Municipalities and the search for the local past: Fragmented memory of the red army in Upper Silesia

East European Politics and Societies

Volumn 23, Issue 3, 2009, Pages 392-420

  Ochman, Ewa ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Civic identity; Poland; Politics of commemoration; Upper Silesia; Urban history; War memory

Indexed keywords

EID: 69549111649     PISSN: 08883254     EISSN: 15338371     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0888325408330623     Document Type: Article

References (125)

1. See for example Richard S. Esbenshade, Remembering to Forget: Memory, History, National Identity in Postwar East-Central Europe, Representations 49 (Winter 1995): 72-96.
2. Karl P. Benziger, The Funeral of Imre Nagy: Contested History and the Power of Memory Culture, History & Memory 12, no. 2 (2000): 142-64.
3. Wolfgang Hoepken, War, Memory, and Education in a Fragmented Society: The Case of Yugoslavia, East European Politics and Societies 13, no.1 (1999): 190-227.
4. Nurit Schleifman, Moscow's Victory Park: A Monumental Change, History & Memory 13, no. 2 (2001): 5-34.
5. For a discussion on the relationship between the politics of memory and foreign policy in Eastern Europe see for example Ilya Prizel, National Identity and Foreign Policy: Nationalism and Leadership in Poland, Russia and Ukraine (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
6. Timothy Snyder, The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003).
7. Eva-Clarita Onken, The Baltic States and Moscow's 9 May Commemoration: Analysing Memory Politics in Europe, Europe-Asia Studies 59, no. 1 (2007): 23-46.
8. The Estonian Parliament passed legislation in January 2007 permitting the reburial of the remains of soldiers killed in World War II. This law made possible the relocation of central Tallinn's Bronze Soldier monument, which was situated next to the graves of thirteen Red Army soldiers. The relocation was opposed by the Russian community in Estonia, which considered that the monument commemorated not only Soviet soldiers but also recalled the war sufferings of Russians. See: Karsten Brüggemann and Andres Kasekamp, The Politics of History and the 'War of Monuments' in Estonia, Nationalities Papers 36, no. 3 (2008): 425-48.
9. The Polish government's outrage at the honoring of the memory of German expellees was provoked by the Union of the Expelled headed by Erika Steinbach, which ran a controversial campaign to open a Centre for the Expelled in Berlin to commemorate the suffering of the Germans in the wake of World War II.
10. The term "democratic conditionality" has been used to describe the principle of conditionality in relation to East European countries seeking membership in the EU. To join the EU, candidate members had to demonstrate their commitment to democratization. On "democratic conditionality" see Geoffrey Pridham, The European Union, Democratic Conditionality and Transnational Party Linkages: The Case of Eastern Europe, in Democracy without Borders, ed. Jean Grugel (London: Routledge, 1999), 59-75.
11. On the relationship between "democratic conditionality" and the promotion of pluralistic visions of the past, see for example Rogers Brubaker and Margit Feischmidt, 1848 in 1998: The Politics of Commemoration in Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia, Comparative Studies in Society and History 44, 4 (2002), 700-44.
12. Valur Ingimundarson, The Politics of Memory and the Reconstruction of Albanian National Identity in Postwar Kosovo, History & Memory 19, no. 1 (2007): 95-123.
13. On politics of memory, see for example Timothy G. Ashplant, Graham Dawson, and Michael Roper, eds., The Politics of Memory Commemorating War (New Brunswick and London: Transaction Publishers, 2000).
14. J.-W. Müller, ed., Memory and Power in Post-War Europe (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University. Press, 2004).
15. John J. Czaplicka and Blair A. Ruble, eds., Composing Urban History and the Constitution of Civic Identities (Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press; Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003).
16. See also Padraic Kenney, Lviv's Central European Renaissance, 1987-1990.
17. George G. Grabowicz, Mythologizing Lviv/Lwów: Echoes of Presence and Absence, in Lviv: A City in the Crosscurrents of Culture, ed. John Czaplicka (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 2005).
18. Blair A. Ruble, Living Apart Together: The City, Contested Identity, and Democratic Transitions, In Czaplicka and Ruble, Composing Urban History, 1-24, 12.
19. John J. Czaplicka, Conclusion: Urban History after a Return to Local Self-Determination-Local History and Civic Identity, in Czaplicka and Ruble, Composing Urban History, 372-411, 386.
