June 18, 2026, 6:00 PM
Galeria Miejska Arsenał, 6 Stary Rynek
free admission
Zośka and Rudy – heroes of a school reader, national heroes. “Stones for the Rampart” – a legendary book, a required reading that everyone knows, but few reflect on the meaning of the messages it conveys.
Kornelia Sobczak’s essay is the first attempt to seriously confront Aleksander Kamiński’s famous work and reveal its role in building the myth that today surrounds the heroes of “Stones for the Rampart”.
Sobczak shows contexts that are often omitted in the story about the times of World War II and the years preceding it. She does not hesitate to take up threads that until now have provoked the greatest emotions, namely speculation about the homoerotic relationship between Zośka and Rudy and about Bytnar’s affiliation with the far-right ONR organization.
The author also tries to trace and analyse the way in which good educational programmes, beautiful ideas and noble intentions break against the reefs of nationalism, militarism and cultural patterns based on the cult of masculinity and on a national vision of community.
Nothing here is obvious, and often it turns out to be completely different from what we have grown used to thinking.