Recovered Objects as Agents of Memory in a Holocaust-site Museum

Anotace: Drawing on scholarship on Holocaust archaeology, object theory and museum studies, this article demonstrates the potency of historical objects as active agents of memory bestowed with a capacity to co-constitute the museum narrative and generate meaning. Using the 2020 exhibit at the museum of the Sobibór death camp as a case study, the article discusses objects on display that once belonged to the Jews deported there in 1942 and 1943. Specifically, the objects in the exhibit are not intended to tell any general story nor to represent the victims symbolically; instead, they communicate individual interests, needs and identities of the deportees. Moreover, these objects, atypical for the setting of a death camp, summon social relations of intimacy with the museum audience.