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The Non-remembrance of the Ghetto

Summary/Abstract: All the accounts presented by guides showing Warsaw to assorted visitors contain a considerable dose of martyrology: much is said about violence. The material reality of the Muranów district, however, entails non-remembrance. The original project launched by Lachert was to recall violence, but its ideological premises, which compelled people to inhabit grey housing estates made out of rubble-concrete, were rapidly tamed so that it became possible to forget. Oxygenator, realised in the summer of 2007 by Joanna Rajkowska, countered the project of a monument commemorating the victims of the Volhynian Massacre, immersed in a plebeian aesthetic of the macabresque and emotions straight out of a horror movie. What does ”restoring memory” to Warsaw and Muranów actually denote? Does it signify a mere process of bringing up to date the narration of a non-existent town, and of including into the memory of the Second World War motifs which for many years remained outside the official discourse? The answer is: yes, or even: above all else. This, however, also means a restoration of the memory of the residents of post-war Muranów – in other words, understanding the phenomenon of non-remembrance.

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