Kultura i Społeczeństwo

Kłopotliwe dziedzictwo – konteksty, interpretacje, działania

Kamilla Biskupska — 2024-03-20

Życia codzienne w okupowanej Polsce, czyli o czym (nieraz) zapominają historycy

Jerzy Kochanowski — 2024-03-20

The article presents several possibilities for a slightly different perspective on everyday life (or rather everyday lives) under occupation, one rarely used if at all by researchers. Within the area of German occupation, which from the summer of 1941 covered almost the entire pre-war territory of Poland, the range of differences — both between administrative units (e.g. the General Government, the Reichsgau Wartheland, and the Eastern Borderlands) as well as within them, between city and countryside, between individual social, professional, ethnic and age groups — was vast. The occupation was not static and homogeneous, but diverse and dynamic, full of complex interactions. Based on subject literature, published materials and archives, and the press — both clandestine and official — the article focuses on the following: the situation of Polish officials working for the occupation administration, mobility (both spatial and social — horizontal and vertical), relations between the city and the countryside, the breakdown of social norms, the wartime economy (in which Polish actors had a stronger voice than tends to be believed), and the process of “taming” the occupation, both materially and psychologically. The paper may be treated as an encouragement and invitation to get involved in interdisciplinary, methodologically innovative, and cross-sectional research on Polish society during the Second World War.

Polityka pamięci „żołnierzy wyklętych”

Krzysztof Jaskułowski — 2024-03-20

Referring to the concept of hegemony, the article focuses on memory politics regarding the “cursed soldiers”. It analyses how and why the conservative-nationalist right wing invented the “cursed soldier” figure and elevated it to the role of a key historical symbol in its hegemonic project of remodelling Polish collective memory in keeping with its ideology. Drawing on the concept of difficult heritage, the paper argues that hegemonic memory politics presupposes the transformation of the disputed heritage of the underground into a taken-for-granted symbol of the “cursed soldiers” representing a narrowly defined “Polishness”, and expressing the emotions of national pride, resentment and martyrdom. At the same time, on the basis of qualitative research, the article examines the process of the grassroots reception of this symbol, revealing selected aspects of its difficult nature.

Zamach na esesmanów pod Ełkiem

Stefan Michał Marcinkiewicz — 2024-03-20

On 31 October 1943, a fifteen-person strong unit of the Home Army, under the command of Władysław Świacki “Sęp” (1900–1972), with intelligence support from Czesław Nalborski “Dzik” (1910–1992), was to carry out a successful strike to take out an SS execution squad commanded by Haupsturmführer Stammer in East Prussia, on the road between Lyck (Ełk) and the village of Neuendorf (Nowa Wieś Ełcka). The German squad was said to have carried out a mass execution of Italian prisoners of war, held at the camp in Bogusze. On 28 October 1989, an obelisk with a plaque commemorating this operation was unveiled in Nowa Wieś Ełcka. The spectacular strike is recorded in the documentation of the ZBoWiD (the Society of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy), but has not been confirmed in any source unconnected to its supposed participants. The execution of the Italians, assassination of Stammer, and even the date of the operation (31 October 1943) were all contrived by a writer based in Białystok, Aleksander Omiljanowicz (1923–2005). The information board erected in 2017 presents a compilation of Świacki’s recollections, Omiljanowicz’s fiction, and selectively chosen historical facts. The monument in Nowa Wieś Ełcka is a troublesome legacy, as too are the heroic and martyrological stories of former Home Army members belonging to the ZBoWiD.

Cmentarz wojenny w Nadolicach Wielkich – trudne dziedzictwo?

Aleksandra Seń — 2024-03-20

The aim of the article is to examine from a cultural perspective the issue of German war cemeteries in Poland, which were established after 1989 in order to provide the hitherto scattered and devastated burial sites with legal protection.
The author addresses the problem of difficult heritage, taking the cemetery in Nadolice Wielkie as an example. She charts the history of the earlier dismantling of German cemeteries, including those from the war, and presents the legal conditions for establishing new Germany necropolises. The second section of the article provides an overview of comments found online regarding the Nadolice cemetery: voices opposing the remembrance of criminals, argued with reports (already disproved) of the burial of members of certain units, as well as frequent opinions of a conciliatory nature. The author concludes by stating that although the spatial organisation of the cemetery is intended to encourage reflection on reconciliation and peace, little is known of its mission, which is linked to the cemetery’s absence in the media.

