Audio literature and the holocaust: a study based on the material of public radio stations –– polish radio in warsaw, radio łódź, and radio lublin, 1950–2020

Abstract

The aim of this article is to develop an audio image of the Holocaust in the genres of artistic radio –– i.e. in reportage, radio play, and feature –– produced in three public radio stations in Poland (Polish Radio Warsaw, Radio ŁódŹ, and Radio Lublin) in the years 1950–2020. This article is based on a query in the archives of the above-mentioned radio stations.In my research work, I used a hybrid method: I made a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the artistic contents of radio broadcasts. On the basis of the established quantitative data, I was looking for answers to the following question: what are the dynamics of producing artistic programs about the Holocaust in the years 1950–2020? A historical perspective, supplemented with media (uniquely radio) studies methodology, was used to analyse the subject. Artistic audio genres do not claim to settle any historiographic matters. They primarily have an aesthetic value (artistry of communication), although they may also have cognitive value (especially radio documentaries and reportages or documentary radio plays). The radio broadcast is not only an sonic record of history, but also an artistic work and important voice in the public discussion and shaping of the Polish extermination discourse (the discourse elevating Jewish victims, the discourse of Polish guilt, or the oppositional discourse of the Polish heroism).