This book concerns building an idealized image of the society in which the Holocaust occurred. It inspects the category of the bystander (in Polish culture closely related to the witness), since the war recognized as the axis of self-presentation and majority politics of memory. The category is of performative character since it defines the roles of event participants, assumes passivity of the non-Jewish environment, and alienates the exterminated, thus making it impossible to speak about the bystanders’ violence at the border between the ghetto and the ‘Aryan’ side. Bystanders were neither passive nor distanced; rather, they participated and played important roles in Nazi plans. Starting with the war, the authors analyze the functions of this category in the Polish discourse of memory through following its changing forms and showing links with social practices organizing the collective memory. Despite being often critiqued, this point of dispute about Polish memory rarely belongs to mainstream culture. It also blocks the memory of Polish violence against Jews. The book is intended for students and researchers interested in memory studies, the history of the Holocaust, the memory of genocide, and the war and postwar cultures of Poland and Eastern Europe.
Author(s): Maryla Hopfinger, Tomasz Żukowski
Series: Palgrave Studies in Cultural Heritage and Conflict
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 381
Acknowledgments
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
Chapter 1: We Are All Witnesses. Instead of an Introduction
The Witness Between 1942 and 2015
Pre-action
The Time of the Holocaust
After the War
October 1956
The 1960s
March 1968
The 1970s
The 1980s
The Breakthrough Events of 1989
Neighbors
References
Chapter 2: Constructing the Figure of the Polish Shoah Witness
The Witness: Introductory Comments
Polish Guilt: The Polish Bystander
Back to the Beginning: The 1940s
Press Releases
Moral Testimony
Antoni Szymanowski, Likwidacja ghetta warszawskiego. Reportaż
Maria Kann, Na oczach świata
Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, Protest!
References
Chapter 3: Alternative Narratives of the 1940s Versus the Politics of Memory
Outline of the Situation After 1945
The Politics of Memory: Immediately After the War
Beyond the Politics of Memory: The War and Post-war Years
Reactions to the Holocaust
Czesław Miłosz
Jerzy Andrzejewski
Ludwik Hering
Kazimierz Wyka
In the Shadow of Post-war Pogroms
A Catholic Voice. A Dual Perspective
References
Chapter 4: Hand in Hand. Calling on Witnesses to Polish-Jewish Brotherhood
Vilification of the Polish Nation
“A Concerted Campaign”
Mila 18
The Samaritans. Heroes of the Holocaust
The Right Answer
Historical Politics in the 1960s
Conversations with an Executioner
Nazism and Communism: Equalization
Metaphysics of Polishness
Jewish Ingratitude
Shielding the Flame
The Price Witness Pays
References
Chapter 5: Bearing Witness to Witnessing: Jewish Narratives About Polish “Witnesses” to the Holocaust
Mimesis
The Law of Mimesis
Erasure
The Spectacle of Free Will
“A Great Adventure”
Assimilation as Illusion
“Flawed?”16
Decontextualization
Once Again, More Bluntly
Every Why Has a Wherefore
References
Chapter 6: The Guilt of Indifference
Witnesses or Participants?
Censorship
This Has happened Among Us
Complicity and Shared Responsibility
Facts and Escape From the Facts
Norms, Behaviors and Attitudes
Removal of Unwanted Knowledge
Obviousness or Criticism?
An Error Among One’s Own
Discourse Analysis
A Blind Spot
The “Actual State of Affairs” and a Moral Dilemma
Sources and Voice of the Victims: Disturbed Self-image
“God has stopped this hand”
Repetition
References
Chapter 7: Nostalgic Archeology and Critical Archeology
Nostalgic Archeology
Preview: Taking Over and Concealing Jewish History
Reconstruction and Identification
The Disappearance of Jews
The Nostalgic Subject and Emptiness
Critical Archeology
Under the Surface
Traces Speak About Us
Deconstruction of Inexpressibility
Discovery of Agency, Revision of Identity
References
Chapter 8: Documents and Fictions
The Eye of the Witness: Whose Eye Is That?
An Album About the Holocaust
From the Liquidation Report
Sodom and Gomorrah
The Footbridge
A Tram Through the Ghetto
Executions
The Burning Ghetto
Pictures for Sale
The Carousel
Evacuation Which Was Not There…
The Good Poles
The Margins
Children Speaking in Adult Voices (Reviewers Are Delighted)
People Who Walked
Karolina and Piotr Jakoweńko, Jewish Żarki. Lost Photographs. Będzin: Fundacja Cukermana, 2016
References
Bibliography
Filmography
Index
