Antropologicheskij forum, 2015, no. 26

A Review of GENEVIÈVE ZUBRZYCKI, KRZYŻE W AUSCHWITZ. TOŻSAMOŚĆ NARODOWA, NACJONALIZM I RELIGIA W POSTKOMUNISTYCZNEJ POLSCE. Krakow: Nomos, 2014, 295 ss.; GENEVIEVE ZUBRZYCKI, THE CROSSES OF AUSCHWITZ: NATIONALISM AND RELIGION IN POST-COMMUNIST POLAND. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006, 277 pp.

Aneta Strzemżalska

European University at St Petersburg
3 Gagarinskaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
astrzemzalska()gmail.com

Abstract: The book is an important contribution to the scholastic discussion on the relationship between Polish national identity and Catholicism after the fall of communism in 1989. G. Zubrzycki’s point of departure is the events of the former concentration camp Auschwitz, located in southern Poland, near the town Oswiecim. The key case of the monograph is the so-called “War of the Crosses” in 1998–1999, when ultranationalist Polish Catholics erected hundreds of crosses on the outskirts of the former death camp. Describing these incidents, the author examines why and how the religion and its symbols became part of the nationalist discourse. The Crosses of Auschwitz received special recognition outside of Poland, including the American Sociological Association's Distinguished Book Award in the Sociology of Religion; the Orbis Book Prize, awarded annually by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies to “the best book in any discipline, on any aspect of Polish affairs”; as well as the Polish Studies Association’s Kulczycki Best Book Award.

Keywords: Zubrzycki, Polish Identity, Auschwitz, Oswiecim, Nationalism, the Catholic Church.

To cite: Strzemżalska A., 'A Review of Geneviève Zubrzycki, Krzyże w Auschwitz. Tożsamość narodowa, nacjonalizm i religia w postkomunistycznej Polsce. Krakow: Nomos, 2014, 295 ss.; Geneviève Zubrzycki, The Crosses of Auschwitz: Nationalism and Religion in Post-Communist Poland. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006, 277 pp.', Antropologicheskij forum, 2015, no. 26, pp. 303–310.

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/026/strzemzalska.pdf