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Scandalous Exhibition in Gdańsk. Morawiecki Raises the Alarm and Points Out: “This Is No Coincidence”

“What is happening in Gdańsk is consistent with a whole sequence of events that fit into the concept of obscuring true history and relativising the evil perpetrated by Germans on Polish territory,” wrote former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on X, highlighting certain facts from the past year and a half.

The vernissage of the exhibition “Our Boys. Residents of Gdańsk Pomerania in the Army of the Third Reich”, which presents the stories of tens of thousands of residents of the Pomerania region conscripted into the Wehrmacht, took place on Friday at the Palowa Gallery of the Main Town Hall in Gdańsk. Today, the exhibition was criticised on X by, among others, President Andrzej Duda, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, and former Minister of National Defence Mariusz Błaszczak.

President Duda wrote that he received the information about the exhibition with “indignation.” He stressed that “portraying soldiers of the Third Reich as ‘ours’ is not only a historical falsehood, but also a moral provocation, even if the photos show young men in Hitler’s army uniforms who were forcibly conscripted into the German army as Poles.” In his post, he emphasised that Poles, as a nation, were victims of German occupation and terror, not its perpetrators or participants.

A post in a similar tone was published on X by former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who stated that the case of the “Our Boys” exhibition is shocking, but “we will make a huge mistake if we treat it as an isolated incident, a random event…”

According to Morawiecki, what is happening in Gdańsk aligns with a broader pattern of events that support the idea of blurring the truth of history and relativising the evil committed by the Germans on Polish soil.

“Our opponents, of course, will accuse us of promoting conspiracy theories. But let’s summarise the facts from the past year and a half,” he stated, listing the following:

  • The appointment of Professor Ruchniewicz as director of the Pilecki Institute, a man who has contributed more to cultivating German than Polish history. Not long after his appointment, he blocked a conference in Berlin on the wartime looting of artworks, because it might… upset the Germans. Well, who would have guessed!
  • In 2024, a long-time head of the German Marshall Fund’s office in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe became Poland’s Deputy Minister of Development and Technology, as well as a member of the Council of the Zygmunt Wojciechowski Western Institute, a state analytical institution. According to Morawiecki, this is just one of many such nominations in the Polish administration involving people long associated with German foundations, funds, grants, and universities.
  • A great deal is also happening in the symbolic sphere. In recent days, there was a public outcry over the idea of restoring a German inscription on the Grunwaldzki Bridge in Wrocław. The city authorities’ explanation, that it’s not a name change but merely a “historical inscription,” reveals the true logic behind such actions. And not long ago, there was a public debate over another “historical inscription,” this time on the post office building in Gdańsk, right next to the main train station.

“What is the goal of all these actions?” the former prime minister asked, and pointed out:

  • First, to lay the groundwork for public acceptance of disgraceful installations like the Berlin stone, which is supposed to commemorate Polish victims of World War II.
  • Second, to condition Polish public opinion to accept alleged German grievances, particularly related to post-war border changes.
  • Third, to relativise the crimes of the Wehrmacht committed against Polish citizens by portraying the narrative that some “of our boys” also served in Hitler’s army.

“In the long term, however, Germany has for years been allocating enormous funds to globally reshape perceptions of their role in initiating the greatest war in human history and effectively avoiding responsibility for it. One example of this mindset,” Morawiecki continued, “was a brief exchange this June in the Oval Office between the German Chancellor and President Trump. When the U.S. president remarked that June 4, the anniversary of the Allied landing in Normandy, was probably not a date fondly remembered by Germans, Chancellor Merz replied that, on the contrary, the Normandy landing actually helped… the Germans defeat the Hitler regime. And that’s exactly the point!” Morawiecki stressed. “To completely detach the German people from the crimes committed by the various Hitlerite formations—by their boys, not ours.”

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