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The Politics of the Second World War in Communist Poland

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The Politics of the Second World War in Communist Poland Studies in Contemporary History 4 4 Studies in Contemporary History 4 Joanna Wawrzyniak Joanna Wawrzyniak Veterans, Victims, and Memory Wawrzyniak Joanna In the vast literature on how the Second The Author Veterans, Victims, World War has been remembered in Joanna Wawrzyniak is Deputy Director of Europe, research into what happened the Institute of Sociology at the University in communist Poland, a country most of Warsaw, where she also heads the Social and Memory affected by the war, is surprisingly scarce. Memory Laboratory. She has published The long gestation of Polish narratives extensively on the relationship between of heroism and sacrifice, explored in history and memory in Poland, the uses The Politics of the Second World War this book, might help to understand of oral history, and the current state why the country still finds itself in a of memory studies in Central-Eastern in Communist Poland ‘mnemonic standoff’ with Western Europe. Recently she was a visiting Europe, which tends to favour imagining fellow at Freiburg Institute for Advanced the war in a civil, post-Holocaust, human Studies and at Imre Kertész Kolleg in Jena rights-oriented way. The specific focus of (Germany). 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. Veterans, VictimsVeterans, and Memory ISBN 978-3-631-64049-4 Joanna Wawrzyniak - 978-3-653-99681-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 11:05:35AM via free access COHIS-04 264049_Wawrzyniak_AK_A5HC PLE edition new.indd 1 23.11.15 KW 48 16:29 Studies in Contemporary History 4 4 Studies in Contemporary History 4 Joanna Wawrzyniak Joanna Wawrzyniak Veterans, Victims, and Memory Wawrzyniak Joanna In the vast literature on how the Second The Author Veterans, Victims, World War has been remembered in Joanna Wawrzyniak is Deputy Director of Europe, research into what happened the Institute of Sociology at the University in communist Poland, a country most of Warsaw, where she also heads the Social and Memory affected by the war, is surprisingly scarce. Memory Laboratory. She has published The long gestation of Polish narratives extensively on the relationship between of heroism and sacrifice, explored in history and memory in Poland, the uses The Politics of the Second World War this book, might help to understand of oral history, and the current state why the country still finds itself in a of memory studies in Central-Eastern in Communist Poland ‘mnemonic standoff’ with Western Europe. Recently she was a visiting Europe, which tends to favour imagining fellow at Freiburg Institute for Advanced the war in a civil, post-Holocaust, human Studies and at Imre Kertész Kolleg in Jena rights-oriented way. The specific focus of (Germany). 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. Veterans, VictimsVeterans, and Memory Joanna Wawrzyniak - 978-3-653-99681-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 11:05:35AM via free access COHIS-04 264049_Wawrzyniak_AK_A5HC PLE edition new.indd 1 23.11.15 KW 48 16:29 Veterans, Victims, and Memory Joanna Wawrzyniak - 978-3-653-99681-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 11:05:35AM via free access STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY HISTORY Edited by Dariusz Stola / Machteld Venken VOLUME 4 Joanna Wawrzyniak - 978-3-653-99681-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 11:05:35AM via free access Joanna Wawrzyniak Veterans, Victims, and Memory The Politics of the Second World War in Communist Poland Translated by Simon Lewis Joanna Wawrzyniak - 978-3-653-99681-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 11:05:35AM via free access Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibli- ografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. The publication is founded by Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland as part of the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Minis- try can not be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein. Cover image: Marking of the new Polish border on the Oder (Odra). 1945. Photo credit: unknown, National Digital Archives in Poland. ISSN 2364-2874 ISBN 978-3-631-64049-4 (Print) E-ISBN 978-3-653-02441-8 (E-Book) DOI 10.3726/978-3-653-02441-8 © Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Frankfurt am Main 2015 All rights reserved. Peter Lang Edition is an Imprint of Peter Lang GmbH. Peter Lang – Frankfurt am Main · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. This publication has been peer reviewed. www.peterlang.com Joanna Wawrzyniak - 978-3-653-99681-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 11:05:35AM via free access Table of Contents List of Abbreviations .............................................................................................7 List of Figures ....................................................................................................10 List of Tables .......................................................................................................12 Preface ................................................................................................................ 13 Chapter 1: Communism, Myth and Memory ................................................. 19 Collective Memory, Memory Groups and Myths of War under Communism ... 19 Agents: Veterans, Victims and the Nation State ................................................. 26 Structures: Organizations in the Communist System ......................................... 34 Sources Consulted ...............................................................................................38 Chapter 2: The Communist Post-war: Organizing Life and Memory ........ 43 Challenges of Demobilization .............................................................................43 Communist Legislation and the ex-Combatants and Prisoners, 1945–48: A View From Above ........................................................................................... 49 Memory Groups: A View from Below ................................................................60 Commemoration: ‘I can still smell that putrid stench’ .................................60 Assistive activities and group interests......................................................... 66 ‘The Soil Has Been Tilled’: Towards the Unifi cation of Memory Groups .........77 Chapter 3: The Myth of Victory over Fascism (1949–55) ............................. 85 Setting the Stage ................................................................................................. 86 The Unifi cation Congress .............................................................................86 Fighters for peace .........................................................................................94 In the ranks of the national front .................................................................. 98 Sites of Memory and the Myth of Victory ........................................................100 Concentration camps ..................................................................................100 Fields of battle ............................................................................................110 The forest and the urban resistance ............................................................ 113 Behind the Scenes: Organization as Illusion .................................................... 117 Unity and exclusion ....................................................................................117 ‘We have been unable to plough this fallow fi eld’ ..................................... 122 The withdrawal of patronage and awards ...................................................125 Joanna Wawrzyniak - 978-3-653-99681-4 Downloaded from PubFactory at 01/11/2019 11:05:35AM via free access 6 Table of Contents Chapter 4: The Myth of Unity (1956–59) ...................................................... 135 Memory Unbound .............................................................................................135 Changes ...................................................................................................... 138 ‘They gather almost every day and muck-rake in the past’ ........................142 Against the monopoly of memory ..............................................................145 ZBoWiD in the provinces: the case of Lublin region .................................149 The Myth of Unity: Formation ......................................................................... 158 The ‘family of combatants’ and criteria for verifi cation ............................ 158 ‘Let’s do patriotism’ ................................................................................... 160 Anti-German attitudes ................................................................................167 The Second ZBoWiD Congress
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