Forgetting communism, remembering World War II? The case of the permanent exhibition of the Schindler Factory Museum, Krakow, Poland

Abstract

Following Bal’s narratology, underlaid by participant observation, and complemented by interviews, this paper provides a cultural analysis of the permanent exhibition of the Schindler Factory Museum which opened in 2010 in Krakow, Poland. The paper points to current heritage making processes in connection to both the communist period and World War II (WWII) in Poland. The paper suggests that despite an apparent focus on WWII, the exhibition narrative may, albeit indirectly, address the history written under communism and its protracted collective memory. Such an analysis offers a case to investigate cultural heritage as participating and reflecting dynamics between history writing and memory in contemporary Poland between local, national and transcultural memory making processes.