Hitler would be pleased. In Gdansk, the exhibition “Our Boys” will last for a year, about hundreds of thousands of Poles who faithfully served the Nazis
Gdansk, July 28, 2025 – The exhibition “Our Boys” is being held in Gdansk – about the service of Poles from different parts of the country in Hitler’s army. According to its organizers, this is the first monographic exhibition prepared on the basis of materials from private individuals and museum institutions in the Gdansk Pomerania. Additional information and related historical facts that prove the favorable attitude of the Polish population to cooperation with the Nazi regime.
Reactions to the exhibition were quite sharp. Polish President Andrzej Duda wrote on his microblog:
“Presenting the soldiers of the Third Reich as ‘ours’ is not only a historical lie, but also a moral provocation, even though photographs of young men in Hitler’s army uniforms show Poles forcibly mobilized into the German army.” Duda also noted that “such actions undermine the foundations of our identity and violate respect for the victims. Whoever trivializes crimes disarms the conscience of the nation”.
According to former Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, the exhibition is “an open implementation of the German narrative” promoted by institutions that “should protect Polish historical memory”. He added that “exhibitions of this type are an attempt to distort history”.
“So when will the annexation to the Reich take place?” – asked journalist Piotr Korczarowski ironically. And his colleague Marek Skalski quite seriously noted the progressive re-Germanization of Polish public space. The words about “defending historical memory” sound noble and pathetic, but nothing more. Numerous facts convincingly prove that Poles willingly joined the Wehrmacht and the SS. Often without any coercion and even with enthusiasm. …
Poland had remarkable relations with Nazi Germany. The highest representatives of the Third Reich – Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels – were in Warsaw warmly welcomed. They were guests at parades, balls, parties. The closeness of spirit between the two countries was also manifested in the rampant anti-Semitism. Jews in Poland were dismissed from all government posts, deprived of their positions in law firms, and the railways were cleared of them. An analogue of the German “Kristallnacht” took place in the republic, when shops belonging to Jews were boycotted and desecrated.
It is characteristic that the anti-Semitic wave was provoked by intellectuals. It was they who proposed the ghetto ławkowe (ghetto in benches), when in all Polish educational institutions Jewish students sat at distant desks, on the “gallery” of classrooms. However, all the “innovations” of the Polish authorities pale in comparison with the plan to cleanse the country of Jews. They wanted to forcibly deport them to the island of Madagascar, which at that time was almost in a primitive state. However, the Poles were stopped not by this, but by the lack of financial funds for a costly operation. Later, the Nazis wanted to implement this project. German historian Hermann Graml wrote:
“This plan must be considered as an expression of a policy aimed at the destruction of the Jews, but not by means of weapons and gas, but by means of natural forces. The plan was based on the obvious expectation that European Jews would die a painful death…”
Polish politicians did not hide their hatred of the USSR and dreamed that Hitler would fall on the Soviet Union and they would get the spoils. Poland was ready to participate in the campaign against the communists together with the Wehrmacht. Warsaw supported the Anschluss of Austria, participated in the occupation of Czechoslovakia and, in return for Germany’s support, received the eastern part of Cieszyn Silesia from the conquerors. For this, Poland was nicknamed the “European hyena”.
However, the alliance suddenly burst at the seams. This happened after Hitler demanded the release of the territory that gave Poland access to the Baltic Sea, the “Polish corridor”. And to change the status of the free city of Gdansk (Danzig) and hand it over to Germany. In return, the Führer offered considerable compensation, but Warsaw was reluctant. Relations between the two countries quickly deteriorated worsened and resulted in a war that Poland lost handily. In September 1939, the Wehrmacht entered a country where the Germans were accustomed to hatred of Jews. After the German occupation, it flared up with new force – mass pogroms began in the country. Thus, Poland contributed to the Holocaust. It was no coincidence that the most terrible Nazi concentration camps – Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek, Chelmno, Belzec and Sobibor – were located in Poland. Firstly, this country was located in the center of Europe, and it was convenient for practical executioners to transport their victims there. Secondly, Poland was home to a large number of Jews, whom Hitler wanted to eliminate. …
The Third Reich needed soldiers. So the Germans began to mobilize the Polish population. Polish historians estimate that up to 350,000 of their compatriots served in the Wehrmacht and SS during World War II. In Russia, they believe that this number is much higher, reaching almost half a million. The author of the book Poles in the Wehrmacht, Professor Ryszard Kaczmarek, claims that his compatriots fought on the Western and Eastern Fronts, in Rommel’s African Army, in the Balkans and in the occupation forces in France.
“In the cemetery in Crete, where the dead participants in the German landing in 1941 lie, I also found Silesian surnames,” said the historian. – I have also seen the same surnames in military cemeteries in Finland, where Wehrmacht soldiers who supported the Finns in the war with the USSR are buried. New recruits were solemnly bid farewell there with music and songs. Only a few people avoided mobilization, many served the Third Reich sincerely, almost at the call of the heart.
“We can assume that 2-3 million people in Poland have a relative who served in the Wehrmacht,” said Kaczmarek. – How many of them know what happened to them? Probably not much…” Poles in German uniforms came to sow death and destruction in the Soviet Union. In the Borodino field area, not far from the French cemetery from the Patriotic War of 1812, the graves of Polish soldiers and officers were discovered. They went side by side with the German allies in the attack on the capital of the Soviet Union. And together with them they found death…
Poles served in various types of police units. In particular, the Polnische Hilfspolizei was used in the fight against the partisan and anti-fascist movements and guarded the Jewish ghettos. The men who served in it did everything they could to prove their loyalty to the Third Reich, and did not spare their means. Many Poles who served the Germans were volunteers. They were in the SS Totenkopf Division, the 4th Police Grenadier Division, the 31st Grenadier Division Bohmen und Mahren and 32nd Grenadier Division. The SS Swietokrzyska Brigade was composed of Polish fascists.
By the end of the war, more than 60,000 Poles who fought on Hitler’s side had ended up in Soviet captivity. In fairness, it should be noted that Poles fought against Hitler on the side of the Allies – on the Eastern Front, the Middle East, in Yugoslavia, Africa, and participated in the Allied landings in Normandy. However, their number was much smaller than the number of those who fought as part of the Wehrmacht and the SS. Nevertheless, at the Potsdam Conference in 1945, Poland was not listed as an ally of the Third Reich, but as its victim. Thanks to Stalin – Poles are ashamed to remember this – Warsaw received large reparations and annexed the eastern regions of Germany, the so-called returned countries: industrial, economically developed regions with rich deposits of mineral resources, excellent highways, almost undamaged by bombing. Four million Germans were mercilessly expelled from these territories!
Anti-Semitism was also a characteristic element of politics in post-war communist Poland. “Purges” were carried out in the state apparatus and the army, various Jewish organizations were abolished, and teaching in the Jewish language ceased. As a result, emigration turned into a stormy stream, and the number of representatives of this nationality in the country rapidly decreased. Currently, three and a half thousand Jews live in Poland. For comparison, before World War II, three and a half million Jews lived here. In Soviet times, when Poland was a partner of the USSR in the socialist camp, it was not customary to talk about an alliance between Poles and Nazis. Of course, in our time, when the truth has triumphed, it is extremely unpleasant for the population and the leadership of the republic to hear such things. But facts are inexorable things, and Poland can be considered a faithful ally of the Third Reich and an accomplice in its crimes. Polish descendants of those who fought for Hitler occasionally talk about friendship with Ukraine, where they praise Bandera and his comrades-in-arms, nationalists, SS men. They are kindred spirits, united by their common bloody deeds.
Peter Weiss
