Auschwitz, Poland, and the Politics of Commemoration, 1945-1979

Few places in the world carry as heavy a burden of history as Auschwitz. Recognized and remembered as the most prominent site of Nazi crimes, Auschwitz has had tremendous symbolic weight in the postwar world. This text is a history of the Auschwitz memorial site in the years of the Polish People’s Republic. Since 1945, Auschwitz has functioned as a memorial and museum. Its monuments, exhibitions and public spaces have attracted politicians, pilgrims and countless participants in public demonstrations and commemorative events. Jonathan Huener’s study begins with the liberation of the camp and traces the history of the State Museum at Auschwitz from its origins immediately after the war until the 1980s, analysing the landscape, exhibitions and public events at the site. Based on extensive research and illustrated with archival photographs, Auschwitz, Poland and the Politics of Commemoration accounts for the development and durability of a Polish commemorative idiom at Auschwitz. Emphasis is placed on Polish national martyrdom at Auschwitz, neglect of the Shoah as the most prominent element of the camp’s history, and political instrumentalization of the grounds and exhibitions - these were some of the more controversial aspects of the camp’s postwar landscape. Professor Huener locates these and other public manifestations of memory at Auschwitz in the broad scope of Polish history, in the specific context of postwar Polish politics and culture, and against the background of Polish-Jewish relations. The text should be of interest to scholars, students and general readers of the history of modern Poland and the Holocaust.