History Revisited via Dark Tourism

“The more I study history the more I realize how little mankind has changed. There are no new scripts, just different actors.” — Richard Paul Evans, an American author

“Poland has the right to defend historical truth,” emphasized the President Andrzej Duda. A controversial bill was approved in 2018, making it illegal to accuse the Polish nation or state of responsibility in the Nazi Holocaust. It has outraged the politicians. Efraim Zuroff, the Nazi Hunter said, “the state was not complicit in the Holocaust, but many Poles were.”

Constructed by the Finnish architect Rainer Mahlamäki, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews presents the 1000 years of Jewish life in the Polish lands. The Museum is located at a symbolic spot, where it was the center of a once thriving district inhabited mainly by Jews, yet transformed into a ghetto by the Nazi Germans during World War II.

In the Main hall, the curved walls divide the building along the east-west axis, symbolizing the gap in the 1000-year long history of Polish Jews. It serves as a bridge connecting the two halves of the building, which is considered as linking the past, the present and the future. Letting in full of light is a reminder for the tourists, that the history has not yet ended.

To promote mutual understanding and respect among Poles and Jews, the facade of the building  is clad with glass panels printed with letters “POLIN”, referring to rest here in Hebrew. It showcased 8 galleries. The thousand-year Jewish history began in a metaphorical forest, in which the Jews from Western Europe arrived in the Polish lands.

From the 10th century, the Jewish started their business, moneylending and slave trade, mainly in Central Europe. Under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Jews enjoyed a high degree of autonomy, and were taught by rabbis in their community. It was not until the commonwealth was attacked by Tatars and Turks, that they needed to take refuge in the synagogue.

Russia, Prussia, and Austria partitioned the Commonwealth in 1772. Thus, the Jews became citizens of 3 states, affected by industrialization, urbanization and nationalism. Not to mention the holocaust in World War II, in which 90% of the Polish Jews got perished. They ask themselves: Are we a nation? What language should we speak? Do we need our own country?

As a tool for education, dark tourism engages the one with history and reflects on tragedy. The West German Chancellor Willy Brandt kneed and gave a moment of silence during his visit to Warsaw Ghetto Uprising memorial in 1970, the time of signing the Treaty of Warsaw between West Germany and Poland. Shouldn’t we remember the “Kniefall von Warschau”?