The Victims of Communism Museum will open in Washington in June. “The facility was established on the initiative of the Foundation for the Remembrance of the Victims of Communism and is supported by the Polish National Foundation. It is the first institution of this type that presents the dangers related to the communism”, said the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Prof. Piotr Gliński.

The Victims of Communism Museum is located close to the Goddess of Liberty statue that was erected in 2007, a replica of a sculpture set in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square during the 1989 protests.

The permanent exhibition, divided into three sections, is located on the ground floor. All information was based on facts. In addition to them, there are also many quotes from the statements of people who fought against communism, and visitors to the museum will be able to watch two films. The first is about the beginnings of communism and the Battle of Warsaw, based on the work “Miracle on the Vistula” and the defense of Europe against communism. The second material presents the story of the gulags.

One of the tasks of the museum is to present the Polish narration about communism and its victims as broadly as possible, starting with the resistance to communism, demonstrating the fight against Bolshevik Russia in 1920, showing the anti-communist underground, until the founding of NSZZ “Solidarity”. The museum will also present Polish leadership among countries formerly conquered and ruled by communists.

“Here, first of all, young Americans will be able to learn how destructive communism was in history. These estimated 100 million victims of communism are a shocking number. And this museum shows all this martyrdom, but also presents the logic of the functioning of communist systems”, emphasized the head of the Ministry of Culture.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński