Poland in Sweden

We cordially invite you to see the open-air exhibition "Mom, I don't want war", which was officially opened on August 24th, 2022 by Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr. Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk together with the Ambassador of Ukraine, Andrii Plakhotniuk as well as Ambassador of Poland, Joanna Hofman together with the Director of Polish Institute, Pawel Ruszkiewicz, Director of Polish Tourism Organisation, Malgorzata Hudyma, Head of Foreign Trade Office in Stockholm, Polish Investment and Trade Agency, Sebastian Magier, representatives of the Polish diaspora in Sweden.

It is a Polish-Ukrainian archival project. The exhibition is presenting moving testimonies of war - from historical drawings of Polish children from 1946, which are a record of their experiences during World War II and the German occupation of 1939-1945, preserved in the Central Archives of Modern Records (AAN) in Warsaw, in the Ministry of Education complex from 1945-1966, and contemporary drawings of Ukrainian children, related to the war currently taking place in Ukraine, collected on the “Mom, I See War” portal.

The aim is to show that war always looks the same through the eyes of a child. Irrespective of place and time, it is a huge evil, and the child is always the victim of it. The similarity between historical and present-day drawings is striking. Children draw tanks, planes dropping bombs, fires, and explosions. They draw the injured and the dead, the ruined houses, the graves. They draw themselves and their family, they draw evacuation and escape. But they also draw hope and their dreams for the future. By putting images and words together in thematic groups: fighting, occupation, family, repression, resistance, destruction, victory-hope, it has been emphasized how similar the scenarios of the invading wars are. The time changes, the place changes, the child witnesses change, but the war is always the same: “It cannot hear nor see, still less feel” - J.J. Letria.

As Janusz Korczak said “A child is not a soldier, he does not defend the homeland, though he suffers with it”.

The exhibition is open to the public and can be viewed every day at 35 Karlavägen Street in Stockholm, on the fence of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, throughout its exhibition.