20. The first administrative reforms were introduced in 1990 by the government led by Tadeusz Mazowiecki. For the first time in post-war Polish history local councilors were chosen in democratic and direct elections, and councils could make decisions on matters affecting their respective jurisdictions. In 1998 further territorial and administrative reforms were introduced by the post-Solidarity government led by Jerzy Buzek. The reforms created sixteen voivodeships (województwa), to a large extent replicating Polish historical regions, and 373 districts (powiaty ziemskie i grodzkie). It introduced a three-tier division of local government: the gmina (basic level), an intermediate level called the powiat, and the major territorial unit called the województwo. Local government's decision making and supervisory bodies are the councils (rada), which operate at all three levels. Council members are elected in general, direct elections.
21. On historical memory and commemorative practices in Poland see Michael C. Steinlauf, Bondage to the Dead: Poland and the Memory of the Holocaust (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997).
22. Jonathan Huener, Auschwitz, Poland, and the Politics of Commemoration, 1945-1979 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003).
23. Patrice M. Dabrowski, Commemorations and the Shaping of Modern Poland (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004).
24. The debate on whether Upper Silesians should be identified as an ethnic group or a national group intensified after 1989. In the 2002 national census 173,200 persons chose Silesian identity. However, in Polish legislation Silesians are categorized as an ethnic group. On the debate on whether this categorization is correct, see the proceedings of the Polish Parliament's Komisja Mniejszości Narodowych i Etnicznych (Commission for National and Ethnic Minorities) from 6 December 2006. See the Minutes at http://orka. sejm.gov.pl/Biuletyn.nsf/0/44FFD3263516AF26C12572610046F769?OpenDocument. See also Bernard Linek, De-Germanization and Re-Polonisation in Upper Silesia, 1945-1950, in Redrawing Nations: Ethnic Cleansing in East-Central Europe, 1944-1948, ed. Philipp Ther and Ana Siljak (Lanham, MD and Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 121-24.
25. Danuta Sieradzka, Pod rza{ogonek}dami Komisji Alianckiej (1920-1922), in Historia Gliwic, ed. Jan Drabina (Gliwice: Muzeum w Gliwicach, 1995), 320-43, 338.
26. On the evening of 31 August 1939, a member of the Nazi Security Service led a group of convicted criminals in an attack on the German radio station in Gliwice. After seizing the building, a patriotic Polish broadcast was transmitted. The criminals were then shot, dressed in Polish uniforms, and left at the radio station. Shortly afterward, Germany officially accused the Polish Army of violating the German border and of invading the Third Reich. Early the next morning Poland found itself at war with Germany.
27. Polish estimations were based on Catholic parish death registries for January 1945. See Józef Bonczol, Rok 1945, in Drabina, Historia Gliwic, 427-34.
28. See Bogusław Tracz, Rok Ostatni-Rok Pierwszy: Gliwice 1945 (Gliwice: Muzeum w Gliwicach, 2004).
29. On the conduct of Red Army soldiers in Gliwice between the spring of 1945 and 1946, see records produced by the municipal administration in Gliwice, which were declassified after 1989. Archiwum Państwowe w Katowicach, Oddział Gliwice, syg. ZM i MRN 36 Gliwice.
30. See on verification Piotr Madajczyk, Przyła{ogonek}czenie Śla{ogonek}ska opolskiego do Polski: 1945-1948 (Warszawa: ISP PAN, 1996), 169-219.
31. On the expulsion of Germans from Gliwice, and on the settlement of transferred and migrant populations in Gliwice, see Kazimierz Sarna, Pierwsze powojenne lata: wysiedleńcy i repatrianci, in Drabina, Historia Gliwic, 492-501.
32. F. I. Ian Hamilton, Poland's Western and Northern Territories (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975), 21.
33. For a review of Polish post-war literature on the Soviet Operation for Upper Silesia, see Henryk Stańczyk, Od Sandomierza do Opola i Raciborza (Warszawa: Neriton, 1998), 6-9.
34. For a typical narrative of liberation targeted at the general public, see Kazimierz Popiołek, Górnego Śla{ogonek}ska droga do wolności (Katowice: Śla{ogonek}ski Instytut Naukowy, 1967), 149-53.
35. The centre-right Prime Minister, Jerzy Buzek (1997-2001) was from Gliwice, as was his Minister for Industry, Janusz Steinhoff. The Chairman of NZSS Solidarność in the 1990s, and the Leader of the Electoral Action Solidarity (AWS), Marian Krzaklewski, was also from Gliwice.
