New museum tells of Polish emigration

The old maritime station in Gdynia in 1935, which is now the seat of the new Emigration Museum. Photo: Henryk Poddębski, City of Gdynia Museum

The construction of the Emigration Museum in Gdynia is slowly coming to an end, with plans now under way to set up the musueum’s permanent exhibition. While the museum still isn’t open to the public, it is already engaged in a number of activities in Gdynia and throughout Poland.

Reporter John Beauchamp speaks to Joanna Wojdyło from the Emigration Museum on current progress.

“Our mission is to combine all the personal Polish histories of emigration which were happening all around the world in different times,” Joanna Wojdyło from the Emigration Museum says.

“It is very important that such an institution is not only in Gdynia but first and foremost in Poland, as there are 20 million people of Polish origin that live abroad, and that means they are not only emigrants, but also the descendants of immigrants,” Wojdyło adds.

The Museum is also appealing to Poles and Polish descendants living abroad to tell their story and send in any mementoes they may have from their family records. More information can be found here.