Emblematic places and their archives: Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The author of this article describes her research interests in memory sites and the politics of memory. Her primary point of departure are two memorial sites: The United States Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. Examining the genealogy of these institutions allows for a better understanding of how contemporary societies remember the victims of criminal acts, including the Holocaust. The author describes her experiences visiting the archives of these two centers – in Washington, D.C., and Oświęcim – and discovering similarities and differences in approaches to memory politics in the United States and Poland. The article reflects on the author's experiences with study visits to these sites and their archives, as well as the impact these visits have on her research on the politics of memory.