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Memory and Postwar MemorialsNarrative Shock and Polish Memory Remaking in the Twenty-first Century

Memory and Postwar Memorials: Narrative Shock and Polish Memory Remaking in the Twenty-first Century [This chapter examines different modes of memory-making, un-making, and remaking in present-day Poland, as it relates specifically to its Jewish past. In memory studies much has been written on trauma and denial on the one hand and mythology and nostalgia on the other.1 Here I investigate the relationship between these memory modes by analyzing three distinct memorial projects: the postwar creation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and its post-1989 narrative revision; the Jedwabne memorial and counter memorial; and the commemorative projects of artist/memory activist Rafał Betlejewski “I Miss You, Jew” and “Burning Barn.” By analyzing national institutions, state-sponsored memorial monuments, and “bottom-up” citizens’ commemorative initiatives, the chapter aims not only to uncover a typology of memory-making practices and projects, but also to highlight how these form discrete links in a complex mnemonic chain reaction. I show that postwar socialist memorialization of the Second World War, which downplayed the Holocaust and emphasized Polish victimhood, reinforced a long-standing national martyrological myth. As that mythology was seriously questioned after 1989, it sent Poles into a state of “narrative shock,” bringing about different forms of reactive memory.2 By analyzing discrete cases, I show how the forging of that chain is related to national mythology, historical events, regime change, narrative reconfigurations, and political projects.3] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Memory and Postwar MemorialsNarrative Shock and Polish Memory Remaking in the Twenty-first Century

Part of the Studies in European Culture and History Book Series
Editors: Silberman, Marc; Vatan, Florence
Zubrzycki, Geneviève
Memory and Postwar Memorials — Oct 29, 2015
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References (13)

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2013
ISBN
978-1-349-46574-3
Pages
95 –115
DOI
10.1057/9781137343529_6
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[This chapter examines different modes of memory-making, un-making, and remaking in present-day Poland, as it relates specifically to its Jewish past. In memory studies much has been written on trauma and denial on the one hand and mythology and nostalgia on the other.1 Here I investigate the relationship between these memory modes by analyzing three distinct memorial projects: the postwar creation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and its post-1989 narrative revision; the Jedwabne memorial and counter memorial; and the commemorative projects of artist/memory activist Rafał Betlejewski “I Miss You, Jew” and “Burning Barn.” By analyzing national institutions, state-sponsored memorial monuments, and “bottom-up” citizens’ commemorative initiatives, the chapter aims not only to uncover a typology of memory-making practices and projects, but also to highlight how these form discrete links in a complex mnemonic chain reaction. I show that postwar socialist memorialization of the Second World War, which downplayed the Holocaust and emphasized Polish victimhood, reinforced a long-standing national martyrological myth. As that mythology was seriously questioned after 1989, it sent Poles into a state of “narrative shock,” bringing about different forms of reactive memory.2 By analyzing discrete cases, I show how the forging of that chain is related to national mythology, historical events, regime change, narrative reconfigurations, and political projects.3]

Published: Oct 29, 2015

Keywords: Jewish Community; Mass Grave; Reactive Memory; Article 132a; Historical Revisionism

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