On April 29, two days before Pope John Paul II was beatified in Rome, the Simon Wiesenthal Center announced plans to establish a new permanent exhibit at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles dedicated to the late pontiff.
A native of Poland, during his papacy John Paul worked to improve relations between the Catholic Church and world Jewry. He also conveyed the importance of preserving the memory of the Holocaust by making a visit to Auschwitz in 1979 and a visit to Yad Vashem in 2000. He was known to have met with many survivors of the Holocaust.
The John Paul exhibit is currently housed in a temporary space. It is set to be installed in its permanent location — the main exhibition space at the Museum of Tolerance, directly opposite the display containing the original office of Simon Wiesenthal, the center’s namesake — later this month.
