The Warsaw Rising Museum as a Vehicle of Polish Collective Memory

Abstract

The author discusses the institutionalization of the memory of the Warsaw Uprising as a process activated among other things due to its Museum opened in 2004. She presents how the museum contributes to the shaping of collective memory. She draws her conclusions from an analysis of programmatic and statute documents collected in the museum’s archives. On this basis she describes the mission and message of the Museum, with a special focus on the interpretation given to the Warsaw Uprising by the authors of the museum’s concept. She also presents how the contents to which they give preference are “translated” into the museum’s visual language as well as the architectural-visual plan of its permanent exhibition.