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Abstract
In Kraków, Poland, the sacredness of the former Płaszów concentration camp is positioned within the everyday and urban landscape. The grievous history of the site contrasts the urbanity of the busy thoroughfare along one of the site's perimeters, where commercial developments are increasing in number and size. The site's open green spaces and the paucity of formal and material monuments place it outside the ambit of more common public portrayals of collective cultural memories. In this short commentary, I unpack the positioning of memory within the everyday landscape by means of landscape reading and visual methodologies. I critically consider the challenges of representing memory in everyday settings by (de)constructing Płaszów's memory layers. Culminating around the question of how to maintain the site's sacristy amid an increasingly distractive urban landscape, these challenges position memories of the past alongside the stronger attachments we may have with places associated with our daily routines.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Ian Thompson and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on the paper. The author would also like to thank her mentor and William Gastineau-Hills for their help and advice in positioning this paper, and Will and Flynn for visiting the site with me and sharing both its sacredness and eeriness.