2013, No. 1 (4), On Representation

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Marta Kubiszyn
Memories of the Holocaust: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Lublin in the Oral Testimonies of Non-Jewish Witnesses

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Keywords: memories of the Holocaust, Lublin, Gerhard Riemann, Fritz Schütze.

Abstract:
The article is part of the author’s broader project examining oral history testimonies given by pre-war citizens of Lublin and treated as a source that enables to re-read, re-store and re-interpret the social and individual memories of Lublin as a former Polish-Jewish city. Although the Jewish community was almost completely destroyed during World War II by the Nazis, who also demolished the Jewish Quarter in the Podzamcze area, the history and cultural heritage of Jews is a vital element of the contemporary image of the city, which can play an important role in the process of re-building the memory of the formerly multicultural local community. Referring to the theoretical concept of the “trajectory” proposed by Gerhard Riemann and Fritz Schütze, the author focuses on reconstructing images of the suffering and destruction of the Jews of Lublin, that are reflected in the oral testimonies of non-Jewish witnesses. The recorded memories are treated here not as a source of information about past events, but as material that reflects the ways in which individuals and the community as a whole remembers (and forgets) about the past.

About Author:
KUBISZYN MARTA - art historian, Associate Professor in the Department of Jewish History and Culture, University of Maria Curie Skłodowska in Lublin