Remembering the Psychiatric Patients Exterminated in Poland during World War II: The Limitations of the Polish Martyrological Narrative

Abstract: Adopting the perspective of critical disability studies, this article reflects on the Polish cultural memory of the patients of Polish psychiatric hospitals who were exterminated by the Nazis during World War II. Highlighting the limited cultural representation of these individuals in nonfictional and fictionalized historical works, it investigates their status as lesser victims or second-class citizens and their marginal place in the official Polish remembrance culture. Against this background, it analyzes contemporary attempts to incorporate the disabled victims into the Polish martyrological narrative, whose skewed perspective makes it impossible to present their stories in a comprehensive and nuanced way.