The Museum of the History of Polish Jews and its partners will be handing out thousands of yellow daffodil pins on the streets of cities around the world on April 19, 2014, the 71st anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. The flowers symbolize life, but also remembrance, hope and respect for the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. They will be distributed in Poland, Germany, Norway, Israel, the United States and other countries thanks to its international partners. Volunteers in Poland will educate people aboutthe history of the Uprising, recalling that it is a common heritage – regardless of nationality or religion.
Tad Taube, Chairman of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture, wearing a daffodil at the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ceremonies at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, with Zygmunt Stepinski, Deputy Director, Educational and Cultural Programming.
Daffodils are associated with the figure of Marek Edelman, the last commander of the Jewish Combat Organization. Every year on April 19, the anniversary of the Uprising, he would place daffodils at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw as well as other sites associated with the extermination of the Jews.
This year everyone can join in the Daffodils campaign online by using the Facebook application. The application encourages people to upload photos of symbolic daffodils and helps them to locate the Warsaw Ghetto. The submitted pictures will create an outline of the ghetto boundaries on a map of contemporary Warsaw.
Many partners abroad have also joined the campaign, including Jewish museums in Berlin, Munich and Prague, the Falstad Centre and HL-Senteret in Norway, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture in the United States and the University of Tel Aviv. The campaign is supported by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Polish diplomatic posts and Cultural Institutes are also involved.
The Daffodils campaign was initiated by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in 2013 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Over 500 volunteers were trained and took part in the campaign, handing out 50,000 paper daffodil pins and about 80,000 brochures with historical information. TV news presenters on every major TV channel also wore daffodils that day, extending the campaign’s reach to millions of viewers. The yellow daffodil became a recognizable symbol of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
DAFFODIL TEMPLATE: MAKE YOUR OWN (PDF Instructions)
