Sigmund Rolat, a Polish Holocaust survivor who tapped the wealth he had accumulated as a businessman in the United States to support cultural projects in his homeland, died on May 19 at his home in Alpine, NJ. He was 93. Notable among his projects is the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews that stands on the grounds of the Warsaw Ghetto.

“I want the gate of our museum, and not the ‘Arbeit macht frei’ gate to be the first gate that will be seen by Jews visiting Poland,” Mr. Rolat told Forbes magazine in 2014, referring to the inscription (“Work sets you free”) that greeted inmates when they entered the main Auschwitz concentration camp. “The Jews should first learn our shared history,” he added. “And then, of course, they should see Auschwitz, but with a better understanding of what happened there.”

“It is not another museum of the Holocaust,” Mr. Rolat told McClatchy Newspapers in 2013. “It is a museum of life.”