Netanyahu to visit Poland, attend Auschwitz ceremony

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning a two-day trip next month to Poland, where he will meet with local political leaders and participate in a rededication ceremony of an exhibition in Auschwitz.

On June 12, Netanyahu and several members of his cabinet will head to Warsaw for consultations with their Polish counterparts. The next day, the Israeli delegation will fly to Krakow to take part in the reopening of an exhibition in the so-called Block 27 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum. The exhibition, entitled “The Martyrdom, Struggle and Destruction of the Jews in Europe from 1933 to 1945,” has been closed for several months due to renovations.

Netanyahu, whose father came from the town of Bilgoraj in Poland, last visited the country in January of 2010 to participate in a memorial ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk visited Jerusalem in February 2011 for Israeli-Polish consultations, during which cooperation agreements in defense, health, environment, water and energy, culture and other areas were signed.

“I want to tell you, my friend Donald, Jewish history and Polish history will forever be connected with one another. The chapters of our past — both the triumphs and the tragedies — cannot be rewritten,” Netanyahu said at a press conference following the consultations. “But the future is up to us, and I have no doubt that both of us are committed to ensuring that our common future is one of security, of hope, of prosperity and of peace.”