Language:
German
Year of publication:
2001
Titel der Quelle:
Das Jüdische Echo
Angaben zur Quelle:
50 (2001) 223-236
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Antisemitism History 1945-
Abstract:
Discusses the persistence of antisemitism in postwar Poland, and its nature - religious, racist, or cultural, asserting that all these form a whole. The Poles' perception that the Holocaust was perpetrated by the Germans, while they themselves were victims, and their loss of sovereignty to the communists after the war, "saved" them from having to confront their past. Thus antisemitism could survive unchecked, transmitted through the family, the school, and the Church, encouraged by the regime, and reinforced by the identification of Jews with communists. It was an antisemitism not based on familiarity with actual Jews; most of the Holocaust survivors left the country. Jews, in turn, viewed Poles stereotypically as antisemites and active partners of the Nazis. Since its democratization, Poland and the Polish Church are starting to catch up with the rest of the world in combating antisemitism. Suggests that Jews would do well to support them by giving up their own negative stereotypes.
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