Przetrwanie i trauma. Pamięć zbiorowa o latach wojny w śląskiej wsi
Survival and Trauma. The Collective Memory of the World War II in a Silesian Village

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the issue of collective memory about the times of the Second World War (WWII) among the inhabitants of a Silesian village. Engaging with the Jeffrey C. Alexander’s concept of cultural trauma, we set out to establish if the memory of the WWII in this group bears features of cultural trauma. Two issues have been selected for the analysis: the memory of men’s service in the Wehrmacht, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany, and the memory of living in the vicinity of the Nazi extermination camp in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Thirty in-depth interviews with the inhabitants of the village were analysed in order to answer the research question. The study has demonstrated that the memory of the service in the Wehrmacht bears features of cultural trauma. The memory of these dramatic experiences has transformed the identity of the villagers. This kind of process did not occur in the case of the memory of the Holocaust camp.

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