„Pamiątka, Zabawka, Talizman” czyli Żydzi fantomowi
Souvenir, Talisman, Toy or phantom Jews

Summary/Abstract: The exhibition Souvenir, Talisman, Toy, prepared by Erica Lehrer and shown in Cracow’s Ethnographic Museum in Summer 2013, deals with the phenomena of Jew figures production and currently extremely popular the "Jew with a coin" image. The phenomenon bears full characteristics of folk art. However, it is Holocaust that took place in Poland during the German occupation that should be its valid reference. This historical context that results in, for example, stereotypical way of portraying the exterminated neighbours (this way is often perceived as intentionally anti-Semitic), is not fully analysed or worked through at the exhibition. The rich ethnographic material shown in Cracow is calling for a comment that would include scientific descriptions of Polish-Jewish relations that are being formulated at, for example, the Polish Centre for Holocaust Research. The phenomena of the evoked images production, which became more intense in the last twenty or thirty years, has all the qualities of "phantom memory" or post-memory, which character, as well origins, should be thoroughly analysed.

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