Historia totalitaryzmu i konfrontacja z nią. Przypadek narodowosocjalistycznych Niemiec

The article examines the history of totalitarianism and the ways in which societies confront its legacy, taking National Socialist Germany as its primary point of reference. The point of departure is Nuremberg understood as a site in which the symbolic, architectural and propagandistic dimensions of the Nazi regime were concentrated, and at the same time as a space of post-war reinterpretation and democratic 
transformation of memory. The author shows how the monumental architecture and infrastructural projects of the Third Reich served to legitimize power, express hegemonic ambitions and mobilize society, while simultaneously contributing to economic destabilization and political catastrophe. The article also adopts a comparative historical perspective, pointing to analogies between Nazi practices of representing power and earlier as well as later forms of authoritarian and totalitarian rule in Europe. Particular attention is devoted to post-war processes of coming to terms with the past in the Federal Republic of Germany, including both the institutionalization of memory (memorial sites, documentation centers) and evolving historiographical and societal interpretations.