36. Barbara Baranowska, ed., Kronika Miasta Gliwice (Gliwice: Urza{ogonek}d Miejski w Gliwicach, 2000), 66-69.
37. Local authorities had, in reality, no legislative or executive autonomy in post-war Poland. The first democratic elections to the basic organizational unit of local government took place in May 1990. Furthermore, administrative reforms were blocked until 1998, primarily by the Polish Peasants' Party, but also by some members of the nationalist right, who feared that the reform would allow regions- especially Upper Silesia-to cooperate closely with the German authorities, thereby diminishing Warsaw's control over its regions.
38. Uchwała Rady Miejskiej w Gliwicach (a resolution of the city council in Gliwice, hereafter Resolution RM Gliwice), 18 June 1990, no. III/51/90, Archiwum Urze{ogonek}du Miasta Gliwice (AUM Gliwice), syg. 25/3/97.
39. Under the initiative of the city's mayor, a Commission was established in April 1945 to replace German names with Polish ones. The outcome was considered highly successful as only names related to German history or culture were replaced, while others-relating to topographic characteristics, Christian saints, names of professions, etc.-were translated into Polish (in some cases thereby recovering their original Silesian names) in keeping with the historical traditions of the city. See Kronika Miasta Gliwic-okres 1945-1960, Archiwum Państwowe w Katowicach, Oddział Gliwice, syg. 12 204/SK120/7.
40. Antonina Grybosiowa, Nazwy Gliwickich ulic po wyzwoleniu, Zeszyty Gliwickie 2 (1974): 52-56.
41. Stenogram z Sesji Rady Miejskiej w Gliwicach (Minutes from the session of the city council in Gliwice, hereafter Minutes, SRM Gliwice), 25 July 1990, no. VII/90, AUM Gliwice, syg. BPR0052.
42. Resolution RM Gliwice, 3 October 1990, no. IX/51/90, AUM Gliwice, syg. BPR0052. No councilors voted against the decision and only five abstained from voting.
43. Minutes, SRM Gliwice, 17 October 1990, no. X/90, AUM Gliwice, syg. BPR0052.
44. Forty-three out of fifty councilors represented the Solidarity Committee (Gliwicko-Zabrzański Komitet Solidarność), one represented the Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne), and six candidates represented the Committee of Residents' Self-Government (Komitet Osiedlowy Samorza{ogonek}du Mieszkańców).
45. Resolution RM Gliwice, no. XIX/417/2000 and Minutes, SRM Gliwice, 29 June 2000, no. XIX/2000, AUM Gliwice, syg. BRZM-0052/2/2000. During the voting on the resolution there was no reflection on the broader meaning of this inscription as it was taken as fact that it equated to all Gliwice victims. The "all" included Gliwice Jews deported to Auschwitz and those who died defending the city against the Red Army.
46. Krzysztof Nitsch explained the meaning of his composition during an interview with Małgorzata Zemła published in Wcia{ogonek}ż jest we mnie ten niepokój, Gliwicki Magazyn Kulturalny, October 2001.
47. Podzie{ogonek}kowania za pomnik, Biuletyn Informacyjny Urze{ogonek}du Miejskiego, 11 October 2001.
48. Minutes, SRM Gliwice, 27 January 2005, no. XXVII/2005, syg. BPR-0052/1/2005; access to the Minutes gained at Biuro Prezydenta i Rady Miejskiej (BPiRM), UM Gliwice in June 2006.
49. Ibid., 3.
50. Ibid., 25.
51. Ibid., 28.
52. Interview by the author with Andrzej Janik, the Director of Miejski Zarza{ogonek}d Usług Komunalnych; April 2006.
53. For patterns of "dissociation" from the socialist past in Eastern European cities, see Czaplicka, Conclusion: Urban History, 378-82.
54. Grzegorz Gorzelak, Decentralisation, Regional Development, and Regional Policies, in Poland into the New Millennium, ed. George Blazyca and Ryszard Rapacki (Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2001), 204-30.
55. Correspondence between the Silesian voivode, the ROPWiM, and Stiftung "Gedenken". Access to the correspondence gained at Śla{ogonek}ski Urza{ogonek}d Wojewódzki, Wydział Spraw Obywatelskich i Cudzoziemskich in June 2006: AG-II-5/7060/1/2000; AG.II-5/7060/25/2000; R-IV/BB/89/1352/2000; R-IV/BB/120/1967/2000 and AG-II-5/5018/40/2000.
