US philanthropist celebrates partial opening of Polish Jewish history museum he helped fund

WARSAW, Poland – As his train rolled across Germany in 1939, passing through small towns where swastikas fluttered from flagpoles, Tad Taube cowered in fear each time Nazi police entered his compartment and barked orders for his documents — papers that plainly identified him as an 8-year-old Jewish boy from Poland.

But Taube got safely through to France, and then to the United States, making a narrow escape from the Holocaust.

Now the 82-year-old Taube (pronounced TOH-bee), who lives in California, is back in Poland to celebrate the partial opening of a new Polish Jewish history museum for which he has spent years raising funds, including millions from his resources.

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews opened its doors to the public for the first time Saturday.