The Politics, Memory, and Commemoration of the Postwar Camps for Germans in Poland (1945-1949) Breaking the Conspiracy of Silence

Introduction     

Characterising sociological studies           

Part I     The memory of the camps in the political context           

In communist Poland    

Departure point: the 1940s         

The fear of remembering in the policies of the PPR security apparatus    

Politics and remembering the camps      

Łambinowice – the breaktrough of 1977

After the 1989 transition             

Breaking the taboo in Poland     

The memory of the camps           

Łambinowice, Świętochłowice, Potulice

The significance and instrumentalisation of memory in the 21st century 

Part II    Memory in flux

The symbolism of the postwar camps in Poland and the problem of trauma

Connotations

Camp-related terminology and categorising prisoners    

A sense of stigma            

Memory and commemoration: between emotions and politics

Motivations behind involvement in commemoration      

Sources of knowledge about the camps 

The problem of politicising commemoration       

Memory contexts: dimensions, creations,  and (re)interpretations         

Language and narratives              

Obstacles to commemoration   

Suggested forms of commemoration     

Mysterious ways of commemorations: challenges and risks       

Challenges in holding commemoration  

Difficult cooperation on commemorating the camps        

Are we forgetting? The issue of the postwar camps in Poland in the Polish and German public spheres 

Concluding remarks       

APPENDIX          

Works cited      

Archives              

Polish press – national and regional periodicals  

Secondary sources         

Internet sources

Biography

Piotr Madajczyk, 1959, historian and political scientist, Head of the Department  Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the scientific board in the German “Foundation Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation” (Berlin). His research interests cover the history of ethnic cleansing and forced migration, Polish-German relations in the 20th century, and the German minority in Poland. His most recent publications have focused on Raphael Lemkin and the Second World War.

Magdalena Lemańczyk PhD – Deputy Director for Scientific Affairs and Head of the Department of Research on Social and Institutional Transformations at the Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences. Executive Editor of the ISA RC25 journal Language, Discourse & Society. Her research focuses on Polish-German relations in the 20th and 21st centuries, minority and migration issues, and social innovations.

Paweł Popieliński PhD, 1976, sociologist, political scientist, researcher of national and ethnic minorities. Assistant Professor at the Department of German Studies at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Secretary of the scientific journal „Rocznik Polsko-Niemiecki“ (Polish-German Annual). In his scientific activity he focuses on the issues of the German minority and the topic of Upper Silesia and "Silesianness" in the 20th and 21st centuries. His area of interest also includes the Tatar minority in Poland and the Roma minority in Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany. ORCID: 0000-0001-7137-813X.