56. Polski Czerwony Krzyż Gliwice, Protokół no. 1/2000 (06.06.2000).
57. Protokół no.1/2000 (22.09.2000). Interviews by the author with exhumation witnesses Fryderyk Sikora (Gliwice German Minority), Barbara Grabowska (Gliwice Municipal Office), and Bogna Wojciechowska (Gliwice Municipal Office); April and June 2006.
58. On the role of dead bodies in commemorative practices and identity politics, see Katherine Verdery, The Political Lives of Dead Bodies (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999).
59. In a nationwide census carried out in 2002, 147,094 Polish citizens declared German nationality. Representatives of the German minority are resident mainly in the Opolskie voivodeship (104,399 persons) and the Silesian voivodeship (30,531). See the Web site of Ministerstwo Spraw Wewne{ogonek}trznych i Administracji, http: //www.mswia.gov.pl/wai/en/10/56/.
60. The governing power in voivodeship in Poland is divided between the voivodeship councils and the state-appointed voivode, who represents the Polish government and the central administration on the regional level.
61. Soon after, the local newspaper published memories of Gliwice inhabitants who lived in the city in January 1945. Stories of indiscriminate murder and rape, looting, and meaningless destruction by the Red Army were, for the first time, openly recounted in the local press. The accounts were introduced by a frank admission: The exhumation of the anonymous remains of Gliwice inhabitants and a few Wehrmacht soldiers from Starokozielski cemetery made us aware of the existence of blank pages (białe plamy) in the most recent history of our city. See Marek Jurkiewicz and Edward Kandora, Notable uciekli, ludność pozostała, Nowiny Gliwickie, 28 September 2000.
62. Also Marek Jurkiewicz, Tajemnice bezimiennych grobów, Nowiny Gliwickie, 21 September 2000.
63. A letter from Gleiwitzer Kreis to Wydział Przedsie{ogonek}wzie{ogonek}ć Gospodarczych i Usług Komunalnych (PGUK), UM Gliwice (no. 587056). Access to all correspondence related to the memorial was gained at PGUK, UM Gliwice in April 2006.
64. A letter from PGUK UM Gliwice to the ROPWiM (PU-7090/2/2003).
65. A letter from the ROPWiM to PGUK UM Gliwice (R-IV/276-2/BB/2873/2003).
66. A letter from PGUK UM Gliwice to the ROPWiM (PU-7090/7/5/2003 and PU-7090/7/7/2003).
67. A letter from the ROPWiM to Deputy Mayor, Janusz Moszczyński (R-IV/1615/212/2005).
68. Minutes from sessions of: Komisja Edukacji, Kultury i Sportu, 14 July 2005, syg. BPR-00636/14/05.
69. Komisja Bezpieczeństwa i Praworza{ogonek}dności, 11 July 2005, syg. BPR-00635/16/05.
70. Komisja Gospodarki Komunalnej i Ochrony Środowiska, 13 July 2005, syg. BPR-00633/18/05; access to the Minutes gained at BPiRM, UM Gliwice in June 2006.
71. The mayor declared a personal responsibility for obtaining ROPWiM's approval during the proceedings. Generally, the councilors were unsure if they even needed the approval of ROPWiM. In any case, ROPWiM issued a positive recommendation for the new inscription in December 2005. A letter from Andrzej Przewoźnik (the ROPWiM) to the author, 13 June 2006 (R-IV-2012/337/2006).
72. Minutes, SRM Gliwice, 14 July 2005, no. XXXIV/2005, syg. BPR-0052/8/2005 access to the Minutes gained at BPiRM, UM Gliwice in June 2006.
73. Ibid., 60.
74. Ibid., 72.
75. Ibid., 65.
76. Resolution RM Gliwice, no. XXXIV/859/2005.
77. The national government's ambition to control local historical memory came to light primarily with the bill on decommunization submitted by the ruling right-wing party Law and Justice (PiS) in May 2007. The bill proposed that any remaining material symbols of communism (e.g., names of streets, Red Army monuments) and practices commemorating communism should be removed from public space. It made voivodes responsible for the implementation of the statute. The bill was unpopular and was criticized for interfering with the rights of local government. Despite attempts to push the legislation through, PiS was unable to put the bill to the vote in Parliament before the General Election of September 2007. For the bill, see Poselski projekt ustawy o usunie{ogonek}ciu symboli komunizmu z życia publicznego w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej at http://orka.sejm.gov.pl/proc5.nsf/opisy/2027.htm.
