Language:
Polish
Year of publication:
2008
Titel der Quelle:
Zagłada Żydów; studia i materiały
Angaben zur Quelle:
4 (2008) 17-80
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews Historiography
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Rescue
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
Abstract:
A survey of Polish historical texts written both in Poland and by émigrés, dealing with Polish help given to Jews during the Holocaust. This issue has for decades been subject to instrumental treatment: it was a bargaining card in the dispute between the communist authorities and the opposition, and it was part of the image of Poland and Poles broadcast abroad. Dwells on changes in how the topic was dealt with throughout postwar Polish history: from the myth that it was communists and "Polish patriots" who rendered aid to Jews, characteristic of the first postwar decade, through recognition of the role of Żegota and the Church in rescuing Jews, to more analytical works. The collapse of communism in Poland did not change, in the first stage, the main myth: that the aid to Jews was a norm, and betrayal of Jews was perpetrated by the dregs of society - this, despite the shock engendered by Lanzmann's documentary film "Shoah" (1985) and Błoński's article "Poor Poles Look at the Ghetto" (1987). Gross's "Neighbors" and "Fear" caused Polish society to revise the myth of the Poles as a nation that was ready to help the Jews. In more recent works, there have been attempts to explain the widespread wartime antisemitism in Poland. Focuses on works by Tatiana Berenstein, Adam Rutkowski, Szymon Datner, Władysław Bartoszewski, Kazimierz Iranek-Osmecki, Teresa Prekerowa, Jan Tomasz Gross, Jan Żaryn, and others.
Note:
Appeared in English as "Polish literature on organized and individual help to the Jews (1945-2008)" in "Holocaust; Studies and Materials" (2010) 11-75.
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