ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I investigate the functioning of different tropes in the changing memory narratives of my participants. I outline how they position themselves and their audiences while mobilizing memory narratives about Auschwitz/Osświęcim. I look specifically at how Jews are talked about by my participants when they narrate the pre-war and wartime history of their town in different contexts. Here, I distinguish between interactions happening in a ‘thick community’ of friends and the ‘light social group’ of amateur Holocaust historians, and how these different audiences impact the content of the reiterated memory narratives. The analysis demonstrates that my participants either don’t engage with the Jewish past of their town and the Holocaust in their thick community (but do engage with antisemitic stereotypes), while they deeply elaborate on the Jewish past of Auschwitz/Oświęcim in thin social groups both offline and online.
