President Andrzej Duda, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak‑Kamysz and former defense chief Mariusz Błaszczak condemned the show on the social media platform X, branding it a “moral provocation” that blurs the line between Nazi perpetrators and Polish victims.
Critics say the display overshadows Poles who died resisting the Wehrmacht’s 1939 invasion by portraying soldiers in German uniforms as “ours.”
Government spokesman Adam Szłapka called the title “absolutely unacceptable,” though he acknowledged the drama of forced service deserves remembrance.
The 200‑square‑meter exhibition, prepared with the Museum of the Second World War and the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Berlin center, groups artifacts, photographs and family testimonies into three sections: In the Reich, Traces and Voice.
Museum spokesman Andrzej Gierszewski dismissed the online uproar, saying many detractors had not seen the show or its educational context.
The goal, he argued, is to highlight the “tragic lack of choice” faced by men entered on the Nazi Volksliste and drafted under threat of reprisals against their families.
Stories include Stanisław Szuca, sent to the front for his pro‑Polish stance, and Edmund Tyborski, guillotined after deserting to join the resistance.
Stanisław Szuca's ID card.
“Excluding victims of German violence from the national community is unpatriotic and echoes communist propaganda,” the museum said, noting many conscripts later deserted to fight with Polish forces in the West.
The culture ministry backed the exhibition as a long‑overdue look at a painful chapter long kept quiet.
The display opened on Friday in the Gothic Palowa Gallery in the city's Main Town Hall and runs until May 10, 2026.
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Source: PAP, Muzeum Gdańska