‘Our boys were forced into the enemy army to save loved ones’: the second world war exhibition dividing Poland

The Museum of Gdańsk’s project about the 450,000 Polish soldiers made to fight for the Third Reich has attracted rightwing protests, but others insist the country needs to reckon with its painful pastTwo old family photos show the same group: a short-haired woman, a girl in a striped dress, and a ma

Two old family photos show the same group: a short-haired woman, a girl in a striped dress, and a man in uniform. But there is one difference between these well-preserved, sepia pictures: in one, the man wears a Wehrmacht uniform; in the other his military dress has been altered to conceal his wartime service.

Donated to the Museum of Gdańsk by the son of the girl in the striped dress, these images feature in a new exhibition about the mass forced conscriptions of Pomeranians into the German army. Consisting of photo albums, family heirlooms and oral testimonies of Poles who served in the Wehrmacht, the show asks whether someone can be both a victim of and a soldier for an aggressor, and suggests that confronting these complexities is vital to the national identity. Unsurprisingly, the exhibition has proved extremely controversial.