The Jews in Lublin - Biblioteka Multimedialna Teatrnn.pl - Brama ...

tory but also other fields of human activity such as, sociology, social psychology and
anthropology. Besides moral and historical obligations that such institutions fulfil for
the victims and survivors, they also bear a responsibility for the historical awareness
and remembrance of contemporary generations 14 . Kranz claims:
"they are multifunctional and multidimensional institutions. For their role is to be the
communicators of the past, components of the culture of remembrance, the subjects of historical
communication and the centres of social influence. Yet, from the viewpoint of material
culture they are necropolises, relics and monuments. Thus, they affect both the emotional and
cognitive sphere" 15 .
In Youngs opinion, in contrast to the monuments located far away from the extermination
sites, the remnants of concentration and extermination camps seem to level
the difference between what they actually are and what they are supposed to represent.
This "rhetoric of ruins" suggests that the sites in question do not only point to past
events but they are an integral part of them. 16 Kranz calls it the bridge between the past
and present, and notices the specific atmosphere of these places and their powerful
influence "which is founded on the preserved relics, and emanates the moment they
are approached, thus determining the manner of their perception and experiencing of
the past". 17 However, this approach to the memorial places poses a threat of exaggerated
"metaphorisation" - taking part for the whole. As Aleida Assman points out, the
relationship between history and the present day does not rely on continuity:
"In a memorial place specific history never went any further but it was more or less
abruptly broken. Broken history materializes in the relics and ruins which are mirrored in the
reality as strange, remaining. What was broken, fossilized in the remnants and has no connection
with the local present-day life, which not only kept going but even more or less visibly
disregarded those remnants" 18 .
The museums established at the former concentration and extermination camp
sites use the surrounding area, as well as materials leftover such as: barbed wire, guard
14
Cf. KRANZ T.: Edukacja historyczna w miejscach pamięci. Zarys problematyki. Lublin 2002, pp. 38-39.
15
Ibidem, p. 38. The culture of remembrance - according to this author - "is generally regarded as [...]
a collection of commonly recognized customs, signs and notions concerning the past, and broadly
speaking the understanding of the process of historical communication. The culture of remembrance
reflects the historical preferences of a community and its image of their own history, thus creating
with other figures of memory, including historical science, a specific repertoire of forms and contents
which are used to express the relationship with the past and manifested in the manner of its experience."
Ibidem, p. 19.
16
Cf. YOUNG J. E.: The Texture of Memory. Holocaust Memorial and Meaning. New Haven - London
1993, pp. 120-121.
17
KRANZ T., op. cit., p. 40.
18
ASSMANN A.: Erinnerungsorte und Gedachtnislandschaften. [In:] Erlebnis — Gedachtnis - Sinn.
Authentische und konstruierte Erinnerung. Loewy H., Moltmann B. (ed.), Frankfurt/Main 1996.
After: KRANZ T., op. cit., p. 40.
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