78. On history of Gliwice, see Andrzej Szefer, ed., Gliwice: Zarys rozwoju miasta i okolicy (Kraków: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1976).
79. See Forum for Dialogue among Nations at http://www.dialog.org.pl/ (accessed 11 September 2006).
80. See The Memory Project at http://www.jewishmemory.gliwice.pl/eng_7.html/ (accessed 11 September 2006).
81. See House for Polish-German Co-operation at http://www.haus.pl/en/infromation1.html (accessed 11 September 2006).
82. In 1997 the House of Polish-German Co-operation organized a conference on Forced Migration in Europe during and after World War II. The outcome of the conference was disseminated in Ther and Siljak, Redrawing Nations.
83. Ewa Mróz, Dom Współpracy Polsko-Niemieckiej, Zeszyty Gliwickie 30 (2002): 285-89.
84. See the mission statement and program of Towarzystwo Miłośników Ziemi Gliwckiej in Informacja o pracy i zamierzeniach TMZG, Zeszyty Gliwickie 1 (1963): 127-29.
85. See articles in Zeszyty Gliwickie: Jan Misztal, O białych plamach w stosunkach polsko-radzieckich na ziemi śla{ogonek}skiej, ZG 20 (1991):199-213.
86. Halina Dobrucka, Pomie{ogonek}dzy ludzkim losem a historia{ogonek}, ZG 23 (1994): 35-49.
87. Władysław Macowicz, Wkroczenie Rosjan do Pyskowic w styczniu 1945 r., ZG 31 (2003): 197-202.
88. Elżbieta Borkowska, Janina Wolanin, Pyskowice w pierwszych latach po II wojnie światowej w świetle źródeł archiwalnych, ZG 31 (2003): 203-18.
89. Resolutions on Program Współpracy Miasta Gliwice z Organizacjami Pozarza{ogonek}dowymi. See http:// www.um.gliwice.pl/pub/uchwaly/9179.pdf/ for 2006.
90. http://www.um.gliwice.pl/pub/uchwaly/3554.pdf/ for 2005.
91. http://www.um.gliwice.pl/pub/uchwaly/1471.pdf / for 2004.
92. Raport o Stanie Miasta Gliwice za Okres 2002-30.06.2006 and Raport o Stanie Miasta Gliwice za Okres 1998-30.06.2002, http://www.um.gliwice.pl/index.php?id=722/1.
93. See annual reports published in Rocznik Muzeum w Gliwicach 5 (1992)-19 (2006).
94. See http://www.muzeum.gliwice.pl/wydarzenia/mniejszosci_gliwickie.php/ (accessed 14 May 2007).
95. For detailed information on exhibitions, see curators' annual reports in Rocznik Muzeum w Gliwicach.
96. As early as 1991 the museum's curator, Damian Recław, presented lectures on Liberation of Gliwice in 1945 and Deportations of the German Population from Gliwice and the District after 1945. Several lectures on similar topics followed. For more information on lectures and conferences, see annual reports in Rocznik Muzeum w Gliwicach.
97. An interview by the author with Magdalena Budny, the Director of Dom Dziecka; April 2006.
98. Raport o Stanie Miasta Gliwice za Okres 2002-30.06.2006, 36-37.
99. For example, in 1998 the Opel car plant was opened in Gliwice. See Krzysztof Gołata, Miasto z nape{ogonek}dem, Wprost, 1 November 1998.
100. For a theoretical perspective on heritage and its role in the process of identity formation, see David Lowenthal, Identity, Heritage, and History, in Commemorations: The Politics of National Identity, ed. John R. Gillis (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), 41-57.
101. From fragmentary data it has been established that Polski Urza{ogonek}d Repatriacyjny settled 34,795 persons in Gliwice in 1945. Fifty-seven percent of the settlers came from eastern provinces, 32 percent from Western Europe, and 11 percent from central and southern Poland. On a smaller scale the settlement of populations from outside the region continued in the years 1946-1947 with repatriates from eastern provinces constituting the biggest group of newcomers. See Kazimierz Sarna, Stosunki demograficzne, in Drabina, Historia Gliwic, 492-99.
102. On the history of Upper Silesia, see Ingo Eser Niemcy na Górnym Śla{ogonek}sku, in Niemcy w Polsce 1945-1950 Wybór dokumentów, vol.2, ed. Włodzimierz Borodziej and Hans Lemberg (Warszawa: Neriton, 2000), 291-331.
