Young Insurrectionists, Competing Victimhood(s), and Polish Politics of Memory: Warsaw Uprising(s) in Middle-Grade Historical Fiction

• In Event: Multiple Perspectives on War Memory in East European Children’s Literature: Victimhood, Justice, Peace

Abstract

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943, the most significant act of Jewish resistance during the Second World War, has been featured in a myriad of Holocaust remembrance books for young people. Although the insurrection resulted in the destruction of the ghetto and the death of about 13000 people, it has become the symbol of Jewish relentlessness. Similarly, the Warsaw Uprising, which took place the following year and contributed to the destruction of Warsaw, has emerged as the symbol of Polish resistance. Until recently, however, the 1944 rising was barely mentioned in non-Polish children’s historical fiction. This paper aims to demonstrate how the chronotopes and actors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the Warsaw Uprising are depicted in popular middle-grade novels published in Poland and the USA: "Resistance" (2018) and "Uprising" (2024) by Jennifer Nielsen – issued by Scholastic – and Katarzyna Rygiel’s "Wszystkie zaułki przeszłości" (2022) and "Jeden dzień" (2023) – recommended by the Warsaw Rising Museum. In my reading of the books, I will study the similarities in the representations of the two uprisings, including the Jewish and non-Jewish characters’ loss, trauma, and guilt, as well as their struggle to survive in the sewers. Moreover, I will point to the competing and multidirectional memories of victimization. Finally, the paper shows the novels’ various approaches toward positioning Warsaw’s Second World War history, presenting the 1944 revolt as a direct consequence and an extension of the 1943 uprising or a separate event with no direct links to the other and Jews whatsoever.

Author

• Mateusz Swietlicki, U of Wrocław (Poland)