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[Kresy-Siberia (Yahoo)] PiS takeover of Gdansk war museum
开云体育This is why the Polish government decided to make the Gdansk museum a museum focused on Polish history. Poland’s history is the least known of all the major countries in the West. Every other country’s historical narrative has been publicized as their first priority. Poland has been denied this opportunity and now some of these same countries criticize Poland for trying to make its history known, in so many cases to its own citizens, as you correctly observe. Sadly, people who controlled Polish government until last October tried to suppress popularizing the nation’s history as strenuously as did the occupiers in the past.
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Of course, Polish history must be made better known around the world - this is part of our mission as the Kresy-Siberia Foundation. However, the Gdansk WW2 Museum issue is a little more complex than some would have you believe. ?
The WW2 Museum's strategy was to put Polish WW2 experiences into the context of a comprehensive museum of World War 2, the only such one in the world. ?This was actually a clever way to sell the Polish story,?by attracting worldwide interest in this unique museum first, then telling the Polish story once there... This is why the Museum's advisors included non-Polish historians people like Tim Snyder and Norman Davies – two of those who are now decrying the recent actions to make the museum focus only on the Polish aspects of the war. NB the?unsubstantiated?statement by Professor WJ Lukaszewski that "...people who controlled Polish government until last October tried to suppress popularizing the nation’s history as strenuously as did the occupiers in the past" actually?transgresses our group values of avoiding to comment on current politics in the group. However, now that this claim was made, it would be unjust to ignore the fact that over the years 2008-2014 (when the Professor was a member of the Kresy-Siberia Foundation's Executive Committee), the Polish government granted about 1 million zloty's (US$250,000) towards the development of the online Kresy-Siberia Virtual Museum and the recording and presentation of ?its Survivor Testimony interviews and historical exhibitions. This is hardly the action of people trying to suppress popularizing the nation's history! How much financial support the new government provides remain to be seen, but so far our main grant applications have been rejected. Regards, Stefan Wisniowski Kresy-Siberia Foundation President ? |
开云体育I don’t intend to get into this debate; the question had been asked, I answered it. Each of us is capable of looking back into recent history and find out the extent to which my answer is correct or not.?PS. Grant policies have nothing to with the intent of the question.
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Hello again, I'm mainly concerned that this is another crass attempt at patronage appointments Polish-style, the stench of patronage seems to hang heavily over Polish politics no matter who is running the place and the PiS regime seems to be no exception. You can see this with the logging in Bia?owie?a Forest which is ostensibly to remove spruce trees infested with spruce beetles but then we read that half the trees to be removed are actually not spruce trees:- ho, ho, ho such a co-incidence (!) and I live in a country (Canada) with a big forest industry where loggers routinely pay off politicians for cutting permits in public forests so this clearly smells of political corruption to me. Likewise the sacking of non-political professional managers at the Janow Podlaska stud farm in favor of unqualified political appointees who are expected to "learn on the job" is another red flag to me and I see the same thing happening here at the new museum. The only people qualified to supervise this museum are either the veterans who actually made the history portrayed in there (and most of whom reside outside of Poland) or their children to whom they imparted that history with perhaps the chair being appointed by the Gdańsk city council since the museum was the mayor's idea in the first place. What I see here so far is a crass attempt to replace professional historians with more unqualified political appointees who will also inflict another version of the doctrine of the "politics of memory" on this museum calculated again to write our parents out of Polish history:- 200 professional historians cannot all be wrong, it is so flattering to have so many non-Polish scholars take such an interest in modern Polish history, much of which actually occurred outside of Poland, and to actually remember our "lost Polish tribe" including Mr Norman Davies, what would we have done without him to publish his new book "Trail of Hope"? However what will happen will happen, we seem to have little influence there, the Third Republic is not a continuation of the Second Republic, it is just the Communist Republic minus the Communism but it seems to be run by a hysterically paranoid fellow who cannot speak or read anything but Polish and who does not seem to know or care much about the outside world until he manages to crash Poland into it much as his late brother crashed an airliner a few years back:- the true spirit of the Second Republic actually resides out here with us who have never been touched by Communism! That's just this old lady's 2 groszy worth! On Tuesday, May 24, 2016 9:58 PM, "Witold Lukaszewski wjlukaszewski@... [Kresy-Siberia]" wrote:
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I don’t intend to get into this debate; the question had been asked, I answered it. Each of us is capable of looking back into recent history and find out the extent to which my answer is correct or not.? PS. Grant policies have nothing to with the intent of the question.
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I find myself in complete agreement with Eve!
Here in Wisconsin USA we have been experiencing a crony driven state government with political hacks installed as managers and the elimination of the civil service exams replaced by hiring at those manager's whim.? University tenure which shields academics from political pressure has been gutted.? It seems that Poland is going down the same track. In fact dziadek Antoni and dad often bitterly complained about the same thing in the 2nd Republic.? dziadek was a Pilsudski man and fiercely advocated for a united Poland with equality for all including Jews and Ukrainians and a fair justice system.? He told one story where a Polish administrator had an attraction to a Ukrainian maid in his employ but when she rejected his advances he accused her of theft and sent the police to arrest her.? Antoni came to her defense and borrowed his cousin's shotgun and put on his military uniform with his medals and stood in the doorway of her family's home and sent them packing. He later discovered that the same official and his pals were using his name to illegally obtain free materials and land from the government without his knowledge. Poland had no budget for veterans but used such benefits as a form of retirement pay.? The resulting legal fight did not go well for him and he was forced to take a different job with the railroad in Jaroslaw leaving Markostaw behind. I see the same kind of nonsense repeating itself here.? History is important because helps us avoid the mistakes of the past.? Political dabbling in historical study and publication is a dangerous thing and to be avoided at all costs! Bernie |
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Dear members
The recent "yellow card" warning to respect discussion group rules and avoid discussions of current politics has been ignored, leading to this "red card" action. The offending post all about Poland's political situation has been removed and the member posting it has been placed on probation, meaning that his messages will now be screened and require moderator approval before they are published.? Again, these rules have held the group in good stead since it was founded in 2001, and ongoing vigilance is required to keep it from degenerating.
Your understanding and support is appreciated to keep the group supportive, helpful and special. Regards Stefan Wisniowski Moderator |
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