Doing Fieldwork on Sensitive Topics: Navigating Memories of Intergroup Violence Committed by Ingroups in Contemporary Poland

Abstract

Sensitive topics in qualitative fi eldwork typically include health problems, sexual practices, addictions, illegal activity and death (Campbell 2002;Lee 1993;Liamputtong 2006). Yet, the situation of memories of intergroup violence committed by ingroup members on outgroups -where a community is confronted with the fact that their fellow members have harmed members of other groups -should also be considered as a sensitive topic. An especially sensitive situation occurs when research is conducted in a small community with relatively strong social control maintained through networks of relationships between its members. The aim of this paper is to explore the sensitivity of respondents in their remembering and forgetting of the harm done by members of their own group to the "Others" in local communities, to diagnose the diffi culties in conducting fi eldwork on this topic, and to present various methods of overcoming them. This article is based on experience from a project dedicated to the social memory of violence committed by Poles against members of other ethnic groups within local communities during World War II.