“Undoubtedly, the aim of these actions is to shape public awareness in a way that contradicts the narrative typical of nation-states, or in general of nation-states within the European Union. As we know, everything today is moving toward dismantling nation-states as a political form, but also toward reshaping the memory of Europeans in that spirit. And this, of course, includes Poles,” said Prof. Zdzisław Krasnodębski in an interview with Niezależna.pl, commenting on the exhibition “Our Boys”, which distorts historical memory.
Not Our Boys
The exhibition opened on Friday at the Gothic Hall of the Main Town Hall in Gdańsk, showcasing the fate of thousands of Pomeranian residents who were conscripted into the Wehrmacht. It has sparked outrage and criticism from many opinion leaders and politicians, including President Andrzej Duda. Critics emphasized that the exhibit exemplifies the relativization of history and attempts to implicate Poles in the cataclysm caused by the Germans. The provocative title of the exhibition – “Our Boys” – was also widely condemned.
The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Museum of Gdańsk tried to calm the backlash by claiming the exhibition simply presents the fates of “tens of thousands of Poles” who were forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht. Interestingly, the Ministry labeled criticism of the exhibition as “disinformation,” insisting that “the narrative around the exhibition is being exploited for short-term political purposes.”
Normalizing the Wehrmacht
When asked for his opinion on the exhibition and its context, Prof. Zdzisław Krasnodębski did not rule out that the creators intended to present “more complex life stories of Poles, particularly from areas directly annexed into the Third Reich.”
“And that this is a truth that, as always, can be illustrated through individual stories. But this is essentially a way of normalizing the Wehrmacht and its role. They could have dedicated the exhibit to such biographies or fates, but they could have also given it a different title,” he remarked.
“I think this exhibition is just one element of a broader policy of rewriting historical narrative, one which the current authorities – including the regional authorities in Gdańsk—are trying to impose. And this is clearly a break from the traditional Polish narrative, an attempt to present the Wehrmacht and the Polish Armed Forces in the West as somehow equivalent. It involves a subtle revaluation and normalization of a type of narrative that is reflected, for example, in the European Union’s memory policy. You can see it in the House of European History. It’s all about showing that people had different fates, that no one is really responsible for totalitarianism or crimes. People were somehow entangled in history and later changed sides. We know that some soldiers who ended up in the Wehrmacht later joined Anders’ Army, but ultimately it serves this new narrative that undermines the building of a strong Polish national identity,” he explained.
Constructing a European Narrative
When asked about the goal of such efforts, Krasnodębski stressed that they are “directed against the classic Polish national narrative” and “have been pursued for years in Germany.”
“There was that famous TV series ‘Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter’ [‘Our Mothers, Our Fathers’], which presented a similar perspective. This is essentially a repetition of a well-established template: young people, ideologically blinded but also ignorant, find themselves in the army, etc. A similar ideology was evident in the early concept of the Museum of the Second World War. This effort to resurrect the German past – whether in Gdańsk, Wrocław, or elsewhere—is unmistakable,” he said.
“It’s this focus on the fates of ordinary people caught up in history. But it’s also the construction of a narrative meant to become the dominant one in today’s Europe, serving European integration and the so-called Polish-German reconciliation. They mention that some Poles ended up in the Wehrmacht, but they don’t speak of the Wehrmacht’s crimes,” he emphasized.
The Myth of the “Clean” Wehrmacht
Prof. Krasnodębski referenced an exhibition held in Germany in the 1990s “which fought against the myth of the ‘clean Wehrmacht’ – that is, a supposedly regular army.”
“And that shows how the historical narrative has shifted. Now we see a kind of reversal, a tendency to show something that unites Europeans: one person fought on one side, another on the other, but in the end, they were all just people entangled in history. They lived through it, and we are now expected to identify with ‘our boys’ who found themselves in that situation,” he explained.
He also pointed out the trend of renaming streets and public buildings with German names.
“Once again, we’re told this is a past we must accept – and that it is somehow pan-European,” he noted.
A Deliberate Strategy
According to the sociologist, it is “absolutely obvious” that this is a “deliberate strategy.”
“It’s not that these life stories shouldn’t be told – but it all comes down to the context and the purpose behind it,” he emphasized.
“Undoubtedly, the aim is to create a public consciousness that contradicts the narrative typical of the nation-state – of any nation-state in the European Union. As we know, the trend today is to break down the nation – state as a political form, but also to reshape the memory of Europeans in line with that goal. And of course, this also applies to Poles,” concluded Prof. Zdzisław Krasnodębski.