This anthology presents the work of several authors from different
academic disciplines. Film and literature experts, sociologists,
historians and theatrologists analyse the Polish memory of the Nazi and
Stalinist occupations, which are key components of Polish collective
identity. Before the political turn of 1989, the memory of World War II
was strictly controlled by the state. The elements of memory related to
the Soviet occupation were eradicated, as well as any other elements
that did not fit the official narrative about the war. Unblocking the
hitherto limited public discourse resulted in the process of filling the
blank pages of history and the development of different and frequently
conflicting communities of memory.