The book addresses the controversial issue of how Poland remembers its murdered Jewish community. The authors collected rich ethnographic material on the basis of which they present an innovative interpretation of the collective forgetting that bears importance not only to the study of Jewish-Christian relations, but also to the memory studies.

Seventy-five years after the Holocaust, Poland's approach to its murdered Jewish community still remains a highly debated and often politicized issue. This book addresses this contested topic in an interdisciplinary way, integrating the approaches of memory studies, social anthropology and sociology. The authors revisited the material from the fieldwork carried out 25 years ago and compared it with the interviews collected recently with the younger generation of Poles. The result is a fascinating account of the process of collective forgetting that offers not only an original insight into Christian-Jewish relations after the Holocaust, but also a significant contribution to the reflection on the social mechanisms of remembrance and identity-building.

Autorentext

Jacek Nowak is Associate Professor of Sociology at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow. His teaching, research, and publications focus on identity issues, ethnic and religious minorities. Recently he is working on the phenomenon of collective memory. He has a good knowledge of the multi-ethnic composition of East-Central Europe. S awomir Kapralski is Professor of Sociology at the Pedagogical University of Kraków. His research focuses on theory of culture, nationalism, ethnicity and identity, collective memory, antisemitism and the Holocaust, and the Roma communities in Europe. Dariusz Nied wiedzki is Professor of Sociology at the Jagiellonian University, Kraków. For over 20 years, he has carried out research in the fields of identity, migration, social memory, ethnic conflict, social and cultural changes in integrating Europe, and the link between politics and culture.

Klappentext

Seventy-five years after the Holocaust, Poland s approach to its murdered Jewish community still remains a highly debated and often politicized issue. This book addresses this contested topic in an interdisciplinary way, integrating the approaches of memory studies, social anthropology and sociology. The authors revisited the material from the fieldwork carried out 25 years ago and compared it with the interviews collected recently with the younger generation of Poles. The result is a fascinating account of the process of collective forgetting that offers not only an original insight into Christian-Jewish relations after the Holocaust, but also a significant contribution to the reflection on the social mechanisms of remembrance and identity-building.

Inhalt

Collective memory - Non-memory and forgetting - Poland - Jews - Jewish-Christian relations - The Holocaust - Identity - Antisemitism - Sites of memory - Commemorative practices - Transmission of memory