Historical, cultural and social factors shaping (non-)memory about crimes committed by Poles on members of other ethnic groups in local communities

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyze the influence of historical, cultural and social factors influencing the processes of remembering and forgetting about crimes committed by Poles on members of other ethnic groups in two local communities: Pawłokoma, where Ukrainians were murdered in retaliation act in 1945 and Gniewczyna, where in 1942 local firemen imprisoned, tortured and gave away Jewish inhabitants to the German gendarmes. Using the data collected during individual interviews with three categories of respondents: local leaders, other members of the local communities and “experts,” two types of such factors will be distinguished: repetitive, occurring in both localities and specific, determining differences among attitudes of members of both communities.