Germany's foreign ministry is providing 5 million euros for the development of a Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, under an agreement signed Nov. 12 by German ambassador to Poland Michael Gerdts and Marian Turski, chairman of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

The donation ceremony took place at the Warsaw headquarters of the Jewish Historical Institute in the Blue Tower office building on Bankowy Square. This is a symbolic place for Warsaw's Jews because it was once the site of the city's Big Synagogue before it was blown up by the Nazis on May 16, 1943.

"Germany supported the development of this museum from the very beginning," said Gerdts.

Turski thanked former German President Richard von Weizsäcker as well as the country's former ambassadors to Poland, and former German Secretary of State Joschka Fischer, who were all personally involved in "making this vision come true." Turski added that "this donation proves wrong the words" of wartime German general Jürgen Stroop, who wrote in his report after the destruction of the Big Synagogue that "Now there is no such thing as a Jewish neighborhood in Warsaw any more."

The construction of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in front of the monument to the Ghetto Uprising in the district of Muranów just north of the city center is planned to start in the spring of 2008.

The 5 million euros from Germany will help expand the museum's permanent exhibition. With cutting-edge multimedia archives and exhibitions, a highly sophisticated electronic library and the projection of holographic pictures on large screens, visitors will be interactively drawn into the 1,000 years of Jewish history from the Middle Ages to the present.

But this will not only be a virtual journey through time. One will actually be able to walk through a Jewish stedl, or little city, step inside a wooden synagogue, or touch the red bricks of the former Ghetto Wall. This is designed to attract young visitors and give all those visiting the museum a chance to the relive the past. Quite apart from its focus on history, the new museum will be an educational center.

Breathtaking architecture
The museum's architecture will be financed by the City of Warsaw and the Polish Ministry of Culture. The design by Finnish architects Lahdelma & Mahlamäki was chosen in an international competition in 2005. The panel of judges was headed by renowned Luxembourg-based Polish architect Bohdan Paczkowski. Another prestigious member of the jury was Prof. Zvi Efrat, director of the Architecture School of the Art Academy of Bezalel in Jerusalem.

The Finns beat international stars such as David Chipperfield, Peter Eisenman and Daniel Libeskind.

In a cube of aluminum, copper and glass, the main entrance will open into a curved passage, finished in limestone and lit by the sky above. It will symbolize the Yam Suf, the parting of the seas after the Jews were driven out of Egypt.

More than a Holocaust museum
The persecution of Jews in Europe began in the 12th century. In the Middle Ages, they were brutally forced to leave England and Portugal, and they were also persecuted in France during the crusades and then completely driven out of the country by 1394. In 1492, after the Muslims withdrew from Spain, the Jews too were forced to emigrate.

Ever since the 10th century, Poland was one of the most tolerant countries in Europe. It was a safe haven for many Jews. After World War I, over 3 million Jews were living in Poland, the biggest Jewish community in Europe.

But the last 1,000 years has not only been about persecution and concentration camps. The new Warsaw project will not be just a Holocaust museum. The museum's idea is to show the history of Polish Jews and to create a space where people of different cultures and religions will be able to meet. It's also about millions of Jewish emigrants and the descendants of the emigrants who have contributed to European and American culture.

The museum will tell visitors about the people who helped build the nation's economy, like the Jewish textile industrialists in Łódź. Bruno Schulz and Julian Tuwim, Jewish writers who have contributed to Polish literature, pianist Artur Rubinstein, film director Roman Polanski, and the founder of the cosmetic empire, Helena Rubinstein, were all born in Poland. Jewish Nobel Prize winners Isaac Bashevis Singer, Menahem Begin and Leon Hurwicz might not have had Polish passports, but they were shaped by Polish- Jewish culture.

Lorne Liesenfeld