War and Remembrance. Periodical of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk 2023 no. 5 — Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk

ORCID: 0000-0002-7484-9766
Uniwersytet WSB Merito w Toruniu / Polskie Towarzystwo Pedagogiczne
DOI: 10.61027/2023/5/1442

The research problem presented in the article addresses World War II as a source of cross-generational trauma and discusses the processes of teaching and learning. The thesis of the text puts forward the need to consolidate individual memories of the war’s survivors and of their descendants. The starting point is Bergson’s concept of “lived time”. Bergson argues that the present contains the entire past. Thus, war traumas are passed from generation to generation, as stated in the second part of the article. In the third part, Polish research that might have initiated the process of overcoming war traumas is discussed – ideological reasons, however, prevented the completion of the project. The article concludes with suggestions as to the development paths for formal, non-formal, and informal education, which would lead to developing feelings of empathy helping to open up towards World War II experience. The entire discussion provides a starting point for building a pedagogy of individual testimony.

ORCID: 0000-0002-8023-7870
Lithuanian Institute of History, Department of Twentieth‑Century History
DOI: 10.61027/2023/5/4368

The article analyses the most important episodes of the so called “remembrance wars”, when prominent figures of Lithuanian anti Soviet and anti Nazi resistance movements were accused of involvement in the crimes of the Holocaust. Since 2012, these discussions have been widely publicised in Lithuania and have attracted interest from historians, politicians, and various re  membrance communities. The author discusses in detail the instances, motives, and forms of symbolic struggles related to the commemoration of these figures. The author concludes by saying that these struggles are primarily normative in nature, and that at their base lies a deeper dissonance arising from the differences between cosmopolitan and nationalist views on the Central and Eastern European historical politics of the mid-20th century. These conflicting narratives serve a political agenda of the neighbouring states, whose goal is to reinforce the negative image of the Baltic countries, especially Lithuania.

National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War
DOI: 10.61027/2023/5/6986

The article discusses important changes introduced in the exhibitions of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. These changes were deemed necessary with the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war – from the annexation of Crimea and the battle in eastern Ukraine (20th February 2014–24th February 2022) to the full-scale Russian invasion. The museum’s activities under martial law (February–December 2022) were presented in detail. Attention was also paid to new meanings acquired in the process of introducing these changes and to new tasks for the museum and the memorial complex as a whole. Prospects for further development of the museum have also been outlined.

DOI: 10.61027/2023/5/87102

The thesis of the article supports a statement that certain ex‑ ternal conditions (e.g., a country’s totalitarian system) active‑ ly support the spread of violent attitudes in individuals with no previous record of psychopathic and pathological behaviour. Based on historical examples and psychological research, the author discusses how certain individuals deny responsibility for actions which contradict these individuals’ value systems. The article demonstrates the need to spread knowledge about the war crimes of World War II and analyzes the influence of external factors on people’s attitudes. At the same time, the text discusses the experiences of the employees of the Education Department of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk and stresses the role of knowledge existing on World War II in the development of the museum’s education programmes.

ORCID: 0000-0002-2515-4845
Uniwersytet Kazimierza Wielkiego w Bydgoszczy
DOI: 10.61027/2023/5/103123

The article presents the results of work to standardize a secondary school test on the Polish independence underground after World War II. The author discusses ways to test young people’s knowledge on the historical context of the independence underground’s operations, on its structures and representatives. The operations of the repressive apparatus against the independence underground are also discussed. Also mentioned in the article are selected results of pilot studies showing secondary school students’ levels of knowledge and ignorance with regard to the post-World War II independence underground.

ORCID: 0000-0003-1335-592X
Instytut Pamięci Narodowej w Szczecinie
DOI: 10.61027/2023/5/124155

The purpose of this text is to conduct a critical scientific analysis of two books by a prominent West German historian Martin Broszat: National Socialist Policy on Poland 1939–1945 (1961) and 200 years of German Policy toward Poland (1963), and to juxtapose the findings contained therein with the results of other historical research. The former book is a novel attempt to outline the issue of the German occupation of Polish lands from the perspective of the structuralist paradigm. Because of its high cognitive value, even today, Broszat’s work is frequently referenced in literature.

Dawid Kobiałka
ORCID: 0000–0003–3806–4408
Uniwersytet Łódzki

Tomasz Jankowski
Instytut Pamięci Narodowej w Gdańsku

Mikołaj Kostyrko
Daniel Nita
Marcin Krzepkowski
ORCID: 0000–0002–2980–5473
Fundacja Relicta

Joanna Wysocka
ORCID: 0000–0003–1436–6700
Polska Akademia Nauk

DOI: 10.61027/2023/5/158176

Today, forensic archaeology is being used more and more often as a method of documenting traces of war crimes. The activities and search work of the Investigative Division of the Institute of National Remembrance often rely on forensic archaeology. One example is the examination in the autumn of 2021, in the forests near Czarniż, of the alleged murder site of five partisans from Emil Aleksander Cysewski “Sokół’s” unit. From May 1943 the unit was part of the structures of the Secret Military Organization “Gryf Pomorski”. The article discusses findings and conclusions from archival research, ethnographic interviews, analyses of airborne laser scanning derivates, and excavation work, all of which shed new light on the unit’s history.

Muzeum II Wojny Światowej w Gdańsku
ORCID: 0000-0003-2342-8168
DOI: 10.61027/2023/5/177208

The purpose of this article is to conduct a critical source analysis of one of the most important relics associated with Westerplatte – a uniform jacket thought to have belonged to Major Henryk Sucharski. The juxtaposition of previous findings with the results of other historical research is part of this study, the first of its kind since the time the jacket was donated for display at Westerplatte’s guardhouse no. 1. It is very likely that some POWs kept their original uniforms, but such cases were rather rare and determined by existing conditions. The author begins with a presentation of selected Westerplatte-related items from a collection dedicated to the Polish Military Transit Depot.

Akademia Rozwoju Osobistego Columbus
DOI: 10.61027/2023/5/209219

The article tells the story of Christianity’s relationship with National Socialism and the III Reich authorities. It discusses the complex attitudes within the Protestant Church and the Catholic Church. While Protestant Church made attempts to fit into Nazi ideology (the German Christians movement), Protestant clergy staunchly opposed the Nazis (the Confessing Church). The author also examines the Catholic Church’s ambivalent gestures toward the III Reich (e.g., different approaches to the conclusion of the Concordat) and numerous acts and attitudes of defiance towards the ideological violence of National Socialism. The article also discusses the attempt by Nazi elites to create a brand-new religion, based on Germanic legends and neo-paganism, to replace Christianity and to grant supernatural status to the III Reich.

Muzeum II Wojny Światowej w Gdańsku
DOI: 10.61027/2023/5/222226