Strategie zarządzania kłopotliwym dziedzictwem kulturowym na Warmii i Mazurach

Jacek Poniedziałek — 2024-03-20

The article sets out to characterize two main strategies of dealing with the resources of dissonant cultural heritage located in Warmia and Mazury. This type of heritage includes any material or symbolic objects that arouse a sense of dissonance in the social consciousness of representatives of certain social groups. One of the strategies undertaken by regional social actors is described as the strategy of Polonization. The media of memory are filtered so that the story about the past and cultural specificity of the region created by such actors fits the ethnocentrically defined Polishness. The second strategy, called cultural succession, consists in the inclusion of all elements of the existing cultural heritage, regardless of their ethnic or political origin. Those implementing it are striving to create a multi-cultural region. The social actors implementing the above strategies are in conflict because they are playing a game of symbolic domination.

Od zapominania do (u)pamięt(ni)ania? Wrocławskie elity o niemieckim dziedzictwie stolicy Dolnego Śląska

Kamilla Dolińska — 2024-03-20

The status of German heritage in Wrocław is rather specific, and has been changing over the past seven decades under the influence of not only state and local politics, but also the biographical experiences of successive generations of residents. Calling German heritage troublesome is a frequently used rhetorical figure as well as — or perhaps primarily as — an epithet describing a social fact. This article aims to provide answers concerning the troublesome nature of German heritage for contemporary Wrocław elites. The empirical material comprises unstructured interviews conducted in 2011 and 2022, on the basis of which the relationship between the German heritage and persons occupying specific privileged positions in the social structure of the capital of Lower Silesia was determined. As the study proceeded, three types of approach to this relationship emerged. The first considers the relationship with German heritage unproblematic — either due to it being made “ours,” or because of it being treated superficially. The second approach recognizes the troublesome nature of this relationship, resulting from the tensions between local and national memory policy, including the state’s historical policy offering an antagonistic vision of Polish-German relations. The third type points to the relationship being troublesome due to the attitude to German heritage during the communist era; the memory of this difficult relationship with the heritage back then, and contemporary efforts to restore memory of Wrocław’s pre-1945 history. The approaches thus identified are present in the stories, regardless of the time — they can be found both when the city’s multicultural identity and local memory were intensively discussed a decade ago, and today, when the city is addressing new urban challenges.

Kłopotliwe dziedzictwo w turystycznym kontekście. Opolscy przewodnicy i ich strategie narracji o tym, co nieobojętne społecznie

Anna Kopczak-Wirga — 2024-03-20

The article aims to show the dissonant heritage of Opole from the perspective of tourist guides. Its first section shows the dissonant heritage in relation to tourism, especially cultural tourism, heritage tourism and dark tourism. The role of the tourist guide in constructing narratives about difficult heritage is then considered. Empirically, the article endeavours to identify the elements of Opole’s dissonant heritage discerned by tourist guides, and the ways of telling tourists about them. Ten qualitative interviews were conducted with Opole guides. Analysis of the narratives reveals that the dissonant heritage of Opole is perceived by the guides from several perspectives. This primarily means their own, entangled in the social characteristics of the guide (e.g. national identity), in the context of the specificity of the group that the guide is showing round, and in the context of their reactions to the guide’s stories or sites visited.

Między odrzuceniem a uznaniem: podejście do dziedzictwa niemieckiego w Katowicach i Metzu

Ewa Bogalska-Martin — 2024-03-20

Katowice and Metz were subject to intensive urbanisation and industrialisation from the second half of the 19th century until the beginning of the First World War. The German authorities were the initiator of the dynamic development of both these cities. The effects of these activities are still visible in the cities’ urban spaces, and constitute part of the cultural heritage. As such, they are becoming a part of the identity narratives jointly shaping the contemporary visions of the cities. Questions posed by this article include that concerning the place that traces of this “German” past occupy in the collective consciousness of these cities’ residents. What processes and stages allowed the gradual integration of these “traces” into the residents’ overall tangible and intangible collective memory? Which social groups, institutions, and organisations are the bearers of the memory of this part of the past? And finally, what needs to be done for German heritage to cease being a difficult heritage, and what role could reference to European heritage play here?

