EXHIBITION ON THE CRIMES OF THE WEHRMACHT. SPECIFICITY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC MEDIUM OF MEMORY

The article discusses the controversies that arose following the presentation of an exhibition in Germany on the crimes of the Wehrmacht. The topic is developed in the context of the specificity of the photographic medium of memory and in relation to the problem of an increasing medialization of memory. The author strives to explain the reasons of the huge interest in the above-mentioned exhibition and the discussions it triggered, by referring to the current state of German collective memory. The exhibition punctured a myth of the Wehrmacht's innocence, which was widespread after World War II and played an important role in relief strategies undertaken by the German society in order to cope with the problem of guilt for the crimes of National Socialism. Special attention is drawn to the ideological underpinning of the set of images of the Nazi past conserved in the German society, and enhanced by visual representations promoted by the mass media. Violation of this set of images by photographs documenting the participation of the Wehrmacht in the crimes of the racial war contributed to controversies that started in response to the exhibition.