Pamięć i zapominanie w społecznościach lokalnych na przykładzie stosunku do miejsc pamięci w Dzierżoniowie i Raciborzu

Memorial places are the clearest indicator of a community's relationship to its past and to the past of other communities which it is in close contact with. The article is based on an analysis of free interviews undertaken with representatives of the cultural and political elite of two towns: Dzierżoniów and Racibórz. These towns have two distinct histories which through specific conditioning illustrate, on the one hand, certain universal mechanisms (such as non-memory and the processes of forgetting) and on the other hand, different approaches to the complex history of relations with national minorities. In fact, national minorities are a part of the specific histories of these local communities. Attitudes to these people are revealed in historical memory through non-memory and ambivalent attitudes towards memorial places. These two different forms of relating to a minority and to history also result from socio-political conditioning, creating different models of local identity.