Browsing by Subject "Holocaust"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Access status: Open Access ,
The presence of absence. Transgenerational local memory of the Holocaust among Hungarians
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2024) Papp, Richárd; Csepeli, György
The paper reports on the results of a non-representative focus group research aimed at exploring the local memory of the Holocaust in Hungary. The research took place between 2021 and 2024, almost 80 years after the events of 1944, at the historical moment when communicative memory is transforming into cultural memory. The sites of the research were villages, small and medium-sized towns, and the capital, precisely those scenes where the drama of the Holocaust took place in the summer of 1944. The results of the research showed that the Jews disappeared, but signs of their former presence remained. The traces of past Jewish life, however, became increasingly obscured over time in the minds of the successive generations.
Access status: Open Access ,
Transgenerational Holocaust memory in Slovakia: from forgetting to ambivalence about the roots of hatred
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2024) Buzalka, Juraj; Očková, Katarína
This article explores Holocaust memory in Slovakia, shedding light on how Slovak citizens perceive this past and its transgenerational transmission. The data presented were gathered in 2023 through ethnographic fieldwork and focus group interviews with informants belonging to three generations (between ages of 18 and 95), in three different locations across the country: Krupina, Prešov, and Bratislava. The initial findings show that Slovakia has been moving from indifference towards the Holocaust to the limited capability of realizing the actual causes and effects of atrocities, while at the same time officially accepting the commemorative centrality of the Holocaust.
Access status: Open Access ,
"Yizkor" : a case of Holocaust memory activism in a Czech village
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2024) Seidlová, Veronika; Novotná, Hedvika
The article explores the construction and preservation of Holocaust memory in the small Czech village of Kosova Hora. The study, based on focus group interviews, reveals how local Holocaust memory is shaped by a unique combination of activism, local history, and communal practices. The article highlights the role of a Jewish couple who, by rescuing and restoring the village synagogue during the Communist era, created a central site for Holocaust remembrance. This act of preservation catalyzed broader local engagement, resulting in a collective effort to remember the Jewish community that once thrived there. The synagogue now serves not only as a cultural and educational center but also as a place for religious commemoration, despite the absence of a local Jewish population. The research concludes that such localized efforts are crucial for sustaining Holocaust memory, showing how minority activism can embed itself within majority memory, even in small and seemingly ordinary communities.