Poznańskie Archiwum Historii Mówionej jako ośrodek dokumentowania i upamiętniania pamięci lokalnej
The Poznań Oral History Archive as a Center for Documenting and Commemorating Local Memory

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the activities of the Poznań Oral History Archive as an institution that collects, compiles, and makes available the accounts of witnesses to history related to Poznań and Greater Poland. The aim of the article is to present PAHM as a local memory actor which, by documenting the experiences of groups previously underrepresented in official narratives, co-creates the local dimension of memory politics and contributes to the institutionalization of social memory.The authors show the development of oral history in Poland from initiatives undertaken in the late communist era, through the activities of the KARTA Center after 1989, to contemporary projects documenting social and local memory.The theoretical part emphasizes that oral history is a research method combining elements of history, anthropology, and sociology, focusing on the individual experiences of participants in events and on the emotional dimension of memory. Its function is not only cognitive but also social, enabling the restoration of voice to groups and individuals previously overlooked in official narratives.Against the backdrop of this reflection, the achievements of the Poznań Oral History Archive, which documents the fate of the region’s inhabitants, creating a resource of over 400 video accounts, were presented. The most important collections were discussed: recordings made by Piotr Frydryszek in the 1980s, a series of interviews with displaced residents of Greater Poland (the “Wypędzeni 1939...” project), accounts of the families of the victims of the Katyn massacre, as well as materials devoted to Lech Raczak and the Eighth Day Theatre, and contemporary topics such as a series on Poznań craftsmen and Himalayan climbers.The authors emphasize the social and community-building function of the archive: recording previously marginalized experiences becomes a form of collective memory therapy and local identity building. The activities of the Archive prove that oral history can be not only a tool for researching the past, but also a living process of preserving and transmitting the memory of the community.

• Details
• Contents