Jews and the memory of them in the contemporary toponymy of Poland (a reconnaissance)

Abstract

The subject of this article are Polish contemporary geographical names originated from the ethnonym Żyd ‛Jew’ and other lexemes related to Jewish culture. The material was excerpted from the “National Register of Geographical Names” (PRNG) and compared with data concerning history of these places. The analysis of several hundred toponyms derived from certain lexemes — “alleged carriers of memory of the Jews”, showed that not all of them are related to the elements of Jewish culture. Undoubtedly, the carriers of the memory of Jews are numerous geographical names derived from the ethnonym Żyd, the adjective żydowski ‛Jewish’ and, less numerous appellatives: bóżnica ‛synagogue’, kirkut, okopisko ‛Jewish cementary’, rabin ‛rabbi’, and the choronym Palestyna. They are testimony to Jewish settlement, property rights, tragic events during World War II, and document places of prayer, refuge and burial places. These toponyms are the subject of the permanent, recorded collective memory of Poles.