Upamiętnienia Łodzi żydowskiej – w jaki sposób przeszłość uobecnia się w teraźniejszości
Commemoration of Jewish Łódź: how the past manifests itself in the present

Summary/Abstract: Looking on the past of every city, we can identify various events that remain in the memory of its residents, images transmitted from generation to generation – in the case of Łódź it is undoubtedly the functioning of the Jewish ghetto. But it has not always been so: the memory of the history of the Jewish community underwent transformation for the long decades of the 20th century, only to become part of the canon of events that are important for the city. As late as 15–20 years ago, images of Łódź focused on the multicultural history of the city were not so common, and were rather an element of collective oblivion. But since then, something that we can read from the contents present in everyday press, in the calendar of anniversary celebrations or the topographical tissue of commemoration, the memory of neighbors of other nationalities returns. Within the framework of the research project that was the starting point for this paper, studies of the collective memory of Łódź residents were carried out, and focused precisely on these carriers. Beginning with the reflection related to the memory canon and the role of memory images of the multicultural Łódź in the context of other themes of collective memory (diagnosed by means of questionnaire interviews), reflections on the Jewish Łódź were also deepened by observation of specific commemorative actions and the material manifestations of this memory – statutes and plaques that have been gradually appearing in the city in the early decades of the 21st century.

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