The dispute over Westerplatte's takeover by the special law intensifies and Law and Justice MPs voted on Tuesday the Sejm's Infrastructure Committee. PiS politicians accuse Gdańsk President Aleksandra Dulkiewicz of insulting the victims of communism, and the host of the region – the Gdańsk Museum – loses all hope of a positive result. Dulkiewcz's meeting with Deputy Minister of Culture Jarosław Sellin, scheduled for June 25, was in question.
– Talks are under way but they can come to an end – Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, mayor of Gdańsk, said on Wednesday. She spoke about talks scheduled for 25 June with Deputy Minister of Culture Jarosław Sellin in the Westerplatte case. He does not hide that speaking when a special law will be on the table will be difficult.
However, the communiqué of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage indicates that the meeting can not take place.
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"The Ministry of Culture will not participate in the private political project of the President of Gdansk"
"The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage is surprised that after the repeated requests of the Deputy Minister Jarosław Sellin to meet the President of Gdańsk and discuss the future of the museum Westerplatte, and after setting the date of this meeting at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the President of Gdańsk sets additional conditions.After the presidency, the President of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage will not participate in the conditions of post-billing of the President of Gdańsk Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, but any exchange with the president will be possible after his withdrawal from the decision of the decision taken 3 days ago.Archaeologists of the peninsula, otherwise the meeting scheduled for Tuesday 25 June will not take place "- a is it written in the communique.
There is no hope Waldemar Ossowski, director of the Gdańsk Museum, which now hosts the site. – For the moment, we can see that the takeover of Westerplatte is strong – he thinks. And he believes that the acquisition could take place already in July.
Three concepts will go to cart
On Tuesday, at first reading, the Sejm Infrastructure Committee backed the draft prepared by PiS deputies of the special project "On Investment in the Construction of the Westerplatte Museum and the War of 1939 – Department of World War II Museum at Gdansk ". Several requests for rejection of the bill by members of PO-KO, including Agnieszka Pomaska, and Cezary Grabarczyk, seeking the opinion of the Legislative Committee and the postponement of the meeting to that date, were rejected. According to the authors, the purpose of the law is to improve the preparation and implementation of the construction of the Westerplatte Museum.
According to Ossowski, such a law is totally superfluous. – The Gdańsk Museum has been working for two years on a new territorial development plan with the curator of the Voivodeship, in accordance with the regulations in force. We have already prepared three concepts – he says. – Specustawa allows to throw the two years of work in the basket – he adds.
The director of the Gdańsk Museum also pointed out that the procedure is based on the fact that we first take control of the area, then we will examine what needs to be created in this area. – Specustawa is only used for his own political goals – he says.
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Ossowski: The acquisition of Westerplatte could take place in July
"Are Stalinist times a model?"
Karol Nawrocki, director of the Museum of the Second World War, who will probably take control of the Westerplatte area after the entry into force of the special law, admits that the idea of developing the region is "very open".
– I recognize that the special law is the best solution and should be introduced as soon as possible to start discussing what Westerplatte should look like, as the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage has promised, that is the will of this investment – he argues. First, the area would be supported and only then would there be discussion and competition for its development.
At the same time, after Tuesday's session of the Infrastructure Committee, President Dulkiewicz was sharply criticized. – On January 1, 1950, when the dark period of Stalinism was raging and few people want to remember, they were collections of nationalized public museums and all other private collections. Do you want to achieve the same goal today? Are these Stalinist times really a model for many MPs? – she said during the debate, which disrupted the PiS community.
– These are very offensive words. They should never fall. Compare the elected power in democratic elections to the darkest period of Stalinism is the expression of the lack of historical knowledge of Miss Aleksandra Dulkiewicz or an attempt to seriously insult the Polish authorities – criticized Nawrocki.
– These remarks are unacceptable in many respects – repeated Janusz Śniadek, deputy of the law and justice of Pomerania. In his opinion, Dulkiewicz trivializes the suffering of the victims of Stalinism. – What is the worst of all this is a crime in the state of consciousness of the Polish youth – he thinks.
As Dulkiewicz explained today, the context of this comparison only concerned the "expropriation" of the museum.
– As in one of the letters on the subject, Michał Niezabitowski, President of the Association of Polish Museologists, pointed out that this was the first case of this kind since 1950. In this sense, it is a comparison with the models of the Stalinist era – said the mayor of Gdańsk.
The special bill assumes "expropriation" of the Westerplatte battlefield. The lands on the Westerplatte Peninsula currently belong to a dozen landowners – including border guards – as well as private and public companies. However, most of the region where Wojskowa Składnica Transzytowa (WST) was active between the two wars has belonged to the city of Gdańsk since the early 1990s. In the building of the guard house No. 1, the Gdańsk Museum organized a small exhibition dedicated to the defense of Westerplatte in September 1939.
In the spring of 2018, the management of the World War II museum in Gdańsk, whose museum is the Westerplatte Museum and the 1939 War, presented the concept of rebuilding the Westerplatte district. The project, costing less than 100 million zlotys, provides for the reconstruction of several objects used in the Military Transit Depot. Last April, the MIIWŚ addressed the city by proposing to take back (and possibly buy for an amount of 2 million zlotys) land located on Westerplatte in order to put in implement his plans. The city then flatly refused.
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