Ethnicisation of responsibility: Psychological aspects...
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involving the overestimation of the role of one’s own group in the history of places of residence, thus legitimising its right to the occupied territory.6 In the light of the psychological knowledge cited, the threat to the Polish memory, associated with the emergence of the phrase “Polish death camps” in the Western media, becomes obvious. For many European societies, especially for those whose territories were occupied by the Third Reich, the years of the Second World War proved to be an extremely important period for the formation of their modern identity. Polish respondents mention the events of 1939–1945 as the most important in the history of their places of residence and in the history of the nation.7 In spite of sharing a general tendency to indicate events in which the main actors were members of the same national group, in Poland the memory of the annihilation of the Jews is present far more often than e.g. Ukraine. Similarly, Polish history books not only devote a lot of space to the period of the Second World War, but also mention the Holocaust, at the same time emphasising help provided to the Jews by the Poles risking their lives – which sometimes leads to an incomplete presentation of the actual attitudes of the Poles toward the Jews under the Nazi occupation.8 The time of the Second World War, interpreted in this special way, has become a very important element of Polish identity. Therefore, indication of the Polish provenance of death camps strikes at Poland’s dominant narrative of the past. Such statements pose a threat to the schematic perception of the occupation years developed as part of school education: distinguishing Poles, who were only saving the Jews, from their executioners – solely of German origin. This clash of historical narratives overlaps with the actual erroneousness of the phrase “Polish death camps,” which not only the Poles protest against – but also American Jewish organisations (e.g. the American Jewish Committee).
3. Divisions too simple to be true In the face of the Holocaust, a tragedy of unprecedented proportions, the return to a normal life seemed unimaginable for many Europeans, witnesses of the carnage of their Jewish neighbours. The struggles of successive generations born in post-war Germany must have been all the more difficult, 6
Lewicka, “Historical ethnic bias in urban”; Lewicka, “Historical ethnic bias in collective”. Lewicka, Psychologia. 8 H. Węgrzynek, „Prezentacja Holokaustu i dziejów Żydów w aktualnych podręcznikach historii”, in: Nauczanie o Holokauście, ed. A. Żbikowski, ASPRA-J, Pułtusk, 2006, pp. 13–74; R. Szuchta, Czego uczeń polskiej szkoły może się dowiedzieć o Holokauście na lekcji historii w dziesięć lat po “dyskusji jedwabieńskiej”?, typescript submitted for publication. 7