Westerplatte: Who Did Poles Fight, Again?

When he was biking with his friends at Westerplatte Peninsula in Gdansk, Przemysław Rudz, acting as the administrator of the "Gdańsk, strefa prestiżu" [Gdansk, The Prestige Zone] FB page, noticed something rather odd.

"The information board at a river tram stop contained a tri-lingual description of Westerplatte's role in the history of WW II. In Polish and English the text says that the heroic crew of Westerplatte defended Polish base against the ten times greater German forces in 1939. However, in the German version onre reads that Polish defenders fought some unidentified forces. In my opinion this is an appaling case of political - historical correctness" says Rudz. He points out that Poles are notorious for not caring properly about their history, and Germans for whitewashing their role in WW II.

Indeed in the German version the phrase "German forces" was reduced to "forces", and German tourists will not learn who Poles fought.

"I really wish this is just an unfortunate typographical error. Historical knowlegde in society is diminishing more and more. Lack of precise information whom Poles fought in such a special place as Westerplatte is a mistake, to be corrected as soon as possible" said Jan Daniluk, a historian from the Gdansk branch of the National Remembrance Institute.

The Historical Museum of Gdansk, which logo is on the information board denies any input in preparing the message. And so does the Museum of World War II. It turned out that the information boards, as well as all river tram stops, are the responsibility of the Municipal Centre For Sports And Recreation [MOSiR]. It is their employees who approved the message on the board, but why is the German version different than Polish and English?

"It was just an unfortunate mistake" assures Grzegorz Pawelec, the spokesperson of MOSiR. After the mistake was discovered, the information board was replaced within several days. "We also reviewed other boards to make sure all other boards are error-free".