Today we went to the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk. It was my favorite of the museums we have seen so far, with the possible exception of the Jewish Historical Institute and the Oneg Shabbat archive. I immediately appreciated the context it gave to the war. It started with a very brief explanation of the end of WWI and the Treaty of Versailles, then moved on to escalating tensions in Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan. In the sections of the museum focusing on the war itself, the lives of soldiers and civilians were given much more attention than the actions of armies and generals, which I also appreciated.
This museum is often criticized by right-wing Poles for being too universalist, because it depicts the suffering and resistance of people of many nationalities, not just the Poles. Personally, i was surprised to see how much time and space the museum spent depicting the horrors endured by Soviet prisoners of war at the hands of the Germans. This sympathy for the Red Army contradicted earlier parts of the core exhibition that drew direct comparisons between the Nazis and Soviets, like a very symbolic hallway where one wall was covered with Nazi flags, and the other wall with visually similar Soviet flags. I couldn’t help but think that the relationship between Poland, the USSR, and Nazi Germany during WWII really complicates and even defies the old adage “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
The museum’s universalist approach was not perfectly executed. For example, the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were discussed, but only in the context of military strategy, and with little focus on the civilian casualties or resulting national trauma. The infamous firebombing of Dresden was not addressed. If it was, its part of the exhibit was so minimal that someone could miss it entirely, like I must have. I also thought that while the museum did discuss the Holocaust, it focused almost entirely on concentration camps, barely mentioning ghettoization or the experiences of Jews killed by the Einsatzgruppen. Finally, one last video at the end of the core exhibition ignored the complexities of Poland’s role in WWII and celebrated Poland’s triumphs and martyrdom in an almost historically inaccurate way. This video was added under the new far right government, and contradicts the message of the rest of the museum.
Later in the day, we went to Sopot. Sopot was very pretty, but i think going there was not the best use of our time. We didn’t really talk about its history in relation to the rest of our course, and it did not seem too distinct from similar American beach towns. I’m sure had the weather cooperated it would have been worthwhile to go just for fun, but alas, it did not.