The museum made its decision public on Tuesday, justifying the move by saying they were restoring the museum’s exhibition to its original form prior to publicly contested changes made by the previous government in 2017.

Shortly after the museum was opened, the government appointed a new director who changed the exhibition to highlight renowned Polish wartime figures including Captain Witold Pilecki, who deliberately got himself imprisoned in Auschwitz to gather intelligence and break news of the camp to the world, Father Maksymilian Kolbe, an Auschwitz prisoner who gave his life to save another inmate, and the Ulma family, who were executed by the Nazis for sheltering Jews.

But the museum’s new management has now sided with the original exhibition’s designers, who argued that the changes were “interference in the exhibition’s ideological message and a violation of intellectual property rights.” The museum said it wanted to “restore the coherence of the whole exhibition” and would soon be announcing further steps toward this end.

The decision was roundly slammed by the right wing of Poland’s political spectrum, in particular by the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which introduced the changes by court order seven years ago.

On Wednesday, the outcry on the nationalist right was joined by Kosiniak-Kamysz, who is also the defense minister and leader of the Polish People’s Party, a member of the coalition government.

“The main exhibition of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk must be an example of that which unites us, not divides us,” Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on the X platform.

“Removing from it those who bore witness to patriotism and the steadfast fight for the good of the Homeland is unacceptable. Parts of the exhibition concerning Captain Witold Pilecki, Father Maksymilian Kolbe, and the Ulma family should be reinstated forthwith.”

A long-standing dispute

The political standoff over the exhibition dates back to before the museum was opened. The PiS government at the time criticized it as being insufficiently focused on Polish heroism during the war and obtained permission from a Warsaw court to change it. The government’s critics accused it of using a public institution to further its own political agenda.

The original concept for the museum was to present the events of 1939–1945 within a more global context. Renowned British historian Norman Davies, who was involved in the main exhibition’s design as a member of the museum’s advisory board, accused the government of using “Bolshevik” methods to “hijack” the museum as part of “a xenophobic attempt to rewrite history”.

“The Law and Justice government does not want a bunch of foreign historians to decide what goes on in ‘their’ museum,’’ Davies told the U.K.’s Observer newspaper in 2016. He also took aim at PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, who he said “runs everything like a personal politburo.’’

Now the row has reared its head again, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has tried to calm emotions, saying on Thursday that “there is no need for elements of our history to be a pretext for anxiety or feuds,” and expressing his hope that decisions would be taken to resolve the situation.

Meanwhile, PiS MPs said on Thursday they were submitting a draft resolution to parliament that would oblige the government to intervene and reinstate the Polish heroes. They added that a meeting would take place on Friday of Poles who would “oppose all attempts to impose the German vision of history."