‘Europe – it is Our History’ is the motto of a major exhibition which has opened at the Centennial Hall in Wroclaw, south-western Poland.
It documents the history of the process of European integration, from 1945 to the present, in information charts, photos, films, art objects and multi-media shows. A total of some 700 exhibits are on display, loaned from almost seventy museums and private collections in many countries.
The Polish section includes the personal belongings of a Polish officer murdered by Stalin’s NKVD police in Soviet Russia, the names of over 2, 800 people sentenced to death by the communists between 1944 and 1956, the 21 postulates of the shipyard workers which led to the birth of Solidarity in 1980 and the June 1989 elections which ended in Solidarity’s landslide victory.
The mayor of Wroclaw Rafał Dutkewicz said during the opening ceremony that the joining of the European Union five years ago was the greatest achievement of Poland during the past two decades. ‘Hence – the exhibition’s motto: Europe is our history’.
The exhibition was originally mounted to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. It was first shown in Brussels, attracting 150, 000 visitors. Its Polish version includes many new components, particularly those referring directly to the developments in Poland.
The exhibition in open till 5 August.