Erzy Bohdan Szumczyk still goes to the Academy of Art , but now the 26-year old Polish student has made a night and fog action headlines. Its concrete sculpture "Come , wife," shows a soldier of the Red Army , who tried to rape a pregnant woman. Together with friends Szumczyk had set up the several hundred kilogram memorial last weekend next to a Soviet tank in Danziger Aleja Zwyciewcow ( Victory Avenue) .
The police removed the sculpture just a few hours later - but quickly kindled a public debate : Is it art or an incitement to hatred against other nations? If the prosecutor to determine for inciting ethnic hatred , Szumczyk could face up to two years in prison
The Russian ambassador in Warsaw, Alexander Alexeyev , was outraged in a statement : This is not art , but a sacrilege to violate the honor of the 600,000 Soviet soldiers who had fallen for the freedom of Poland , he protested. " The vulgar sculpture not only hurt the feelings of the Russians, but all rational people who remember who they owe the liberation of the Nazi occupation . "
Sculpture wanted to " show the truth "
At least , the last sentence should trigger mixed feelings among many Poles . Because of the Soviet Union supported the communist government and the westward shift of Poland with the forced resettlement of people from the former eastern Polish territories in present-day Lithuania , Belarus and Western Ukraine were not even counted in Poland as an act of liberation.
And not only up to two million German women in the former eastern territories of Germany and the Russian zone of occupation , but also around 100,000 Poles According to historian heard estimates in the winter of 1945 to record "Come , wife," and Soviet soldiers were victims of sexual violence . In Poland, that was until the end of communism, a taboo subject.
His sculpture was to " show the truth," Szumczyk justified his action art . "I dealt with the tragedy of these women to all suffering. " The Academy of Fine Arts distanced himself from Szumczyk . "He has done this at their own risk and without the knowledge of the university. "
Memorial , yes - nocturnal happenings, no
In media and Internet forums discussed anyway violently since the art happening . "This is not an insult Russian soldiers , but a silent scream of the victims ," it said in one of these comments . In others , it is recalled that there had been sexual violence on all sides, and not only in World War II . In fact, rape has been and is used in many conflict areas as a weapon of war - be it in the civil war in the former Yugoslavia or in eastern Congo.
Die Polizei entfernte die Skulptur nur wenige Stunden später - doch die Provokation steht im Raum. Er sei "zutiefst schockiert", erklärte Russlands Botschafter in Warschau, Alexander Aleksejew. Das sei keine Kunst, sondern ein Sakrileg, das die Ehre der 600.000 sowjetischen Soldaten verletze, die für die Freiheit Polens gefallen seien. Aleksejew rief die polnische Regierung zu einer "angemessenen Reaktion" auf.
"Keine Beleidigung russischer Soldaten"
In Medien und Internetforen wird das Kunst-Happening kontrovers diskutiert. Die Skulptur sei keine Beleidigung russischer Soldaten, sondern ein stummer Schrei der Opfer, schreibt einer. Andere betonen, dass es sexuelle Gewalt auf allen Seiten und nicht nur im Zweiten Weltkrieg gegeben habe.
Kritisch äußerte sich auch der Journalist Marek Gorlikowski in einem Kommentar der "Gazeta Wyborcza": "Geschichte ist nicht so einfach wie ein Denkmal im realsozialistischen Stil." Ein angemessenes Mahnmal für die Opfer sexueller Gewalt und andere Opfer der Zivilbevölkerung müsse noch errichtet werden. Nächtliche Happenings seien jedoch der falsche Weg.
Sowjetische Soldaten haben vor allem in den letzten Monaten des Zweiten Weltkriegs Frauen vergewaltigt. Genaue Zahlen gibt es nicht. In Danzig waren überwiegend deutsche Frauen und deportierte Gefangene aus Polen oder Russland die Opfer. In Russland sind die Kriegsverbrechen der Roten Armee im Zweiten Weltkrieg bis heute weitgehend ein Tabu geblieben.
