This is the corrected version of the retracted article under the same title, which was published with the following DOI: https://doi.org/10.11649/slh.1401“You need to speak Polish”: Antony Polonsky in an interview by Konrad MatyjaszekThe interview with Antony Polonsky focuses on the history of Polish-Jewish studies as a research field, analyzed from the time of its initiation on the turn of the 1980s until year 2014. Antony Polonsky is the chief historian of the core exhibition of the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, as well as the editor-in-chief of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, a yearly research journal. He is also a co-founder of the first research institutions focused of the field of Polish-Jewish studies, and a co-initiator of the first academic events in this field. In the conversation Polonsky discusses the context of the creation of the Polin Museum’s core exhibition, including the impact of politics on this exhibition’s final form. Afterwards, he recounts the history of the beginnings of Polish-Jewish studies, including the Orchard Lake meeting (1979) and the conference at Columbia University (1983). Polonsky gives a detailed account of the course and the outcomes of the Polish-Jewish studies conference in Oxford in 1984, which he co-organized. He also analyses the 1980s Polish political opposition circles’ reactions to the presence of antisemitic narratives in the opposition’s discourse. The last section of the conversation focuses on the presence within the field of Polish-Jewish studies of narratives that are apologetic towards the Polish nationalist discourse. To jest poprawiona wersja wycofanego artykułu o tym samym tytule, który był opublikowany pod następującym numerem DOI: https://doi.org/10.11649/slh.1401 „Trzeba mówić po polsku”: Z Antonym Polonskym rozmawia Konrad MatyjaszekPrzedmiotem rozmowy z Antonym Polonskym jest historia pola badań studiów polsko-żydowskich od momentu, kiedy powstały na przełomie lat siedemdziesiątych i osiemdziesiątych XX wieku, aż po rok 2014. Antony Polonsky jest głównym historykiem wystawy stałej Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich Polin i redaktorem naczelnym rocznika naukowego „Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry”, był też współtwórcą pierwszych ośrodków studiów polsko-żydowskich i współorganizatorem pierwszych konferencji naukowych w tej dziedzinie. W przytoczonej rozmowie A. Polonsky opowiada o kontekście powstania wystawy głównej Muzeum Polin, w tym o wpływach politycznych na kształt tej wystawy. Tematem rozmowy jest też historia początków pola badawczego studiów polsko-żydowskich, włącznie ze spotkaniem w Orchard Lake (1979) i konferencją na Uniwersytecie Columbia (1983). Ze szczegółami relacjonowany jest przebieg i skutki konferencji studiów polsko-żydowskich w Oksfordzie (1984), którą rozmówca współorganizował. Polonsky przedstawia dalej reakcje polskich środowisk opozycji politycznej na obecność narracji antysemickich w dyskursie opozycji w latach osiemdziesiątych. Ostatnia część rozmowy dotyczy obecności narracji apologetycznych wobec polskiego dyskursu nacjonalistycznego w obrębie pola badań studiów polsko-żydowskich.
This is a retracted article, whose corrected version, bearing the same title, is avalaible under the DOI: https://doi.org/10.11649/slh.1706. The correction was introduced at the request of Konrad Matyjaszek's Interlocutor.“You need to speak Polish”: Antony Polonsky in an interview by Konrad MatyjaszekThe interview with Antony Polonsky focuses on the history of Polish-Jewish studies as a research field, analyzed from the time of its initiation on the turn of the 1980s until year 2014. Antony Polonsky is the chief historian of the core exhibition of the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, as well as the editor-in-chief of Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, a yearly research journal. He is also a co-founder of the first research institutions focused of the field of Polish-Jewish studies, and a co-initiator of the first academic events in this field. In the conversation Polonsky discusses the context of the creation of the Polin Museum’s core exhibition, including the impact of politics on this exhibition’s final form. Afterwards, he recounts the history of the beginnings of Polish-Jewish studies, including the Orchard Lake meeting (1979) and the conference at Columbia University (1983). Polonsky gives a detailed account of the course and the outcomes of the Polish-Jewish studies conference in Oxford in 1984, which he co-organized. He also analyses the 1980s Polish political opposition circles’ reactions to the presence of antisemitic narratives in the opposition’s discourse. The last section of the conversation focuses on the presence within the field of Polish-Jewish studies of narratives that are apologetic towards the Polish nationalist discourse. To jest wycofany artykuł, którego poprawiona wersja o tym samym tytule jest dostępna pod następującym numerem DOI: https://doi.org/10.11649/slh.1706. Korekty artykułu dokonano na prośbę Rozmówcy Konrada Matyjaszka. „Trzeba mówić po polsku”: Z Antonym Polonskym rozmawia Konrad MatyjaszekPrzedmiotem rozmowy z Antonym Polonskym jest historia pola badań studiów