Marble bust of Hitler found in Gdańsk

It had been buried in the museum’s interior garden.

The inscription on the sculpture reads: ‘Thorak 1942’, leaving no doubt that it came from the hands of Josef Thorak, one of the official sculptors of the Third Reich.

Experts largely concur that the Salzburg-born sculptor's works are of a high artistic merit.

After the war, Thorak was not allowed to continue his artistic career. He died in Bavaria in 1952.

Lech Łopuski, a curator at the National Museum, told the Polish Press Agency that it is difficult to establish the exact date and circumstances in which the 50-centimetre bust was buried.

It could have been deliberately hidden there in 1945, shortly before the Germans left the city in the face of the Soviet advance.

Prior to the war, as the Free City of Danzig, the majority of the city's inhabitants were ethnic Germans.

Shortly after the invasion of Poland in 1939, the city was incorporated into the newly established Reichsgau of Danzig-West Prussia.

It became part of Poland in 1945 following the end of World War II.

According to Łopuski, the sculpture will be included in the inventory of the museum’s collection but it is unlikely to be put on display. The Museum of World War Two, to be opened in Gdańsk in a few years’ time, is a more fitting place for a bust of Hitler executed by Thorak, members of staff at the National Museum say. (mk/nh/rk)

Source: Rzeczpospolita