Ewa Stanczyk

This project analyses collective memory of children – the forgotten victims of World War II – in the context of memory politics of both communist and post-communist Poland. The study focuses on state-sponsored and nonofficial initiatives which centre on urban spaces, educational and school projects, and museum exhibitions dedicated to the memory of young victims of World War II. The overall aim of this project is to explore the differences in practices remembrance in the two periods of Polish history and the associated construction of national identity both pre- and post-1989. By applying the groundbreaking concepts drawn from memory studies to the Polish context and by looking at a variety of commemorative practices in Poland, this project demythologises the conventional notion of children as unsuspecting observers of war and poses broader questions about the shifting cultural perceptions of childhood. Whilst acknowledging the historical and cultural significance of children, it also contributes to the discussion on national identity with which these representations are inextricably bound up. More generally, this study constitutes an important voice in the ongoing debate on the appropriation, sublimation and manipulation of the memory of World War II in post-1945 Europe and the resulting myths which shape the new European order and affect contemporary identities, at both national and supra-national levels. The project is interdisciplinary in scope and straddles the fields of cultural studies, contemporary history, anthropology and political science. Drawing on and explicating complex narratives surrounding Poland’s disputed memories, it tracks the ways in which post-war representations of children evolve into battlefields of memory, acquiring new meanings and adapting their functions to new political conditions. The study tells a fascinating story of Polish nation building, politics of remembrance, and also, vitally, rapidly changing post-communist society.