Pomiędzy kreacją a rzeczywistością. Filmowa historia upamiętnień rocznic powstania w getcie warszawskim (1945-1953)
Between Creation and Reality. The Film History of Commemorating the Anniversaries of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Summary/Abstract: In post-WWII years the presence of state politics in cinematic art was evident, this applying to both Polish and Jewish productions, both of which were supposed to consolidate the socialist system, also in the context of the memory of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The ceremonies held to observe the ghetto uprising anniversaries were regularly recorded on film already in 1945. The accounts of the anniversary events were included in the newsreels shown regularly in Polish cinemas, called Polska Kronika Filmowa (PKF) in: 1946 (the third anniversary), 1948 (the fifth) and 1953 (the ninth). This article looks at the way in which, over a relatively short period of time, the concepts of visual presentation of the commemoration of Ghetto Uprising anniversaries in the PKF evolved, depending on the situation on the home and the international scene. While the manner of presenting the anniversary events underwent modifications, it always remained consistent with the official image of the past, created for the purposes of the policies concerning history. In the second part of the article, the author reviews a medium-length documentary film in Yiddish Der finfter yortzayt fun oyfshtand in varshever geto [5th Anniversary of Warsaw ghetto uprising] referring directly to the history of the uprising and the manner in which the Jewish community cherished the memory of it in the early post-war years (1945-1948). The film was analyzed from the point of view of the Zionist themes and symbols it contained, which determined the subsequent fate of the film and the complete lack of its public distribution

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