Lagier. Wspomnienia o zamieszkiwaniu w sąsiedztwie ludobójstwa
Lagier. Memories of Neighbouring a Genocide

Author(s): Paweł Godziuk
Subject(s): Anthropology, Customs / Folklore, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989)
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Soviet prisoners of war; Nazi POW camp; Holocaust; Porajmos; cultural memory; anthropology of violence; genocide studies; necropolitics; bystander; Wólka Pełkińska; Stalag 327
Summary/Abstract: This chapter delves into the memories of people who lived in the vicinity of both the Nazi camp for Soviet prisoners of war (Stalag 327) in Wólka Pełkińska and the Niechciałka Forest – the location of the mass graves of the camp’s victims and the site of executions of local Jews and Romani that German soldiers carried out there as part of Operation Reinhardt in 1942–1943. The main research material consists of ethnographic interviews with the oldest residents of Wólka Pełkińska, Wola Buchowska and Jagiełła, which I conducted in 2019 and 2020, as well as witness interview protocols sourced from the archives of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), together with photographs and reports on the inspection of the area, drawn up in May 1948 by the Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation. By employing a multifaceted analytical lens drawing from cultural memory studies, anthropology of violence, and genocide studies, this study sheds light on the local collective memory surrounding the still inadequately documented World War II atrocities, notably the systematic extermination of Soviet prisoners of war. Emphasizing the nuanced experiences and ambiguous positions of bystanders residing in proximity to the genocide, the chapter raises pertinent questions regarding the role of cultural frames of recognition in precipitating specific acts of mass violence. Consequently, based on witnesses’ memories, the text offers an anticipatory understanding of mass violence in relation to its cultural conditions.

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