Polish historian builds miniature army

Описание: As Poles prepare to mark the 80th anniversary of Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland, historian and teacher Grzegorz Kaminski is building an army.

The 46 year-old uses his collection of model soldiers and homemade scenery to teach his students about World War Two.

Kaminski painstakingly recreates scenes from the war using household items such as plastic coffee stirrers and wooden skewers to build bunkers and equipment for his tiny soldiers.

His creations include a model of the radio tower in Gleiwitz, then located inside Nazi Germany, a few km from the Polish border now known by its Polish name Gliwice. Germans posing as Poles staged an attack on the evening of August 31, 1939, with the aim of providing justification for a German invasion of Poland.

The seven-strong band, led by SS officer Alfred Helmut Naujocks, broadcast a short anti-German message in Polish.

Hitler made a speech in Berlin the next day citing the Gliwice attack and other similarly orchestrated incidents to justify his decision to storm Poland. World War Two began two days later when Britain and France declared war on Germany.

The town became part of Poland after border changes following the 1945 defeat of Hitler's Third Reich.

Showing his models at an exhibition, Kaminski said they show Polish symbols were destroyed and risked the total destruction of the nation.

Kaminski's passion for collecting soldiers began at the age of three when his mother bought him a figurine whilst on holiday. Since then, his collection has grown to almost 3,000 models from various periods of Polish history.

HISTORY TEACHER AND COLLECTOR, GRZEGORZ KAMINSKI, SAYING:

"This map shows how it looked (the outbreak of World War Two). Please take a look. We have Wielun (ed's note: Polish city bombed by German aircraft on Sept 1, 1939) here, Westerplatte (ed's note: part of Gdansk), here is the battleship 'Schleswig-Holstein' (ed's note: which opened fire from Gdansk harbour on September 1, 1939, believed to be the beginning of World War Two). You know, I also prepare things like this, which is the reconstruction of the famous picture used as German propaganda showing German soldiers pushing the border gate. I show it to my students explaining how Polish symbols were destroyed, how this war was aimed at the total destruction of the Polish nation."

HISTORY TEACHER AND COLLECTOR, GRZEGORZ KAMINSKI, SAYING:

"I use various things when building the models - paper, plastic, different types of waste, pieces of cardboard, but also beer coasters, plastic stirrers for tea or coffee as they are great to build some houses or fortifications with. There are also toothpicks and skewers, for (ed's note: which can also be used as) a lance. For example, we have an uhlan (cavalryman) with a lance made from a skewer."

13-YEAR-OLD SCHOOLBOY, SZYMON GARBACZ, SAYING:

"Exhibitions like this allow you to see live what the soldiers' formation looked like, how the battles looked and how it played out."