How Towns Remember: Jews in Dzierżoniów, Germans..

This highly engaging work explores the dynamics of social memory in two small Silesian towns - Dzierżoniów and Racibórz - which became part of the Polish state after the Second World War. The authors examine how different trajectories of postwar migration shaped local collective memory about the towns' former inhabitants: Jews and Germans. ()The comprehensive perspective, integrating both sociological and historical approaches, makes it possible to explain why the traces of Dzierżoniów's once-vibrant Jewish community have largely faded from contemporary public consciousness, whereas in Racibórz - despite many contradictions-the physical and symbolic presence of German heritage is actively maintained and remains relatively vivid.Tomasz Rawski, University of WarsawThe book is an interesting - and successful - attempt to analyse the construction and modification of local memory. The two cities - Racibórz and Dzierżoniów - serve as suggestive examples of how individual memories are engaged in the process of collective remembering and forgetting.Krzysztof Wasilewski, Koszalin University of Technology