Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has appointed a 13-member Council of the War Losses Institute. The Council is composed of experts – professors responsible for the creation of the report on war losses in Poland, as well as representatives designated by the President of the Republic of Poland, the Speaker of the Sejm, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Arkadiusz Mularczyk, MP, was appointed chairman of the Council.

The post of director of the Institute is currently held by historian Bogdan Musiał, PhD. The Council of the Jan Karski Institute of War Losses was established on 2 December 2021 by a decree of the Prime Minister and is a state budgetary organization subordinate to the Prime Minister, conducting research, education, publishing and popularisation activities in the knowledge of the consequences of the Second World War.

The task of the Institute is, above all, to initiate and conduct scientific research aimed at comprehensively determining and describing the consequences of World War II for the Republic of Poland, as well as for Central and Eastern Europe’, as well as to initiate international cooperation in conducting research on the consequences of World War II and to initiate scientific events that make it possible to involve scientific environments focused on research into the consequences of World War II at home and abroad.

“There has been no such research institution in contemporary Poland so far, and it is extremely needed because as we can see, the issues of the effects and consequences of the Second World War and war losses have simply been neglected for years, which is a great historical injustice, as it brings about negative consequences to this day – through the fact of backwardness in many areas of economic and social life, as well as through the loss of many millions of citizens, including the leadership strata and intelligentsia”, said Arkadiusz Mularczyk, Chairman of the Council of the War Losses Institute.

Adrian Andrzejewski