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Memory Activism Challenging the Reconciliation Paradigm

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Part of the book series: Memory Politics and Transitional Justice ((MPTJ))

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the practices of the Brama Grodzka group in Lublin, Poland. Brama Grodzka uses its physical location in the gateway over the road connecting the historically Jewish Quarter to Lublin’s Old City as the material expression of its mission: to change Lubliners’ conscious awareness of what the city’s Jewish past means for Polish national identity. Brama Grodzka created a series of performative strategies that allowed participants to interact with the erasure of Lublin’s Jewish community, broaching the possibility of rupture with a normalized mono-ethnic present. In their work, Brama Grodzka staff positioned the city itself as carrying the trauma of the Nazi excision of Jewish life, and the Polish suppression of its memory.

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Correspondence to Janine Holc .

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Holc, J. (2018). Memory Activism Challenging the Reconciliation Paradigm. In: The Politics of Trauma and Memory Activism . Memory Politics and Transitional Justice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63339-8_2

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