May 28th, 2011

Obama: I will be coming back
President Obama visits Poland on May 28, 2011

During his visit to a ceremony at the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial – opposite the newly emerging Museum of the History of Polish Jews – President Barack Obama interrupted the day's very tight schedule to hold an intense conversation with our editorial colleague Marian Turski. What did they talk about?

Marian Turski: I'm the chairman of the new museum's council. The partners in this emerging enterprise, Warsaw's Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz and the Minister of Culture Bogdan Zdrojewski, asked me to introduce the museum project to our guest. So I told President Obama that the museum is being built for the Polish people, especially the young ones, to enable them to fill the present-day void with the virtual 800-year story of Jews in Poland. The museum will also address Jewish people abroad, especially many young Israelis, so that they can get to know their Polish roots: for centuries, Europe's largest and most important centre of the Jewish diaspora was located in Poland.

I was talking quite quickly, and when I paused to take a breath, the president asked me: And what about the others – people like me? I replied: The museum aims to remind everyone of the contribution Polish Jews have made to civilization, to science, economics, intellectual developments and culture in general, for instance Hollywood is a prime example in this respect. When the president asked me about my personal fate, I told him that I'm an Auschwitz survivor, that my father and brother were murdered there, and that the museum will be a symbol of remembrance for them, and that the restoration of memory is more important to me than the restitution of property and possessions.

But I think the president was most moved – and I sensed this strongly as he held my hand and placed his hand on my arm – when I told him about the episode in my life, when I took part in the famous march from Selma (Alabama) to Montgomery in March 1965. That was when I marched together with Martin Luther King and his deputy and successor Ralph Abernathy. The president asked: – Why did you travel all that way? And I replied: Simply out of solidarity with all the people who were fighting for their civil rights and against racial segregation. The president interrupted my story several times with the words: Fantastic, fantastic… And then, visibly moved, he said: Thank you. It's thanks to people like you that I am President of the United States. Finally, President Obama said: I will come to the opening of the museum, and I'll bring my daughters ...

back to overview