Gdansk: exhibition about “our boys” in Wehrmacht

Gdańsk cultivates German historical traditions. Not long ago in Wrocław, the Grunwaldzki Bridge gained a plaque with the inscription “Kaiserbruecke” and a white eagle in the Aula Leopolda of the local university, replaced the image of Prussian king Frederick II, the main architect of the partitions of Poland. Now akin information flows from Gdańsk. At the local town hall, in the hall of the Museum of Gdańsk, an exhibition entitled “Our Boys” was opened on Friday 11 July, which concerns residents of Gdansk Pomerania in the army of the 3rd Reich.

"The main protagonists of the exhibition are residents of Pomerania Gdańsk, pre-war citizens of the Second Republic, Free City of Gdańsk or Germany from different corners of Pomerania. Their fates show how different were the individual experiences of service in German-Nazi military formations. However, they share a common post-war reality – the fact that for decades they remained on the margins of authoritative historical narrative" – reads about the exhibition.

The exhibition, as the organizers say, was created in cooperation with the Museum of planet War II and the Centre for Historical investigation of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Berlin. It is to be open until May 2026.

The thought was met with fierce criticism of net users and right-wing politicians. The head of the PiS club Mariusz Błaszczak wrote that it was a “clear implementation of German narrative” conducted by institutions that “should defender Polish historical memory”. He added that specified exhibitions were “an effort to break history.”

In practice, the show wouldn't have anything to worry about if it wasn't for the title. Were “our boys” those who murdered 6 million Polish citizens? Were “our boys” those who entered Warsaw with the 3rd Reich flag and razed it to the ground? Did “our boys” lead children from Zamość for transport to Germany? Did they make Auschwitz and the valley of death from Poland?

Nope. Our boys were killed at Westerplatte and above Bzura, defending their homeland. Our boys liberated Pomerania from the hands of German barbarians who started the top war in history. Our boys were mass-killed in the woods, and many of their graves have not yet been found. Our boys were professors and lecturers of Cracow universities, who were taken to concentration camps in Sachsenhausen and Oranienburg. Our boys died in labour and extermination camps.

These are our boys. We don't have any another boys and we didn't. If anyone doesn't like it, let him decision to Germany, not Germany to our land. There's Poland!

By the way, the D.A. should take care of this matter, as it is likely that the image of the totalitarian strategy is warmed.

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