Polish culture minister opens WWI exhibition in Prague
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
16.10.2018 11:09
An exhibition on Europe in the years after World War I has been opened in Prague by Polish Culture Minister Piotr Gliński just weeks ahead of the centenary of the end of the Great War.
Piotr Gliński opens the exhibition in Prague. Photo: ENRS/Dominik Tryba
The exhibition, which took 20 experts from the European Network for Remembrance and Solidarity – a think tank formed by Germany, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia – two years to prepare, focuses on the political and social changes that ensued in 1918-1923.
On November 11, 1918, an armistice was signed ending the Great War which led to Poland’s return to the map of Europe after more than a century of partitions and foreign rule.
November 11 is celebrated as Independence Day in Poland.
According to Gliński, the “euphoria of victory and recovered statehood was quickly overshadowed, not only by local conflicts but also by the need to take up armed conflicts such as the Polish-Soviet war of 1919-1921.”
The exhibition, entitled After the Great War. New Europe 1918-1923, will remain open in Prague until November 12. Then it will be shown in Sarajevo, Paris, Lisbon, Warsaw, Tallinn and other cities.
During his trip to Prague, Gliński also met Czech Culture Minister Antonín Staněk and his deputy, Petra Smolíková.
He also attended a debate among historians about World War I at the Vaclav Havel library, during which he said that territorial and nationalist resentment and prejudice in the region after the war had since made way for a convergence, with Poland and the Czech Republic, together with Slovakia and Hungary, forming the Visegrad Group, and countries in the region working together to shape the future of the European Union. (vb/pk)
Source: PAP