Another Tale of Two Cities: Lviv and Łódź

This chapter explores the cinematic image of Lviv and Łódź in wide range of documentary films. It also offers comparisons between fictional and factual films of these places. The chapter also explores physical remnants of the past in the form of buildings which were occupied by Jewish schools, hospitals or homes, and on the role played by these places and ruins in the processes of memorialisation enacted in film.

Prologue: Space, Time and the Holocaust

In the autumn of 1941 the SS released orders for the construction of two large labour camps for Soviet prisoners of war to be built on the outskirts of the city of Lublin, in Lesser Poland, and in the village of Brzezinka, near Oświęcim, in Silesia....

The Marketplaces of Postmemory in the Shtetlekh Eishyshok, Delatyn, Opatów, Zdunska Wola, Urzejowice and Pińczów

This chapter focuses on further case studies looking at the shtetlekh as sites of postmemory experienced by the second generation and on the impact of the Holocaust on these places. In particular, this chapter looks at the marketplace as a specific space within the shtetl and at its use as a film location. The chapter also focuses on the heroic actions of the Poles who helped and saved their Jewish neighbours.

Countryside, Shtetl, City: The Murders of Mazovia, Jedwabne and Kielce

This chapter explore documentaries focusing on the murder of Jews at the hands of their Polish neighbours. It explores the ways in which the controversies surrounding the events have been addressed in film; by doing so this chapter also introduces the concept of shtetl and its importance to Easter European Jewry.

Epilogue: New Routes

Isuchar Moshe Szwarc was born near the market square of Zgierz, a town located just north of Łódź, in February 1859. He was considered one of the most erudite and wisest men in the community, and on his eightieth birthday in 1939 the Jewish press in Poland published numerous articles in his honour. A few months later, the Nazis burnt his library while he collapsed and died of a heart attack. Nobody could attend Szwarc’s funeral, as he was hastily buried by the Red Cross (cf. ...

A Tale of Two Cities of Death: Treblinka and Oświęcim

This chapter focuses on two death camps, Treblinka and Auschwitz II-Birkenau, and on documentaries filmed on these locations. Differences between the two places, with the disappearance of Treblinka and the persistence of Auschwitz, are discussed in relation to documentaries bringing survivors and members of the postgeneration back to these places. The chapter also addresses rebellion and uprisings in these death camps.

A Tale of Two Cities: Warsaw and Kraków

This chapter is divided into two sections addressing documentaries filmed in Warsaw and Kraków respectively. The main focus is on the relationship between fiction and documentary and on the use of archival material in documentaries about these two cities during the Holocaust. It also continues the investigation of narratives of return introduced in the previous chapters and considers the impact of tourism on Holocaust memory.

Conflicting Memories in the Shtetlekh Gąbin, Suchowola, Brańsk and Luboml

This chapter explores narratives of return in a series of documentaries filmed on the sites of memory of Jewish life in Poland. It focuses on the role played by the Poles in the persecution of the Jews and on the memory of the events. It also addresses the ways in which a traumatic past is still inscribed in present-day landscapes.