Oflagi w pamięci indywidualnej i zbiorowej
The Oflags in Individual and Collective Memory

Summary/Abstract: The text presents basic historical data about oflags, and also sociological concepts useful for their analysis. Oflag, is a short form for Offizierslager für kriegsgefangene Offiziere, a German prisoner of war camp for officers which existed during the 2nd World War. Within twenty military regions of Germany, there were almost 800 different camps, where 10 million prisoners of war from Europe and United States of America were incarcerated (among them there were half a million of Polish officers and soldiers). Oflags are subject of many historical, sociological and psychological studies. Concepts of totalitarian institutions by E. Goffman, culture and its collerates by S. Ossowski, cultural systems by A. Kłoskowska and B. Sułkowski, social frames of remembrance by M. Halbswach, are all helpful in oflags description and analysis. The framework of this study is an analysis of social remembrance – individual and collective, and its carriers – cultural correlates, such as necropolises, sites of former prisoner of war camps, utility objects, artistic objects (graphics, sculptures, literary texts, songs), documents (photographs, letters). They operate in private and public circuits, where memory sphere abrades with non remembrance sphere – oblivion and exclusion.

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