Poland

On April 19, 1943, Jews condemned to death in the Warsaw Ghetto rose up in an unprecedented heroic struggle against the German occupation. The commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the ghetto uprising is approaching. Joanna Maria Stolarek, director of the Warsaw office of the Heinrich Böll Foundation spoke with Zygmunt Stępiński, director of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN in Warsaw about the commemoration, the nature of remembrance, and the universal message that the uprising and its commemoration bring.

The anti-gender movements in Central and Eastern Europe have led to anti-democratic turns in gender and sexuality policies. The best counterstrategy is to reveal such movements’ underlying objectives, strategies, participants, and stakeholders.

Despite the authoritarian atmosphere, the contemporary feminist and queer movements in Poland are becoming more diverse, informal, intersectional, and focused on countering misogyny and homophobia in locally defined contexts.

The vision of a strategically autonomous Europe is not met with great enthusiasm in Poland and the Baltic states. On the contrary, the preferences between Warsaw, Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn point to a renewal of the transatlantic bond and a stronger NATO in order to contain the challenges represented by Russia and China.

Considering the current politico-economic situation in the EU, Hungary does stand a chance of achieving some of its immediate goals. So, the key question is: What does Budapest stand to gain by using its veto?

Despite its tough public rhetoric, the Polish government might turn out to be more flexible behind closed doors regarding the New Pact, to prevent embarrassing defeats on issues that are far more important from a domestic policy point of view, such as the rule of law.

Despite its tough public rhetoric, the Polish government might turn out to be more flexible behind closed doors regarding the New Pact, to prevent embarrassing defeats on issues that are far more important from a domestic policy point of view, such as the rule of law.

Following a suspense-packed election thriller, Poland has elected its new president. What seemed like it would be a walkover for the incumbent, Andrzej Duda, turned out to be an attempt to shift the direction of Polish domestic affairs.

"Different wars: National History Textbooks on the Second World War" - this was the title of a travelling exhibition by the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum. It toured 22 cities in the EU and Russia over the last four years. It showed how current textbooks for secondary schools depict the Second World War in Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and the Czech Republic. The short film accompanying the exhibition will be released on 7 May.