Museum openings coincide with Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Anniversary

Friday April 19 marked the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising against the Nazis. Two museum openings coincided with this date. One is the Bronx High School of Science's Holocaust Museum and Study Center. Its' holdings include an extensive collection of Holocaust artifacts. A former teacher began the collection hoping to teach tolerance to the school's students.

The second is Warsaw's Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich, or Museum of the History of the Polish Jews. The museum will honor 1,000 years of Jewish life in Poland. Friday was a  partial opening for educational and cultural workshop, the Museum's main exhibit should open early in 2014.

Poland was once home to the world's largest Jewish community, and in many ways Jewish life was centered in Poland. That community was decimated by the Nazis during World War II. The last 20 years have marked a change in the Polish national conscious in terms of its Jewish past. The influence of Pope John Paul II and the end of Communism has allowed Poland to acknowledge the extent of Jewish life in the country's history, the role of collaborators in the murder of Jews, as well as the extent to which ordinary Poles risked their lives to hide and save Jews from the Nazis.