Erica Lehrer and Michael Meng (eds.), Jewish Space in Contemporary Poland. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015. 312 pp.

This chapter reviews the book Jewish Space in Contemporary Poland (2015), edited by Erica Lehrer and Michael Meng. Jewish Space in Contemporary Poland is a collection of essays that navigates between changing interpretations and reshapings of material sites by contemporary actors; representations of the past in Polish media (films, museum exhibits, video projects); and the poetic resonances of nostalgia and mourning. With the Holocaust as a backdrop, the book examines contemporary power politics in Poland with regard to Jewish space. Topics include Oswiecim/Auschwitz as a source of contention and conflict between both Jews and Christians and the tourism/heritage industry and local inhabitants; the politics of preservation in Polish shtetls; conflicting forms of memory (Communist, Polish nationalist, Catholic, Jewish) surrounding Holocaust/World War II memorials in Galicia; and the negotiation of conflicting understandings of Polish Jewish history in the Warsaw showcase space of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.