Shared Memory?

When we look at such ‘pictures’, everything is clear. We know whose side we are on. The colour of blood greatly accelerates the formation of a firm conviction. It also acts powerfully and distinctively upon memory. There is no research that would allow us to form an opinion about this particular process. There are piles of precise historical studies of drastic situations under wartime conditions.

Given the current state of research, will we ever be able to develop the common yet personal conviction that Poland and Ukraine are countries that need one another greatly, rather than Wild Fields across which the misfortunes of fate trudge in circles? With the fraternal assistance of Putin’s Russia, this may prove possible—without erasing or relinquishing our own memory.

This is one of the most difficult and painful cultural processes awaiting us in the coming years.  

A funeral in Lviv after the September attack; a cross and posters at the Doły Cemetery in Łódź on the same day.