Podwójnie zapomniane: diakonisy Śląskiego Ewangelickiego Domu Sióstr w Cieszynie i Bielsku

Grażyna Kubica — 2024-03-20

The first Lutheran Sisters’ House in Austrian Silesia, the Schlesisches Evangelisches Schwesternhaus, was established in 1892 together with the General Hospital of the Lutheran Church in Cieszyn. The contribution of this Sisters’ House to the development of medical care and women’s professional activity in Cieszyn Silesia has not yet been recognized by historians and local communities, while for the Lutheran community it was an element of its difficult German heritage. The article focuses on processes related to social memory: the Silesian deaconesses were “doubly forgotten”: as women, the memory of whom very quickly vanishes as unimportant in patriarchal culture; and as members of a German-speaking institution, expelled from Polish history and memory. After the Second World War, the Silesian-Cieszyn Lutheran community cut itself off from the German heritage, and mainly emphasized its Polish character, because religious minorities are particularly sensitive to such processes. The project used the anthropological method of extended case study.

Wokół retrowersji i jakości życia. Dziedzictwo odbudowanego miasta w nowych kontekstach na przykładzie Elbląga

Karolina Ciechorska-Kulesza — 2024-03-20

Elbląg is an example of a city in the Western and Northern Territories of Poland that was a German city before World War II, and in 1945, as a result of changes in state borders, became part of Poland. The aim of the article is to present the heritage of Elbląg in contemporary contexts. Treating heritage as a discursive area of social reality, the author shows the main topics of contemporary urban narratives (disputes, demands, discussions) in which heritage is revealed, thus pointing to its dissonances. She also answer questions about social and cultural functions, and about the meaning of the referenced elements of local heritage. One of the main themes and focal points of this heritage is the Old Town, still undergoing reconstruction from wartime destruction using the method of retroversion. This is provoking frequent discussion, and at the same time revealing tensions around the heritage on the axes of essentialism — constructivism, stability — change, and continuity — process. Increasingly, deliberations concerning the Old Town refer to demands related to the quality of life and environmental issues. Thus, green areas are becoming an element of urban heritage. The past and its material traces are an important starting point for discussion, often of a grassroots nature, on the development of the city. This is understood both broadly, in relation to the general vision of the city, and to specific tangible changes in space. Calling Elbląg a “consistently unfinished city,” or “a mock-up city,” touches on the issues of heritage and its social significance in various dimensions and scales of social reality. “Unfinished” therefore concerns not only the constant rebuilding of the city, but also the discussion on the heritage, and more broadly, on the idea of the city.

Kłopotliwa wielka płyta. Sąsiedzkie i artystyczne praktyki transformowania przestrzeni sofijskich kompleksów mieszkaniowych

Angelika Kosieradzka — 2024-03-20

The aim of the article is to show social practices (neighbourly and artistic) activated around the example of Sofia’s dissonant heritage, which is the space of a housing complex. The author interprets the capital’s block housing estates as zones of transition between what is public and what is private, where specialized urban planning meets the everyday experience of residents, and the dehumanizing uniformity of the landscape clashes with the effects of amateur activities aimed at personalizing the environment. Using the methodological tools of anthropology of visual culture and arts and cultural studies, the author considers grassroots ways of adapting housing estate space to the residents’ needs, as well as attempts towards its visual revitalization using street art. The analysis shows that apartment blocks — as dissonant heritage, and at the same time a personal space — are today a field of activities of local communities and the artistic community, exploring the aesthetic and social potential of housing complexes.

Dziedzictwo konfliktu klasowego a lokalna polityka pamięci

Magdalena Rek-Woźniak — 2024-03-20

The conceptual framework of “difficult heritage” was developed in studies concerning various forms of collective violence. This article is grounded on the assumption that it can also be applied in the context of socio-economic inequalities, since under the hegemonic dominance of interpretations of the past that conform to the interests of the elite, the experiences of subordinated categories become “troublesome.” As such, stories of both oppression and emancipation are forgotten or neutralized. From this perspective, the mechanisms of obscuring and mainstreaming of collective interests and related conflicts as elements of “legitimate” history seem particularly interesting. Drawing on the notions of agonistic memory and museum as agonistic space, the author analyses the permanent exhibition at the Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, reinterpreting the local history of industrial development. The paper aims to determine the place of industrial conflict in the narrative of the history of an industrial city. It is organized around three questions. First of all, what aspects of industrial relations are discussed in the museum narrative? Are they framed mostly by structural determinants or rather presented as individual and collective experience? Secondly, how are these relations contextualized? And thirdly, which modes of narrative are engaged? And is the conflict between workers and those in charge of the means of production a moral or rather a socio-political issue?

Objąć trzy tysiąclecia jednym spojrzeniem

Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska — 2024-03-20

Spójrzmy na PRL szeroko, jak najszerzej

Marcin Kula — 2024-03-20