Poland plans Warsaw museum on Polish Jewish history

In his first visit to the US since taking office less than three months ago, Prime Minister Leszek Miller of Poland announced the establishment of the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews in Warsaw, to be completed in 2005 for an estimated $55 million. Miller, who made the announcement during a meeting with Jewish leaders in New York yesterday, said he hopes that the museum will bring the memory of his country's thousand-year Jewish history to Poland's future generations. The proposed museum, to occupy about 46,000 square meters and which already has $3.5 million raised for it, is to be designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, whose family hails from Lodz, Poland. Gehry is waiving his usual fee, said Miller. The museum, which is being funded by two German foundations and the Ronald Lauder Foundation among others, is to be the first multi-media museum in Central and Eastern Europe, and will be located facing the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising on land donated by the city. A museum committee is currently chaired by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.