In-Depth

Why Poland? Part 2: Commemorating Auschwitz (Introduction)

To skip this introduction and go directly to the full In-Depth Analysis, click here.

This is the second in a three part “In-Depth” post reflecting on the relationship between Jews and Poles in the relatively recent past, as I have observed this relationship over the last forty years. In the first part, I reflected upon the circumstances that led me to engage in Polish cultural and political life and upon my initial experiences during my research there in the 1970s. In this post, I address the conflicting collective memories of Poles and Jews, particularly as they worked to remember together in a ceremony marking the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in August 1995.

I observed the event from a distance in New York, reading newspaper accounts from The New York Times and other foreign sources (from which the non-digitized quotes in the account are drawn). Viewing the event from the outside emphasized my ambiguous connection with the memory conflicts. As an American Jew, with many relatives who viewed this with little or no knowledge about the Communist experience, I understand their dismay about apparently insensitive things said and done by the Polish authorities. But as a scholar engaged in Polish affairs for much of my adult life, I realize how difficult it is to respectfully remember the Shoah when its existence was systematically underplayed, distorted and even silenced by the Communist authorities, and, in addition, when much of the Western world hasn’t recognized the degree of Polish suffering at the hands of the Nazis. I noted that even people of good will under these circumstances have great difficulty getting beyond their own limitations and reinforce misunderstandings and worse.

In my next “Why Poland?” post, I will explore what happened when all of this exploded out in the open, in controversies over Jan Gross’s book, Neighbors. It is a difficult book with a very difficult central finding, the Polish Catholics in a small Polish town, Jedwabne, killed their Jewish neighbors in mass, on their own, without Nazi direction. The publication of the book and its reception shows how the wounds of twentieth century atrocities are still quite raw, and how symbolic complicity in the horrors continues, as does resistance.

Today’s post, I think, shows how difficult collective memory can be. I think I reveal that there is an etiquette of remembering. Who remembers and how is as important as what is remembered.  This etiquette made it difficult to write and publish my account and makes deliberate consideration of the problems involved challenging. Slowly over a long period of time, discussion becomes possible. I wonder whether there is enough time, something I will explore.

To read the full In-Depth Analysis “Why Poland? Part 2: Commemorating Auschwitz,” click here.

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