polsko-żydowskich od momentu, kiedy powstały na przełomie lat siedemdziesiątych i osiemdziesiątych XX wieku, aż po rok 2014. Antony Polonsky jest głównym historykiem wystawy stałej Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich Polin i redaktorem naczelnym rocznika naukowego „Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry”, był też współtwórcą pierwszych ośrodków studiów polsko-żydowskich i współorganizatorem pierwszych konferencji naukowych w tej dziedzinie. W przytoczonej rozmowie A. Polonsky opowiada o kontekście powstania wystawy głównej Muzeum Polin, w tym o wpływach politycznych na kształt tej wystawy. Tematem rozmowy jest też historia początków pola badawczego studiów polsko-żydowskich, włącznie ze spotkaniem w Orchard Lake (1979) i konferencją na Uniwersytecie Columbia (1983). Ze szczegółami relacjonowany jest przebieg i skutki konferencji studiów polsko-żydowskich w Oksfordzie (1984), którą rozmówca współorganizował. Polonsky przedstawia dalej reakcje polskich środowisk opozycji politycznej na obecność narracji antysemickich w dyskursie opozycji w latach osiemdziesiątych. Ostatnia część rozmowy dotyczy obecności narracji apologetycznych wobec polskiego dyskursu nacjonalistycznego w obrębie pola badań studiów polsko-żydowskich.
In the last decades of the 20th c. and following 2000, a real 'boom' in founding Jewish museums throughout Europe could be observed. A lot of new institutions were established, and old ones were modernized. All this resulting from the growing urge to overcome silence over the Holocaust, to square up with the past, and to open the debate on the multiethnicity of the history of Europe. This, in turn, was favoured by the occurring phenomena: Europe’s integration, the fall of the Iron Curtain, and the development of democratic civil societies. New Jewish museums established in Europe, though inevitably making a reference to the Shoah, are not Holocaust museums as such, and they do not tell the story of the genocide. Their goal is mainly to restore the memory of the centuries of the Jewish presence in a given country, region, and town: they tell this story as part of the history of the given place, and aim at having it incorporated into the official national history. Moreover, their mission is to show the presence and importance of the Jewish heritage in today’s world, as well as to ask questions related to Jewish identity in contemporary Europe. The civilizational conflicts that arose after the relatively peaceful 1990s, outlined a new framework for the activity of Jewish museums which, interestingly, gradually go beyond the peculiar Jewish experience in order to reach a universal level. With such activities they try to promote pluralism and multicultural experience, shape inclusive attitudes, give voice to minorities, speak out against all the manifestations of discrimination and exclusion. Since these museums deal with such sensitive challenging issues, they have to well master the structure of their message on every level: that of architecture, script, exhibition layout, and accompanying programmes, thanks to which they unquestionably contribute to creating new standards and marking out new trends in today’s museology as well as in museum learning.
The operations of the Department of Museums and Monuments of Polish Martyrology were launched in April 1945 as an organizational unit within the Head Authorities of Museums and Monument Preservation active within the structure of the Ministry of Culture and Art. The Department’s supreme goal was to document and visually commemorate sites connected with the martyrdom of Poles under the German occupation in 1939–45 by founding museums and raising monuments on execution sites throughout the whole country. The establishment of such an institution was a response of the government to the spontaneous social movement whose goal following the tragic war experience was to commemorate all the fallen in armed struggle and the executed in the Nazi death camps. The social initiatives inspired the authorities to coordinate such efforts, to identify the priorities in this respect, and to select various commemoration forms. These tasks, along with many other ones, were to be implemented by the Department of Museums and Monuments of Polish Martyrology. The paper deals with the characteristics of the Department’s activities, its organizational structure, as well as the detailed aims and tasks implemented over the 9 years of its operations: from the establishment in 1945 to its winding up in 1954. All the Department’s activities meant to commemorate martyrology sites can be divided into those related to the organization and establishment of museums on the sites of former camps, prisons, and Gestapo investigating offices (e.g. museums in Auschwitz, Majdanek, at Warsaw’s 25 Szucha Avenue), and those related to raising monuments to the Nazi regime’s victims. Furthermore, forms meant to continue the efforts initiated by the Department since 1954 are described. The paper is to a great degree based on the documentation preserved in the Central Archives of Modern Records, yet constitutes but an introductory outline as well as encouragement to further investigate the Department’s history.
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.