Where do we Put the Ulmas?: Political History and the Museum of the Second World War in Poland

• In Event: At the Intersection of Narrative and Affect: The Art of Memory in Belarus, Hungary, and Poland

Abstract

The Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk has been cause for much political
debate. Even before the museum opened, sessions in parliament were dedicated to the
political opposition complaining about the kind of museum they imagined the liberal
directorship of the museum (appointed by center-right Civic Platform (PO)) would be
constructing. As soon as populist right wing party Law and Justice (PiS) took over
government in 2016 their minister of culture and national heritage appointed a new
directorship to the museum, and politically motivated changes were made to the
exhibition. In this paper, I account for changes made to the museum in 2016, I describe
what I call a “narrative panic” in the Polish political and museological worlds, and I
investigate some surprising developments to the museum today, after PiS lost the
parliamentary elections in 2023.

Author

• Anna Krakus, U of Copenhagen (Denmark)