Studia Humanistyczne AGH
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ISSN 2084-3364
e-ISSN: 2300-7109
Issue Date
2024
Volume
T. 23
Number
Nr 2
Description
Journal Volume
Studia Humanistyczne AGH
T. 23 (2024)
Projects
Pages
Articles
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.
Collective memory or collective oblivion? The case of Holocaust memory in three Polish localities
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2024) Tyrała, Radosław
The aim of this article is to show the scope and content of the memory of Jewish deportations and the Holocaust today through a study conducted in three Polish towns of varying sizes with a rich Jewish past (Kraków, Nowy Sącz, Muszyna) which I surveyed in 2023. Additionally, I wanted to identify the channels in which the memory of the Holocaust and deportations circulates in the surveyed localities. The research was conducted with representatives of three generations, so it is also important to show how age differentiates the memory of Jewish deportation and the Holocaust. Both age and the size of the locality turn out to be important in differentiating the extent of this memory. Moreover, an important conclusion of the study is that the memory of those events is limited and subject to repression, at risk of falling into oblivion. Relatively speaking, most of the memory of those events is preserved in larger cities among representatives of the middle generation, which is related to the existence of material memory infrastructures there facilitating the formation of local communities of memory of Jews and the Holocaust. Based on the three focus group interviews I conducted, it can be concluded that the dominant channel of memory transfer about local Jewish history and the Holocaust is communicative memory. Conversations about Jews and the Holocaust, if they do occur, generally happen with family members or acquaintances, but relatively rarely at school. Generally, conversations are initiated by people already interested in the topic and here the role of communities of memory, such as the Sądecki Shtetl, is very important.
"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.
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.
Local meanings of the Holocaust memory in Zrenjanin (Serbia)
(Wydawnictwa AGH, 2024) Schwarz, Katalin
The choosen topic of my paper was local meanings of the memory of the Holocaust in Zrenjanin. The main questions of my research dealt with the research community’s general attitude, stereotypes, and prejudices towards Jews. I deemed it relevant to examine the current situation and the importance of the memory of the Holocaust. I assumed that the answers to these questions could bring out the existing deficiencies of current local and general strategies of remembrance and contribute to a critical reconsideration of these efforts. The aim of my research was also to contribute to the exploration and analysis of the local and personal empirical depths of memory. I wanted to record the constructed and reconstructed personal narratives of the generation of survivors and witnesses, and the narratives of the next generations. In this study, I have also strived to process and interpret recent meanings of the memory of the Holocaust.