Międzypokoleniowe transmisje pamięci. Na podstawie badań we wsiach świętokrzyskich
Intergenerational Transmission of Memory – On the Basis of Field Research in Villages of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses issues related to the intergenerational transmission of the memory of traumatic experiences during World War II. The basis of analyses conducted from this perspective are the memory and commemoration of pacifications that took place in 1943 in the Świętokrzyskie voivodeship, in the villages of Michniów, Żuchowiec, and Gębice (which now belongs administratively to the village of Godów). Each example differs significantly from the others. The events in Gębice and Żuchowiec are still remembered as local experience and memory of them is cultivated mainly among inhabitants in the near vicinity. Michniów, however, has the Mausoleum of the Martyrdom of Polish Villages, and has become a symbol of the suffering of the Polish countryside. The author analyzes processes and phenomena related to the intergenerational transmission of memory, comparing ways and forms of commemorating the past in both the private and public sphere and the content of messages concerning the pacifications that occurred in these villages. The author focuses on issues relating to the variability of commemorative rituals and the presentation of memories of the pacification at a critical moment, when the generation of participants and eye-witnesses is passing away. The author draws attention to the importance of the religious aspect of commemorations in Poland, the power of top-down memory transfers to modify the vision of past generations, and the need to adjust transmission of the past to a person’s own experiences and also to forms of communication. The article is based on research conducted within the framework of the project ‘Milieux de mémoire in Central and Eastern Europe – a Polish Case’.

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