Between Forensic Design and Staged Metaphor: Displaying German Documents in Early Post-War Poland

This article examines how the memory of the German occupation in Poland was shaped through various practices of exhibiting and representing German documents in the immediate post-war years. Focusing on selected artworks by artists such as Bronisław Linke and Zinovii Tolkachev, as well as exhibitions held at the National Museum in Warsaw, the article explores how German documents – particularly public notices – were aestheticised and utilised in constructing public narratives about the occupation. These representations not only mediated the recent experience of violence but also politicised and ideologised it within the context of the emergence of communist rule in Poland.