Pamięć zbiorowa – muzeum – miejsce pamięci

Abstract

COLLECTIVE MEMORY – MUSEUM AS A SPACE OF MEMORY

Over the past few years we have witnessed a growing interest in the past and in memory as such – in both its individual and collective aspects. The notion of “a place/space of memory” (lieux de memoire), by which the famous French historian Pierre Nora means all sorts of manifestations of national, public or social memory has recently entered public discourse. Spaces of memory can be specific physical spaces, as well as any events, images, or films which have become permanent elements of collective memory. The Historical Museum of the City of Kraków looks after one such specific space of memory: the Silesian House at 2 Pomorska Street in Kraków – a building which in the period 1939–1945 housed the headquarters of the Kraków unit of Gestapo. The house, with original prison cells which have been preserved from WWII is a silent witness of the Nazi’s policy towards the people of the occupied city, and the inscriptions on the walls present the evidence of the suffering of Gestapo’s victims. The history of transforming this place into a remembrance site (it finally became a branch of the city museum) demonstrates how the attitudes of various subjects to the issue of remembrance changed over time, how the memory of this place functioned in the past and how it functions today in the consciousness of Kraków’s citizens.