Between Heroization and Martyrology: The Second World War in Selected Museums in Central and Eastern Europe

This text describes eight selected museums in Central and Eastern Europe dealing with the memory of the Second World War. They represent different perspectives and tendencies. The Soviet or postSoviet approach to the topic in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine has been confronted with the new immersive narratives developed in Poland and Lithuania and with some Polish and Czech martyrological museums protecting sites of the Holocaust or other mass murders committed during the war. The authors compare results of their analysis with the concept of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk, Poland, a creation in which they are taking part.