Two weeks ago, Krzysztof Ruchniewicz reported that he deprived Hanna Radziejowska of his position as manager of the Berlin branch of the Pilecki Institute. On Friday, August 29, the Minister of Culture Marta Cienkowska dismissed him as director.
Krzysztof Ruchniewicz dismissed from the position of manager of the Pilecki Institute
During the press conference, the head of the ministry presented the results of the investigation conducted both at the Ministry and at the Pilecki Institute. As she said, "what happened at the Pilecki Institute could hurt quite a few people."
Marta Cienkowska's decision to cancel Ruchniewicz justified, among others, the failure to fulfil the obligations to guarantee the appropriate functioning of the institution. He was accused of "failure programming plans, defective communication policy and defective management decisions".
The fresh manager of the Pilecki Institute was Karol Madaj, previously associated with the Institute of National Memory. In the coming days, he will present his plans for the future of the institute, including staff and programme changes.
The affair at the Pilecki Institute
Hanna Radziejowska has led the Berlin branch of the Institute since 2019. Ruchniewicz explained that her fresh actions " seriously undermined her employer's trust".
– Presented by her in social media and conventional media overinterpretations and innuendos, about the projects carried out by the Institute, constitute a breach of norms and employee-employer relations – said Krzysztof Ruchniewicz.
In early August, the diary "Rzeczpospolita" stated that the erstwhile manager had already planned a series of investigation seminars devoted, among others, to the return of cultural goods by Poland to Germany. According to reports of the newspaper, Hanna Radziejowska sent a letter to the Minister of Cienkowska, as well as to the chargé d'affaires of the Polish embassy in Berlin, Jan Tombiński.
It pointed out that Ruchniewicz proposed to organize a seminar on returning cultural goods not only to Germans, but besides to Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania and individuals of judaic origin. Radziejowska stressed that this proposal contradicts the policy of the Polish state and "brings serious concerns about the negative consequences for both MKiDN and the Pilecki Institute".
