The Zamość Rotunda in the context of the socialist realist narrative about the city (1947-1953)

Abstract

Aim. The aim of the article is to show the widely unknown problem of the functioning of the Zamość Rotunda in the years 1947-1953, which was part of the socialist realist narrative in Poland. Making the place of Nazi martyrdom a monument to a new region of the lands around Zamość was akin to creating a ‘new socialist man’ in a region heavily affected by political repression from the 19th century to the end of World War II.

Methods. An analysis of archival materials (documents, posters, books published in the years 1939-1953) was used in the research.

Results. The former artillery position and part of the Zamość fortifications were converted into a police camp and became the place of death for over 8,000 people during the German occupation. Work in documenting the crimes and trying to tidy up the area around the facility had already begun in 1944. At that time, the Rotunda was given a monumental significance as the central point of the war cemetery. Additionally, prison cells were adapted for a martyrdom museum. In 1951, a new exhibition was arranged, which only indirectly concerned the war drama that had taken place there. It was planned to turn the Rotunda into a museum that would correspond to the new, socialist realist narrative, in which Zamość became a place of peasant resistance against the exploitation of power and Western trends, a theme which was to be reflected in its architecture. The rotunda is a contribution to showing the narrative that was spun about the city and region, which, affected by the drama of war, was to be created as the capital of a new region of the country, called the Zamość region. The exhibition in the Rotunda has not been presented for a long time, but it fits into the general context of an attempt to build a new place of memory and a new narrative about the city.

Conclusions. The article fills a gap in the research on post-war Zamość, and especially on the period of socialist realism in the city's architecture and culture. It also shows an unknown part of the history of the Rotunda in Zamość, which appeared for a short time between the first make-shift exhibition and its program from the 1960s, which, with minor changes, has been functioning until today.