Veterans, victims, and memory : : the politics of the Second World War in communist Poland / / Joanna Wawrzyniak ; translated by Simon Lewis.

• Superior document: Warsaw studies in contemporary history ; volume 4
• VerfasserIn: Wawrzyniak, Joanna, 1975-
• TeilnehmendeR: Lewis, Simon (Translator),
• Place / Publishing House: Frankfurt am Main : : Peter Lang Edition,, [2015]; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: Warsaw studies in contemporary history ; volume 4.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (262 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

In the vast literature on how the Second World War has been remembered in Europe, research into what happened in communist Poland, a country most affected by the war, is surprisingly scarce. The long gestation of Polish narratives of heroism and sacrifice, explored in this book, might help to understand why the country still finds itself in a «mnemonic standoff» with Western Europe, which tends to favour imagining the war in a civil, post-Holocaust, human rights-oriented way. The specific focus of this book is the organized movement of war veterans and former prisoners of Nazi camps from the 1940s until the end of the 1960s, when the core narratives of war became well established.

Table of Contents

Cover; Table of Contents; List of Abbreviations; List of Figures; List of Tables; Preface; Chapter 1: Communism, Myth and Memory; Collective Memory, Memory Groups and Myths of War under Communism; Agents: Veterans, Victims and the Nation State; Structures: Organizations in the Communist System; Sources Consulted; Chapter 2: The Communist Post-war: Organizing Life and Memory; Challenges of Demobilization; Communist Legislation and the ex-Combatants and Prisoners, 1945-48: A View From Above; Memory Groups: A View from Below; Commemoration: 'I can still smell that putrid stench'

Assistive activities and group interests'The Soil Has Been Tilled': Towards the Unification of Memory Groups; Chapter 3: The Myth of Victory over Fascism (1949-55); Setting the Stage; The Unification Congress; Fighters for peace; In the ranks of the national front; Sites of Memory and the Myth of Victory; Concentration camps; Fields of battle; The forest and the urban resistance; Behind the Scenes: Organization as Illusion; Unity and exclusion; 'We have been unable to plough this fallow field'; The withdrawal of patronage and awards; Chapter 4: The Myth of Unity (1956-59); Memory Unbound

Changes'They gather almost every day and muck-rake in the past'; Against the monopoly of memory; ZBoWiD in the provinces: the case of Lublin region; The Myth of Unity: Formation; The 'family of combatants' and criteria for verification; 'Let's do patriotism'; Anti-German attitudes; The Second ZBoWiD Congress; Chapter 5: The Myth of Innocence (1960-69); Clientelism: 'We Have Been Able to Arrange It'; The Partisans; 'Only ZBoWiD can speak in the name of the Home Army tradition'; Partisan culture; Rival Martyrologies; Wartime martyrdom; Anti-Semitism; The innocent Poles and the ungrateful Jews

Afterword: The Long Shadow of the Communist Politics of MemoryPolish War Memory in Comparative Context; Communist Narratives: between Persistence and Change; Bibliography; Index