Jan Gryta

Research interests

Holocaust studies

history of State Socialism

memory studies

Accepting applications from PhD students.

About

I am a Polish historian interested in Holocaust studies, the history of State Socialism and memory studies. In the past, my research focused on the role of the memory of the Holocaust in challenging anti-Semitism in Poland. My first book spotlighted the potential of Holocaust exhibitions and heritage projects to reintegrate the history of Jews and Jewish suffering into the history of Poland. My present research focuses predominantly on forgotten Jewish activism and its impact on the collective memory in Poland under State Socialism. I am currently working on a monograph that will bring to scholarly attention unknown Holocaust memorials created in the 1960s and comment on their reception in provincial Poland.

Simultaneously, I am developing a new public history project entitled ‘Youth Aliyah and Jewish Children: Escaping the Holocaust to the UK’. The project involves my students, alumni and partners from local schools. Exhibiting the understudied histories of Jewish children brought to the UK from Nazi Germany as part of the Youth Aliyah the project asks questions about past and present attitudes to immigrants and asylum seekers.

Research

Research groups

Member of:

Research interests

Holocaust studies
history of State Socialism
memory studies
Polish history

Current research

At present, I am working on a monograph and a series of articles on the memory of the Second World War and the Holocaust in socialist Poland. The starting point of my project is the so-called ‘Campaign of Hearts.’ It was the 1960s centrally planned and coordinated initiative to change how Polish Socialist subjects remember the national past. Hundreds of cityscapes, sites in towns and villages, and nature beauty spots were redesigned and endowed with monuments glorifying the past suffering and pro-Socialist struggle. At times, the Campaign was hijacked by local activists. For example, it was used to enshrine the memories of the Jewish suffering during the Holocaust in Polish landscapes.

Examining the conflict and collaboration between central authorities, local and regional officials, religious organisations and NGOs my project offers a new understanding of the nature of power in socialist states in Eastern Europe. At the same time, my aim is to comment on the vernacular memory of the War and the Genocide. Utilising newly discovered sets of primary sources I aim to explore what Poles actually knew and how they made sense of their past.