World Jewish News

Poland complains about 'misinformation and omissions' in Holocaust exhibition at Brussels House of European History Mu

Poland’s Culture Minister has sent a letter to the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani in which he complains that an exhibition about the Holocaust in the House of European History (HEH) in Brussels features “flagrant misinformation and omissions.”

The House of European History (HEH), which is located in the Leopold park, closer to the Europeran Union institutions, is a museum created on the initiative of the European Parliament, with exhibitions in all 24 official languages of the European Union. The permanent HEH exhibition presents an outline of European history, focusing on the 20th century and European integration, while taking into account the most important historical processes of earlier eras. The museum opened in May;

In his letter to Tajani, Piotr Glinski wrote that he was “concerned about the narrative of the exhibition presented by the House of European History in Brussels.”

“I know that this exhibition violates fundamental historical truths, ignores many important historical facts and presents, in many cases, an unintelligible interpretation of said facts.”

In particular the Polish minister denounced the HEH exhibition for presenting Poland, France and Ukraine as states and nations that collaborated with the Holocaust, while Germany is presented “only as the country that exemplifies the Holocaust.”

He also gave as an example the fact the exhibition ignores the contribution of many European countries and nations to the development of Europe, such as the fact that “Poland was not a new country created as a result of the end of World War I, but in 1918 it regained its independence after 123 years—the Partitions Period—while the state of Poland is more than 1050 years old.”

The Culture Minister also pointed out that while there was no indication of “the actual direct cause of World War II,” which he defined as the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, with both those countries invading Poland on September 1 and 17, 1939, respectively.

Glinski also criticized the museum for presenting Germany as “the greatest victim of World War II” and Communism “in a positive context” without mentioning the millions of victims of this “criminal system.”

He complained the museum neglected European giants including William Shakespeare, Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Frederic Chopin, as well as philosophers Immanuel Kant, Charles Montesquieu and Erasmus.

Glinski, who is member of the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, also slammed the museum for presenting the role of Christianity in a “very selective and negative way’’ and for presenting communism “in a positive context, while the millions of victims of this criminal system and other distortions are not mentioned.”

“It also seems that presenting religion and the idea of the nation as a source of all evil in the history of our continent is an ideological, leftist passion of the creators of this exhibition,” he said.

EJP