The Director of the Auschwitz Museum Piotr Cywiński called upon Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to appoint new members of the International Auschwitz Council. The prime minister said such nominations would be granted.
Cywiński expressed his call in an interview for gazeta.pl. He also cautioned that if the PM doesn't appoint the International Auschwitz Council panel, the biggest international Holocaust remembrance organisations could appoint a similar council on their own.
"I've heard more than once abroad that if no new members for International Auschwitz Council are appointed, the council would have to be created irrespectively from Poland PM. If such new, external council is formed, it will be to Poland's detriment" - Cywiński was quoted as saying.
Asked at a press conference if he was going to appoint new council members, PM Morawiecki replied: "Yes, there will be such nominations". He also said he was not worried that an independent council would be formed.
The International Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was established in 1990 under a ruling by the minister of culture and art. The minister nominated world-renowned authorities on the concentration camps and the Holocaust as members of the Council. It consists of 25 members, former prisoners of the camp, Holocaust experts, as well as clergy members. They are appointed for a six-year term. The last one ended in 2018.
In mid-April, deputy PM and culture minister appointed the former prime minister Beata Szydło the Auschwitz Museum Council for a four-year term. "This social function is a great honour and duty for me" - Szydło said.
As a result, museum director Marek Lasota and former deputy director Krystyna Oleksy resigned from sitting in the council.
"Beata Szydło has a triple right to sit in the Auschwitz Museum Council: she's is from the Oświęcim region, she's a museologist and an esteemed Polish politicians" - Gliński said.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP, gazeta.pl