News
Second Session of the Museum Council
The Museum Council for the term of 2012 – 2016 held its session in the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. The Council, appointed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, supervises the statutory operation of the Museum, and also expresses opinions on the Museum’s plans of operation. An important issue discussed at the meeting were more and more realistic threats related to the freezing of wages.
The session of the Council started with a comprehensive report of the Museum’s Director, Piotr M.A. Cywiński, Ph.D. who discussed the most important activities of the institution in the course of the last year. He talked about record numbers of visitors in the past years, at the same time drawing attention to the drop in the number of Polish school groups, which took place last year and is related to changes in the curriculum in Polish schools. Mr. Cywiński also discussed the currently conducted conservation work in the area of the Memorial, as well as ;activities aimed at best preservation of items and documents in the ;collections and in the Museum archives.
Director Cywiński emphasized difficulties resulting from the fact that in the past years, as a result of subsequent budget acts, the wage fund of the Museum employees was completely frozen. In combination with inflation and significant increase in average domestic wage, this caused a real drop in the level of remuneration.
"Even though the Museum’s budget ;grew almost twice in the course of the last couple of years and our own ;revenues have increased in a similar manner, the employee wages remain ;frozen,” revealed Director Cywiński. “This situation leads to complete ;extremity. Statutory freezing of wage fund results in the fact that even ;though an institution makes money, it cannot pay its employees. The ;institution could make even more money, yet this requires increase of ;employment. Programmes conducted on an international scale are ;threatened. The fact that we cannot invest in people is an ;incomprehensible and dangerous issue. I cannot imagine that this ;situation will persist next year. This is currently the most serious ;pullback in education about the Holocaust and in the prospects of the ;institution’s development. We do not need more money for wages from the ;budget; we are able to find them or work them out. All we need is ;deregulation of detrimental statutory provisions. Today, I am in a ;situation where I have to refuse important sponsors because I cannot, ;even using their money, employ specialists for implementation of tasks ;which such sponsors are ready to finance. I do not understand the ;legislator’s intentions,” he emphasized.
Furthermore, the ;Council members became acquainted with the current status of the largest ;projects currently implemented by the Museum: construction of a new ;visitor service centre, adaptation of the so-called Old Theatre for the ;seat of the International Center for Education about Auschwitz and the ;Holocaust, as well as preparation of a new permanent exhibition.
Krystyna Oleksy, Chairman of the Museum Council, requested other members to thank the Museum employees for their involvement in work in the area of the Memorial. Members of the Council unanimously issued a positive opinion on the director’s report and accepted plans for the next year. The Council agreed with the director’s analysis according to which the current freezing of the wage fund paralyzes the operations of the Museum and is a threat for its development in the nearest future.
During the session, Kazimierz Albin, a former Auschwitz prisoner, received appointment to the Council. ;Mr. Albin was absent during the first meeting last year.;
Composition of the Museum Council (term 2012-2016)
Kazimierz Albin
Professor Tomasz Gąsowski, Ph.D.
Piotr Hertig
Professor Jan Kantyka, Ph.D.
Professor Edward Kosakowski
Stanisław Krajewski, Ph.D.
Andrzej Kunert, Ph.D.
Rev. Jan Nowak
Krystyna Oleksy — Chairman
Anda Rottenberg
Museum Council
The Museum Council is a consultative body appointed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage pursuant to the Act on Museums. In line with the Act, it has 5 – 15 members. Its term lasts 4 years. In the Act, we can also read that the Council: “supervises the fulfillment of the museum’s obligations with respect to the collections and the society and evaluates, pursuant to the yearly report on operations presented by the museum director, operation of the museum and issues opinion on the yearly plan of operation presented by the director.”
From the Act on Museums of November 21, 1996 (Journal of Laws of 1997 No. 5, item 24)
Chapter 2. Organization of Museums
[...]
Art. 11. [The Museum Council]
1. A museum council operates by a state and local government museum whose members are appointed by a competent authority referred to in Art. 5.2 or 5.3 [or an organizer, including the Minister of Culture and National Heritage]
2. The Museum Council:
1) supervises the fulfilment, by the museum, of its obligations with respect to the collections and the society, in particular meeting objectives determined in Art. 1,
2) evaluates, on the basis of a yearly report on operations, the operation of the museum and issues opinion on the yearly plan of operation presented by the director.
