Jews During the Holocaust.” The exhibition is a unique opportunity to get acquainted with the extraordinary story of Polish Righteous Among the Nations. It shows a very important part of history of Polish-Jewish relations, relations full of beautiful examples of cooperation, enormous contribution of Polish Jews to the history and development of Poland, but not deprived of difficult moments as well.
In Poland occupied by German Nazis, unlike in occupied countries of Western Europe, helping Jews was punishable by death. The punishment concerned the whole family of helping persons. Despite this the history of the Polish society during the war knew thousands of cases of exceptional and at the same time unassuming heroism of ordinary people who in this way testified to their humanity. They risked their lives and that of their families in order to save others. Many of them were honored by the Yad Vashem Institute in Israel with the title Righteous Among the Nations. Out of more than 27,000 people honored from 47 countries of the world, one fourth are Poles.
Please, allow me to make now a more personal digression. Among Poles helping Jews during the World War II there was also grandfather of my wife Teresa, Jà³zef Bartkowski. He was, together with his wife, grandmother Jà³zefa, a member of a unit of the Home Army, Polish military resistance, which was helping for a long period of time a group of Jews hidden in nooks of a factory in the locality of Rakszawa in South-Eastern Poland. The grandfather was supplying them with food which was prepared, among others, by the grandmother. The unit’s commander was honored with the title Righteous Among the Nations. The Jewish family, which after the war lived in Sao Paulo in Brasil, had been maintaining for years cordial relations with the grandfather and the grandmother.
The exhibition also offers the possibility to acquaint with the actions of the Polish resistance aimed at saving Jews. The activity of the Š»egota organization, in which an active part was played by deceased not long ago former minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland WŠ‚adysŠ‚aw Bartoszewski, or testimonies of Jan Karski, who was first to inform Western Allies, including President of the United States, about Nazi crimes against Jews, are glorious pages of the Polish history.
Polish-Jewish relations during the World War II are subject of many studies, debates and historical monographs. Poland openly discusses whether we could do more to save Jews during the Holocaust. Today, on the occasion of this exhibition, we pay homage to those who for all of us could be examples of heroism, generosity and humanity.
The exhibition was prepared by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland. It was created on the basis of the collection gathered within the framework of the Museum’s project “Polish Righteous – Recalling Forgotten History” . I am convinced that it will be met with a great interest by Albanian people who during the World War II offered shelter and saved thousands of Jews.
I also avail myself of this opportunity to encourage all of you to visit, during Your possible trip to Poland, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews opened in 2014. Along with the permanent exposition, it also offers an extremely rich program of occasional expositions, films, debates, lectures and concerts. It functions as a cultural and educational center. It presents a thousand year history of Polish Jews. Its concept and exposition were created as a result of the work of the international team of more than 120 scholars under the direction of professor Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett from the New York University. The Museum stands in the heart of Jewish Warsaw, an area which was turned by the Nazis into a Warsaw Ghetto during the II World War. The exhibition which we open today in Tirana is one of fruits of the Museum’s work. I invite to visit it together.
