Appeal from the President of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men’s Orders in Poland

The Conference of Major Superiors of Men’s Religious Institutes in Poland (KWPZM) also includes the Ministers Provincial of the three Conventual Franciscan Provinces in Poland among its members. The Conference fosters development and collaboration between men’s religious congregations and strengthens the bond between all institutes of consecrated life. In addition, it promotes awareness of religious service in society. Recently, the World War II Museum in Gdańsk removed some objects from its exhibition which commemorated certain national heroes, including St. Maximilian M. KOLBE. In response, on July 2, 2024, the President of the Conference issued a statement calling for the restoration of these objects which represent illustrious Polish figures whose commemoration is well-deserved. He called for the highest state honors to be awarded to them. Below is the full text of his appeal.

It is with embarrassment and real surprise that we heard about the sequence of events leading to the removal of the objects commemorating St. Maximilian Maria KOLBE, the Blessed ULMA family and Cavalry Captain Witold PILECKI from the permanent exhibition of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk.
The interview that Professor Paweł MACHCEWICZ, former Director of the Museum, gave to the “Gazeta Wyborcza” [The Electoral Gazette] was particularly surprising and embarrassing. In it, he defined St. Father KOLBE as a “fervent anti-Semite” who allegedly wrote “extremely poisonous anti-Semitic texts”, and stated that having the ULMA family in the exhibit “falsifies the historical reality” of World War II.
Despite the current Director of the Museum announcing that St. Maximilian and the Blessed ULMA family would be restored to the exhibition, an avalanche of texts accusing St. Maximilian of anti-semitism and defaming his good name appeared on the Internet. The decisions of the WWII Museum’s leadership, which were inconsistent and unobjective, provoked a situation which painfully affected the Catholic community. It also violated the sense of national community to a degree that exceeded the actions of the Communist authorities, who, after all, respected St. Maximilian’s heroic act in Auschwitz by awarding him the Golden Cross of the Order Virtuti militari in 1972.
Recent events and comments (including statements by the museum’s leadership) seem to impose a very dangerous direction on the social discourse in Poland, suggesting that being Catholic and being guided by evangelical values ​​ constitutes a reason for exclusion from the collective memory of the nation and is some sort of shameful vice that no longer suits contemporary people.
It is our profound conviction that the institutional endorsement of such thinking by those in power is a threat to the historical and cultural sources of our society’s identity and future.
In this context, we appeal to the President of the Republic of Poland to award the highest state honor, the Order of the White Eagle, to these heroes of the Second World War: Father Maximilian KOLBE and the ULMA family. We also ask all people of good will to support our appeal to the President of the Republic of Poland.

Father Dariusz WILK, KWPZM President