Atminties miškas: Paneriai istorijoje, kultūroje ir politikoje

LTŽengti į Panerių memorialą – lyg žengti į atminties mišką. Paneriai – viena reikšmingiausių Antrojo pasaulinio karo atminties vietų Europoje. Vilniaus pakraštyje besidriekianti, romantiška, kurortu turėjusi tapti erdvė virto masinių žudynių – Holokausto sušaudant ir kitų nacių nusikaltimų žmoniškumui – vieta. O vėliau, 1960 m. įsteigus Fašizmo aukų muziejų ir 1977 m. memorialą – atminties ir atminties politikos scena, ​​kurioje per aštuonis dešimtmečius vis pritrūkdavo vietos pačioms aukoms. Monografijoje gilinamasi į memorialo biografiją, atspindinčią pagrindinius SSRS ir nepriklausomos Lietuvos atminimo politikos posūkius, ir narpliojami atmintį apie Panerių aukas apraizgę procesai. Žvelgiant į Panerius kaip į gamtos, kultūros ir politikos sampynos erdvę, netrunka paaiškėti, jog iš pirmo žvilgsnio ne itin kompleksiškas ir klaidus objektas talpina daug paslapčių: nutylėtų vardų, rusenusių konfliktų, nepažymėtų objektų, archyvuose nugulusių architektūrinių sumanymų. [Leidėjo anotacija]

ENThe monograph presents research into the Paneriai Memorial (the memorial established at the site of Lithuania's largest mass murder of Jews along with members of the Polish underground movement, Roma, Soviet war prisoners, communists and Lithuanians who opposed the Nazi regime and were executed by Nazis and their local supporters in Vilnius) and more precisely the transformation of this memorial in the Soviet, post-Soviet periods and contemporary Lithuania, as well as the historical circumstances and political factors that shaped and influenced these transformations. The Paneriai Memorial is analysed as a site of the manifestation and crystallisation of the politics of remembrance and - on the other hand - as an instrument for the implementation of official politics of remembrance as well as a space for different political local and foreign institutions and other political actors (mission-oriented individuals, communities of memory and communities of post-memory). The genesis of Paneriai Memorial reveals key trends in the policies of remembrance as pursued in Soviet occupied Lithuania and in (now) independent Lithuania. Although the monograph deals with the history of a specific site, the area of research is not contiguous with a defined geographical point as a "materialised" memory, the research area therefore assumes a dimension of semantic (ideological, symbolic, existential) meaning as well. This work purports to analyse thus not only a specific location but also the semantic field associated with it in different cultures of remembrance.The first chapter (Paneriai in interwar and war years) of the book deals with the historical background of Paneriai and the meaning of it in both Polish and Lithuanian culture, which crystallized basically in the XIX century life and literature. The romantic genius loci, nature and accessibility of the site led to its development as a resort and garden city (Jogailaičiai / Jagiellonów). The positive image of Paneriai and the place itself has suffered from two damaging episodes in history: when the Soviets used part of Jogailaičiai for a fuel base and Nazis used the same infrastructure for the purpose of mass murder. The second chapter (Paneriai in the Stalin years and in the early Khrushchev period) provides an analysis of Stalinist policies: the intensive exploitation of Paneriais history (and the place itself) for political purposes in 1944, the efforts of the Jewish community to memorialise and foster the memory of their compatriots at Paneriai, and the reactions to such activities by local Soviet authorities - initially quite moderate, but soon, after pressure from Moscow, very strict and uncompromising, leading to an abandonment of the place. The third chapter (Paneriai in the Brezhnev period and later) explores the increase in attention of state institutions to Paneriai and other sites of mass murder during the Khrushchev regime as a way of consolidating power after the partial removal of symbolic figure of Stalin and in an attempt to find a unifying historical image of the past to summarize the "Soviet nation" in the midst of the Cold War, which identified with the message: "we were all victims of Nazi regime". During this period, Paneriai and the Ninth Fort in Kaunas became crucial institutions in anchoring the idea that "we were all victims of Nazi regime". [...].Research has made it possible to identify two main strategies used by Soviet regime to disguise the fact that the majority of victims in Paneriai were Jewish (and Polish): universalisation (speaking about victims as "Soviet citizens" (or "Soviet people"), "men, women, children", "population") and nationalisation ("Lithuanian population", even "Lithuanians"). A third strategy - internationalisation - was a distinctive feature of the Ninth Fort in Kaunas. The fourth chapter explores the Paneriai Memorial in the Brezhnev era, and its second-class status in comparison to the Ninth Fort (known officially since 1984 as the Kaunas Ninth Fort Memorial complex) , although in the 1960s it seemed that both memorials were being developed in parallel. Several factors have contributed to the secondary status of the Paneriai Museum (known as the Paneriai Memorial since 1977) to the Ninth Fort, including the fact that during the interwar period (years of independent Lithuania), Lithuanian communist activists were held in the fort's prison, and after the occupation of Lithuania in 1940, went on to become leaders of Soviet Lithuania. Furthermore, among the tens of thousands of Kaunas Jews who were shot here between 1941 and 1944, there were several thousand Jews from France, Austria, and Germany. This fact made it easier for Soviet institutions to portray the victims as citizens of different nations, smoothly disguising the fact that the majority of those killed were Holocaust victims. The impressive character of the Ninth Fort (which includes a fort and a prison) and therefore its appeal to the "dark tourism" industry with its notorious prisoner escape story in 1943, the accessibility of the site and the open landscape made it easier to create a landmark for monumental propaganda. In the Brezhnev period Paneriai Memorial was used by the Jews to make a case for leaving the USSR (and the Lithuanian SSR). [...]. [From the publication]