Ragged houses and candlelight. The romance of the Jewish past and memory work in the last decade of the communist rule in Kraków, Poland
Ragged houses and candlelight. The romance of the Jewish past and memory work in the last decade of the communist rule in Kraków, Poland
It has often been proposed that the Jewish past of Poland had been largely forgotten and that first popular commemorations of the destroyed minority took place after the fall of Communism in 1989. Challenging this chronology the present article examines the commemorations in Kraków, the cultural capital of Poland, in the 1980s. It analyses the work of local Jewish museum and preservation projects developed during the decade and establishes that the Jewish past had been remembered in the city since at least 1980. It demonstrates that local, mid-ranking officials, a group situated midway in the polar opposites of the government and the society, were responsible for this rediscovery of the Jewish past. In particular, this article points towards the heritage preservationists and comments on their importance for urban memory work.
Heritage, Jewish past, Kraków, Memory work, Museum
717-733
Gryta, Janek
b86f786f-13d6-41da-bf28-ee5f67415d6d
Gryta, Janek
b86f786f-13d6-41da-bf28-ee5f67415d6d
Gryta, Janek
(2017)
Ragged houses and candlelight. The romance of the Jewish past and memory work in the last decade of the communist rule in Kraków, Poland.
Cultural and Social History, 14 (5), .
(doi:10.1080/14780038.2017.1375705).
Abstract
It has often been proposed that the Jewish past of Poland had been largely forgotten and that first popular commemorations of the destroyed minority took place after the fall of Communism in 1989. Challenging this chronology the present article examines the commemorations in Kraków, the cultural capital of Poland, in the 1980s. It analyses the work of local Jewish museum and preservation projects developed during the decade and establishes that the Jewish past had been remembered in the city since at least 1980. It demonstrates that local, mid-ranking officials, a group situated midway in the polar opposites of the government and the society, were responsible for this rediscovery of the Jewish past. In particular, this article points towards the heritage preservationists and comments on their importance for urban memory work.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 18 September 2017
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Funding Information:
In first place, I thank the University of Manchester for the financial support which made the research for this project possible. I am also very grateful to reviewers, friends and colleagues, in particular to my doctoral supervisor Dr Ewa Ochman, who commented on the article as it developed.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Social History Society.
Keywords:
Heritage, Jewish past, Kraków, Memory work, Museum
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Local EPrints ID: 482102
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/482102
ISSN: 1478-0038
PURE UUID: 315ab453-d9c8-46ba-8ac3-795c2ec81f7b
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Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:15
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Author:
Janek Gryta
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