Three members of the advisory board for the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum in Poland have resigned after the government appointed a member of the country’s right-wing ruling party to join the body, the Associated Press reported on Friday.
The Ministry of Culture has appointed former Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo to a four-year term on the Council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The nine-member group of Poles meets once a year to advise the museum’s director and is separated from the Auschwitz International Council, which is made up of Holocaust survivors and experts.
Szydlo faced backlash in 2017, when he appeared to defend his conservative anti-migrant policies during a memorial in the former Nazi death camp. She said that “in today’s troubled times, Auschwitz is an extraordinary lesson that shows that everything must be done to protect the safety and lives of citizens.”
She later denied that her highly criticized remarks were about refugees.
The politician is a member of the European Parliament for the Law and Justice Party and grew up in the town of Oswiecim, where Auschwitz is located, the AP said.
Philosopher Stanislaw Krajewski was the first councilor to resign in protest of Szydlo’s appointment. He explained to the press that his exit was in response to the “politicization” of a group, adding that he does not feel comfortable with the addition of political figures.
“It’s hard to say what would happen, but it would change the nature of the body a lot,” Krajewski said. “I do not want to be in the same council today with a major politician of the ruling party.”
He pointed out that the efforts of the Law and Justice are aimed at building national pride in the nation’s past. The press noted that the party, which took power in 2015, used museums, state media and other tools to push a patriotic vision of Poland, which highlights resistance against the German occupation. Some critics say the initiative was historical whitening and a distorted version of the past.
“The fear is that this would be another move towards making the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum also part of their historical policy,” Krajewski said of Syzdlo’s appointment.
Other members left, including historian Marek Lasota, who also belongs to the ruling party, and Krystyna Oleksy, former deputy director of the Auschwitz Museum.