Cursed Soldiers, Hail Their Memory!!!

The painting shows a meme found on the Internet. While researching content related to the official historical doctrine of the Third Polish Republic, the artist stumbled upon the so-called cursed soldiers, who have been the subject of growing popular interest in recent years. Elevated to the status of national heroes, they have become an important phenomenon in education, but also in pop culture and political discourse. A group of people who dislike such a vision of the Third Republic has decided to respond to these highly ideological contents. Using the Internet, in particular a popular meme portal, the aesthetics of video games and irony, they create a myth of the cursed soldiers that is nowhere near the official version. Paradoxically, however, it may sometimes be closer to historical facts, such as the crime committed by the unit of Romuald Rajs, alias Bury, in the village of Zaleszany, where soldiers burned down almost all the houses and killed between 14 and 16 civilians, including children.