'I am the generation that was said to turn off the lights.' The affective impact of a minority-based community archive

Abstract

Contrary to the perception of archives as objective and cold repositories, they are social, contextual constructs, which are shaped by people, and mutually, shape the people associated with them. One aspect of this two-way human-archive relationship is emotions. Affective impacts are particularly evident in community archives – grassroots, independent archival initiatives, overwhelmingly driven by such affects as passion, a sense of mission and a sense of (in)justice. All these factors are connected with the German Minority Research Center – a community archive discussed in the paper. The archive is based in Opole, Poland (in the region of Silesia) and is focused on recording and preserving the history, identity and traditions of the German minority in Poland. The paper presents what affective implications are carried by this independent heritage endeavor. Affective categories discussed in the paper are, e.g.: trust and mistrust; trauma; satisfaction; sense of mission; weariness; fear/concern. The paper discusses investigations carried out as part of the project “The impact of independent community archives” (2023-2026; funding: National Science Center, Krakow, Poland), which aims to study and understand the social and affective impacts of grassroots archives in Poland. The project is designed as a multiple case study, with on-site visits to three Polish community archives and qualitative interviews with archivists, collaborators, donors and users.