Language:
German
Year of publication:
1999
Titel der Quelle:
Kirche und Israel; Neukirchener theologische Zeitschrift
Angaben zur Quelle:
14,1 (1999) 20-31
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
Abstract:
Analyzes the psychological effects of the Holocaust on its Polish witnesses. Although neither perpetrators nor victims, they felt guilt because of their longstanding animosity toward Jews, their helplessness in the face of the extermination, and the property of the murdered Jews of which they took possession. Their ambivalence was intensified by the communist regime's suppression of all discussion. Immediately after the war, this guilt feeling was a major factor, together with the perception that Jews collaborated with the communists, in acts of aggression both against Jewish survivors and their Polish rescuers. In 1968-70, Moczar and his "Partisans" mobilized the ambivalence toward the Holocaust to arouse Polish nationalism, alleging a German-Jewish (or Nazi-Zionist) conspiracy against Polish historical identity. The new generation of Poles (including those of Jewish descent), who have never known real Jews, have developed a nostalgic interest in them. But problems still exist, as seen in the conflict over the convent at Auschwitz.
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