Led by: Roma Sendyka

A meeting with Katarzyna Surmiak-Domańska, a journalist and reporter, author of the book “Czystki” (nominated this year to the Angelus Central European Literary Award) which is a story of being brought up in oblivion, about the children from the generation of a post-war social advancement, about attempts of being released from traditional customs and memories, but also about contradictory attempts of regaining them. It is also a book about life in the so-called Borderlands, the Polish-Ukrainian neighborhood, the terror of war, and the Volhynian-Galician genocide. From pieces of stories and inconspicuous souvenirs, the author recreates her family genealogy, showing that silence can be a tool of a multi-generational transfer of trauma. The reconstructed story is not only about people. They are as important as sites and non-human actors: a browning, tall grass which caught the attention of the first settlers, a pear tree belonging to a priest, or mulberries growing in front of the house of the author’s grandmother. The conversation about different types of oblivion, neighborhood relationships, and sites of difficult heritage will be led by Roma Sendyka, author of the book “Poza obozem. Nie-miejsca pamięci – próba rozpoznania” (“Beyond the Camp. Non-Sites of Memory: An Attempt to Recognize”).

Organized by: FestvALT, Center for Research on Memory Culture of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow

Partners of the event: Formy Wspólne Foundation, Zapomniane Foundation, Institute of Intercultural Studies of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow, KL Plaszow Museum, SARP Krakow, Urban Memory Foundation, Galicia Jewish Museum

This is an event accompanying the exhibition: “Some Were Neighbors: Choice, Human Behavior, and the Holocaust” created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
In Polish.
Free admission.