The Polish memory of World War II is very different than that of Britain, France, and the United States, for they do not have a collective memory of victory. The museums we visited reflected this, and showed the great contrast in how the war is remembered throughout the world. We visited the Schindler Museum and Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II – Birkenau.
Wall in Schindler Museum intended to be immersive
Beginning with the Schindler Museum’s representation of the war, it spends a great deal of focus on 1939, the year Poland was invaded, and the conditions under the various occupations. It was designed to be very immersive and make you feel as if you were walking through the streets of occupied Poland. The Polish museums did have a political agenda like all museums, and in the case of the Schindler museum it manifested itself much like it did in France. There was a lack of content on collaboration with the Nazis and Soviets and a much larger focus on the resistance. It will be interesting to see how this phenomenon manifests in the museums in Germany.
Floor tile in Schindler Museum
Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II – Birkenau was a different experience altogether. It is unlike any museum I have been to before, and the fact that over a million people were marched to their death there is simply unimaginable. Seeing the barracks that they were forced to stay in, the gas chambers they were systematically murdered in, and the ovens that their bodies were disposed of made me realize just how truly terrible the situation was. Reading about it in books and seeing pictures cannot do the horrors that were witnessed justice. The purpose behind remembering the holocaust here and using the camp as a museum is to ensure that another atrocity of this magnitude does not happen again. In the back of the camp there is a memorial with stones with a message written in all the languages of those who were murdered within the camp. In English it reads,” always let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children, mainly Jews from several countries in Europe.”
English Translation, “always let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity where the Nazis murdered about one and a half million men, women, and children, mainly Jews from several countries in Europe”
Gate as Auschwitz II – Birkenau
The Polish memory of the war is ultimately one of destruction, despair, and horror, which is a stark contrast to the idea of “the good war” and “the greatest generation” that the United States and Britain have. It will be interesting to see how Germany approaches the memory of the war and how it compares to that of the United States, Britain, France, and Poland.