Language:
English
Year of publication:
2004
Titel der Quelle:
Ab Imperio; Theory and History of Nationalism and Empire in the Post-Soviet Space
Angaben zur Quelle:
2 (2004) 125-147
Keywords:
Gross, Jan Tomasz.
;
Jews History 20th century
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Public opinion
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
;
Antisemitism History 1918-1945
;
Jedwabne (Poland)
Abstract:
Discusses Polish reactions to Jan Gross's book "Sąsiedzi" ("Neighbors"), published in 2000, which argued that it was Poles, not Germans, who were responsible for the massacre of the Jews in Jedwabne in 1941. Contrasts reactions of different segments of Polish society, ranging from acceptance of guilt to denial of all responsibility. Notes the centrality of the issue of morality, especially among intellectuals and some members of the Catholic Church. Associates the furor of the debate with questions of Polish national identity, collective memory, totalitarian limits on the study of history (under Communism), and antipodal views of Poles and Jews in regard to Polish antisemitism. Stresses the need to move beyond mutual recriminations and stereotypes (e.g. of Jews as Communist persecutors of Poles and Polonophobes) in order to find the historical truth which has been obfuscated by competing narratives. Notes the impact of the national trauma for both Jews and Poles on their divergent understandings of relations between them during the Holocaust, as seen in other countries and not just in Poland.
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