Posted on 03/16/2005 9:33:20 AM PST by lizol
Polish Leader Vows to Remember Holocaust By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
(03-16) 02:01 PST JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) --
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski told world leaders gathered for the opening of a new Holocaust museum that he will preserve the memory of the Polish Jewish community that was nearly wiped out in the Nazi genocide, and he vowed to fight racism in modern Poland.
The visiting leaders attended a second day of ceremonies and educational conferences Wednesday to mark the opening of the $56 million museum, which tells the story of the Holocaust from the point of view of the victims — hundreds of thousands of whom were Polish Jews.
Until World War II, Poland was home to 3.5 million Jews. Most Polish Jews were killed by the Nazis, and most survivors fled during the postwar Communist era. Today, some 20,000 Jews live in Poland.
Poland is committed, Kwasniewski said, to fighting the racism that led to the Holocaust. He noted that Poland is contributing $26 million to build a Jewish Museum in Warsaw, in the area where the Jewish ghetto once stood.
"For the benefit of the past, but also for a future that has to be free of xenophobia, racism, we, the Polish people believe it's very important to not to lose the memory of our Jewish brothers and sisters," Kwasniewski told a round-table of world leaders.
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