I feel sick every time Donald Tusk gets too pathetic and lectures us about patriotism. Nowadays I don’t question his family’s war history, but it turns out he himself didn’t comply.
Over the years, Donald Tusk has – unfortunately – once again influenced the way our heroes are talked about, or more precisely, how they aren’t talked about. And this is evident from the struggle for the exhibition of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, which was built by his appointees during his first reign. Their successors – nominated by the good change camp – then had to defend in the courts for a long time the decisions that corrected the historical fraud. And they defended it. But there is a justified fear that the Tusk 3.0 government will want to swing the pendulum back in its direction, which has nothing to do with Polish patriotism.
FIRST – GRANDFATHER MANDATORY
After the Sejm of the Republic of Poland appointed Donald Tusk as Prime Minister on Monday evening (the so-called second step was completed), the new Prime Minister decided to speak. It had to be short, so – as I understand it – only the most important issues and those that did not leave emotions waiting were put in the first place.
I wanted to dedicate this victory, so personally, to both my grandparents. Both were railway workers in the Free City of Gdańsk. A relic in our house to this day is the food card of the Poles, who had several hundred people in Gdańsk, because no one else dared to be Polish during the occupation.. They both spent the war in concentration camps, both my grandfathers. When 90 percent of the people fled the former Free City of Gdańsk and chose Germany, among the few thousand who remained were two of my grandparents, two Poles, Józef Tusk and Franciszek Dawidowski.
– said Donald Tusk with clenched throat. He was moved. I won’t go into it, everyone is entitled to their own emotions, especially when it comes to family.
Did I believe Donald Tusk? This story about grandparents, maybe, I have no data to question it. Absolutely not in his emotions.
The history of heroic ancestors should be an obligation for everyone. Let us emphasize that we are talking about the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, a man who has had and continues to have real power for many years and who has had and can once again have real influence in shaping historical policies. Who in his place wouldn’t do everything in his power to ensure that people like grandparents are spoken of with pride?
SECOND: ANTI-POLONISM FOR MILLIONS
Tusk has always claimed that thanks to him a real historical monument was created in the form of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk. Until recently it was the most expensive museum in Poland, to which each (let’s emphasize – every!) Pole contributed 13 PLN. Yes, the building and its solutions are impressive! 5 thousand square meters of the exhibition is a huge space, and until recently you almost had to look for traces of Polishness there with a magnifying glass.
Let us now return to Tusk’s emotional speech from Monday’s Sejm. This is exactly what I mean a fragment about grandparents who were persecuted by the Germans because of their Polishness in the Free City of Gdańsk. Yes, these persecutions were a fact, the Germans were ruthless towards Poland.
It was an important element of pre-war reality. Do you think it was possible to learn about this after visiting this beautiful and expensive museum in Gdańsk? The one that Donald Tusk, a descendant of Józef Tusk and Franciszek Dawidowski, Polish railway workers, was so proud of? I might surprise you. Well, that couldn’t be! Until the next directors, already nominated by the good change, fought for it.
I have written about it more than once in the weekly magazine “Sieci” and on the website wPolityce.pl. Since the Prime Minister himself, a descendant of Poles persecuted by the Germans, returns today to these important issues, I will also return.
The essence of the changes introduced by director Karol Nawrocki and then continued by his successor Prof. Grzegorz Berendt and his colleagues were to restore the basic balance. For some reason the previous story deftly slipped past stories of Polish heroism, sacrifice or suffering. Instead, the fate of other nations was lost, sometimes at the expense of the Poles.
In a place where we can read on one of the monitors (only after the changes – editor’s note) about the German persecutions in the Free City of Gdańsk until 1939, there was only a tab about the persecution of the Jewish population, so the history of crimes against Poles, which were the order of the day, was added next to it (not replaced!).
The element I wrote about is one of seventeen changes that have been challenged in court. It’s really a very sad story.
READ ALSO: The victory of decency over villainy in the WWII museum. Machcewicz, Majewski, Marszalec and Wnuk – stay away from Polish history!
THIRD – WHICH TUSK IS REAL?
We remind you that objections to changes in the permanent exhibition (including the addition of a fragment on the repression of Poles in the Free City of Gdańsk) were expressed by the former director of the museum, Prof. Paweł Machcewicz (nominated by Donald Tusk) and his deputies: Prof. Piotr Majewski (former advisor in Prime Minister Tusk’s office) and Dr. Janusz Marszalec (adviser to Prime Minister Tusk in his first government), as well as Prof. Rafał Wnuk, former head of the Scientific Department of the Second World War.
Fortunately, the story of this disease found a happy ending in April this year. The Court of Appeal in Warsaw ruled that former employees of the Museum of the Second World War had no right to block changes to the exhibition. The decision of the Gdańsk court was upheld, which found in October 2020 that 16 of the 17 changes to the exhibition had been made correctly.
So we have to ask out loud which Donald Tusk really is? The one whose voice breaks as he dedicates his election victory to his heroic Polish grandparents persecuted by the Germans? Or maybe the one who nominates Paweł Machcewicz as director of the Museum of the Second World War? If it wasn’t horrible and sad, you might even laugh about it it was Tusk’s people who removed the memory of his grandparents from the exhibition, and they fought for it (even in court), and it was the professor’s nominees who successfully fought for it. Piotr Glinski.
FOURTH – WHAT’S NEXT FOR MEMORY?
The story of Polish grandparents persecuted by the Germans, quoted in the Sejm, shows that Tusk is a man tired of politics. Because if he can use such stories so instrumentally, it means that he will do anything and sacrifice anyone to maintain power. This is the moment when you can feel that Donald Tusk really wants revenge. You can feel it in every word he’s said so far. After he is sworn in, he no longer has to maintain the rigors of the campaign and can start threatening those who get under his skin. Now you can.
It is also clear that he gathers people around him who also want revenge. It warms their emotions and makes them allies in upcoming activities. On Monday there were other dedications besides grandparents.
I dedicate this victory to them, as well as to all Poles who may have felt offended, embittered and threatened by these eight years of contempt for someone who is different and weaker, who does not listen to the party hierarchy. Who doesn’t fit the image of the ruling party’s ideologues?
– said Tusk. These words can encompass anything, they can broadly encompass human hatred or a sense of injustice.
I have the impression that this group may also include a group of museologists from Gdańsk who, despite the judicial madness in Poland, have not achieved their goals. I’m not sure they won’t try again. After all, a lot has changed in recent days. Therefore, we should pay close attention to what will happen in the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk in the near future. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure this won’t be the last article in which I warn against tampering with Polish history.
Source: wPolityce