ABSTRACT
Public history is the engagement with history outside the formal confines of the academy. Public history, as the name indicates, has a public, and so often also a political, dimension. In addition to the museums, archives, and other institutions engage in public history, public history takes the form of memorials, monuments, and remembrance days. The public history of the rich and tragic experience of Jews in Eastern Europe, and especially Poland, has been complicated by the lack of a large and consistent Jewish population in the area since the Holocaust. Material culture and architecture are also valuable parts of public history and their preservation and restoration are key areas of work in broader public history initiatives. The World Monument Foundation Jewish Heritage Program has worked since 1988 to preserve historical sites, such as synagogues and cultural sites—ones that have been abandoned with the disappearance or impoverishment of local Jewish populations.
