"At first glance, these photos are nothing out of the ordinary, considering that a total of 17 million men were called up to fight in the Nazi army between 1939 and 1945. But these photos are unusual because they show citizens of Nazi-occupied Poland wearing the military uniform of the hated enemy's army."
"The Gdansk exhibition addresses the subject of Polish citizens who served in Adolf Hitler's army a matter that was long considered taboo in Poland and was for decades not spoken about and even concealed. "These were people from here: our boys, in other words. Their families still live here to this day," explains the museum."
"Right-wing conservatives in Poland reacted to the opening of the exhibition in mid-July with hostility and indignation. Poland's then president, Andrzej Duda, posted on X that to portray soldiers of the Third Reich as "ours" was both a "historical falsehood" and a "moral provocation." Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, also responded, calling the exhibition a "blow to the Polish reason of state" and saying that it "called historic facts into question.""
An exhibition titled "Our Boys" displays dozens of photographs of young men wearing Wehrmacht uniforms, some smiling and some serious. The images are striking because they depict citizens of Nazi-occupied Poland in the uniform of the occupying power. The exhibition addresses the history of Polish citizens who served in Adolf Hitler's army, a subject that was long taboo, often unspoken and concealed. The museum notes that these individuals came from the local community and that their families still live there. The exhibition drew hostile reactions from right-wing conservatives and senior political figures in Poland.
Read at www.dw.com
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