Jews and Germans in Polish collective memory. Two case studies of memory formation in local communities after WWII

• Applicant: Dr. Katrin Steffen
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History ; Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2015 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 277229846

The project analyzes the process of constructing the memory of Jews and Germans in two specific towns in today´s Poland: Dzierzoniow and Raciborz. The significance of this topic can hardly be overestimated: Jews and Germans played a key role in Polish history, culture and consequently also in collective memory. Both groups are strongly present in the consciousness of Polish society and in popular as well as academic discourse. And yet, the question how this memory emerged, how it changed, how it is related to social processes and how it is constructed today, is still open. The main aim is to examine the relations between specific social conditions and forms of collective memories. We plan to investigate the mechanisms that allow the past to be present in collective memory and shape its form and content. By doing so, the project contributes to a further methodological development of memory research. Wulf Kansteiner wrote in his critique of memory studies: The memory wave in the humanities has contributed to the impressive revival of cultural history, but the success of memory studies has not been accompanied by significant conceptual and methodological advances in the research of collective memory processes. With this project we intend to fill this gap. The history of the two small towns Dzierzoniow and Raciborz and their former and current ethnic structure as well as the transformation and European integration of Poland since 1989 constitute the background against which collective memory will be researched. This makes it possible to explain shifts in collective memory during the transformation from a communist to a post-communist system. By focusing on local communities we also ask the question, whether the history of local communities can offer new perspectives and epistemological alternatives to dominant imaginations or master-narratives in memory studies and the historiography of Poland, since the perspective of the local goes beyond established disciplinary, cultural or national boundaries. This perspective also challenges some static concepts and categories used in the humanities. Therefore, we expect new findings not only on the processes of construction and transformation of memory, but also on the concept itself.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Poland
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Barbara Pabjan