In Poland, contemporary political actors have constructed a narrative of Polish history since 1989 in which Polish and Jewish involvement with communism has created a national concept of “we.” Weaponizing the Past explores the resulting implications of national belonging through a lens of collective memory. Taking a constructivist approach to electoral politics and nation making in Poland’s past, this volume’s dual line of inquiry articulates why and how elites politicize the past, what effect this politicization produces, and contextualizes this politicization to illustrate contemporary production of anti-Semitism.

Kate Korycki Assistant Professor at the Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Western University in Canada. She has published on Polish memory of communism and the Holocaust, on Inidgeneity in Canada, sexual identity in Iran, and class and sexuality politics in France.

This book is part of the “Worlds of Memory” series by Berghahn Books in collaboration with the Memory Studies Association.