103. SzSRM Katowice, no XXXI, 21 December 2000. Access gained to the Minutes at RM Katowice in February 2007.
104. Dawni opozycjoniści chca{ogonek} placu i pomnika Ronalda Regana, Gazeta Wyborcza, 9 February 2007.
105. Jerzy Gorzelik quoted in Jacek Madeja, Pomnik na placu Wolności: jedni sa{ogonek} za, drudzy przeciw, Gazeta Wyborcza, Katowice edition, 3-4 February 2007.
106. Przemysław Jedlecki, Dekomunizacja za pół miliona złotych, Gazeta Wyborcza, Katowice edition, 2 February 2007.
107. Jedlecki, Dekomunizacja.
108. Dariusz Korytko, the Chief Editor of Katowice edition of Gazeta Wyborcza, Nieznośnie uparta historia, Gazeta Wyborcza, 2 February 2002.
109. Mariola Trzewiczek, Odsłonie{ogonek}cie tablicy przed pomnikiem żołnierzy w Łosieniu, Aktualności Samorza{ogonek}dowe, January 2006, published on the official Web site of UM Da{ogonek}browa Górnicza at http://www. dabrowa-gornicza.pl. (accessed 23 July 2008).
110. See for example Program 58-rocznicy wyzwolenia Da{ogonek}browy Górniczej and 63 rocznica wyzwolenia, Aktualności Samorza{ogonek}dowe, January 2003 and January 2008.
111. For example, a shooting competition for the Grand Prix of Da{ogonek}browa Górnicza was organized to celebrate the sixty-third anniversary of the liberation of the city.
112. See Councilor Barbara Nowowiejska, Minutes SRM Sosnowiec, no. XXXVI/05, 24 February 2005, 34.
113. See Councilor Tadeusz Orpych, Minutes SRM Da{ogonek}browa Górnicza, no. LIV/06, 29 March 2006, 28.
114. For a comprehensive summary on research conducted so far on the deportations of Upper Silesians, see Adam Dziurok and Marcin Niedurny, eds., Deportacje Górnośla{ogonek}zaków do ZSRR w 1945 roku (Katowice: IPN, 2004).
115. An interview by the author with Bogusław Szyguła, the Curator of the Heritage Centre in Knurów and the Secretary of the Society of the Memory of the Silesian Tragedy 1945; August 2006.
116. See Krystyna Szumilas, Oświadczenie w sprawie 60 rocznicy deportacji mieszkańców Górnego Śla{ogonek}ska do łagrów w ZSRR, Statement No. 874, 97th Session, IV tenure, 17 February 2005. Szumilas's statements can be accessed at http://orka.sejm.gov.pl/ArchAll2.nsf/Glowny4kad.
117. Interview by the author with Jerzy Gorzelik, the Leader of RAŚ, conducted in August 2007. See also Krzysztof Kluczniok, Tragedia Górnośla{ogonek}zaków upamie{ogonek}tniona, IRG Gazeta Lokalna, February 2006.
118. For information on film screenings and history talks, see for example Przemilczana Tragedia, IRG Gazeta Lokalna, March 2006.
119. Sprawozdanie z działalności Koła RAŚ, IRG Gazeta Lokalna, December 2005.
120. On remembering the local past in post-1989 and post-1998 Przemyśl (when the city lost its status as a capital of a voivodeship) see Kataryna Wolczuk, The Polish-Ukrainian Border: On the Receiving End of EU Enlargement, Perspectives on European Politics and Society 3, no. 2 (2002): 245-70.
121. I use here Timothy Snyder's concept of mass personal memory defined as personal recollections held by enough individuals to have national significance.
122. See Timothy Snyder, Memory of Sovereignty and Sovereignty over Memory: Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine, 1939-1999, in Müller, Memory and Power, 39. Such mass personal memory is usually passed down through subsequent generations by family networks.
123. On this point see Włodzimierz Suleja, II wojna światowa w pamie{ogonek}ci Polaków, Pamie{ogonek}ć i Sprawiedliwość 2 (2002): 51-58.
124. Andrzej Paczkowski interviewed by Wiktor Świetlik, Symbole tyranii ZSRR trzeba usuwać, Dziennik, 9 May 2007.
125. Please see Czaplicka and Ruble, Composing Urban History and Michaela Ferencová, Post-Socialist Transformation and Monument-Building in a Slovakian Town. (Paper presented at the Conference on Experiencing Diversity and Mutuality, Ljubljana, 26-29 August 2008.)