Familial Memory Activism and Transgenerational Experiences of Visiting Sobibór Death Camp: A Case Study

This study examines the transgenerational experiences of visiting the former Sobibór death camp in Eastern Poland, a site which has only recently been established as a fully established “memoryscape”. Through the microhistorical case study of survivor Thomas Toivi Blatt and his descendants, this study features archival research and qualitative interviews with his daughter and grandchildren. I determine how visits to Holocaust sites can encourage or mobilise further acts of memory work and suggest that families can influence the way in which these memories are being pursued and act as a strong motivation for memory activism. It also argues that this can have a mutually beneficial outcome on both the private actors and institutional stakeholders involved in the memory of the camp and its victims, as Sobibór becomes more open to tourists and, more specifically, the ancestors of those who suffered there.