Paweł Machcewicz: Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk

On July 9th 2019 historian Paweł Machcewicz talked at the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism about „Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk: Crossroads of History, Memory and Politics“ and how Poland's largest historical museum became the most important battlefield in the realm of historical memory and politics of history in Poland and beyond. Since then it became the most important battlefield in the realm of historical memory and politics of history in Poland and beyond. The concept of the museum, criticized by right-wing politicians as „pseudo-universalistic”, „too European”, „cosmopolitan” and „not Polish enough”, puts Polish history alongside the experience of other nations. This controversy reflects not only ideological splits in Poland but in fact epitomizes clashes in the fields of memory, culture and politics in many other European countries. Paweł Machcewicz is historian and professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and fellow at the Imre Kertész Kolleg at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität in Jena. After his lecture he talks with Martin Schulze Wessel (Institute of Eastern and South Eastern European History/Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München). In the lecture series „The Political Museum“ representatives of European art and cultural institutions talk about their work and their vision in a changing world. https://www.ns-dokuzentrum-muenchen.de