How and why Polish peasants (do not) talk about the Holocaust
-
Piotr Grochowski
Abstract
In this article I discuss how images of the Holocaust are contained in Polish oral narratives and the special way of transmitting them among peasants. Based on materials collected during ethnographic research conducted by Dionizjusz Czubala in the 1970s and 1980s in the southern part of the Świętokrzyskie Province in Poland I try to show, how traditional stereotypes concerning Jews and social relations influence the way of shaping and transmitting stories about the Holocaust. Analysing a sample of texts, I am arguing that core motif connects to the economic aspects of Polish-Jewish relations before and during the Second World War. I also claim that these recollections circulated in a situation that can be described as a pact of silence and therefore fulfilled several significant functions, among which the most important were: a) building and framing knowledge about past events, b) protection of the good reputation of the local community, c) maintaining relatively correct neighbourly relations, d) setting social status by stigmatizing economic contacts with Jews.
Zusammenfassung
Dieser Artikel untersucht, welche Bilder des Holocaust in polnischen mündlichen Erzählungen enthalten sind und wie sie unter der ländlichen Bevölkerung vermittelt wurden. Basierend auf Materialien, die während ethnographischer Forschungen von Dionizjusz Czubala in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren im südlichen Teil der polnischen Provinz Wistokrzyskie gesammelt wurden, versuche ich nachzuvollziehen, wie traditionelle Stereotype über Juden und soziale Beziehungen die Art und Weise beeinflussen, wie Erzählungen über den Holocaust gestaltet und vermittelt wurden. Die Textanalyse verdeutlicht, dass das Kernmotiv der Erzählungen mit den wirtschaftlichen Aspekten der polnisch-jüdischen Beziehungen vor und während des Zweiten Weltkriegs zusammenhängt. Diese Erinnerungserzählungen zirkulierten in einer Atmosphäre, die ich als ein Pakt des Schweigens bezeichne und die mehrere bedeutende Funktionen erfüllte. Die wichtigsten waren: a) Aufbau und Gestaltung von Wissen über vergangene Ereignisse, b) Schutz des guten Rufes der lokalen Gemeinschaft, c) Aufrechterhaltung relativ korrekter nachbarschaftlicher Beziehungen, d) Festlegung des sozialen Status durch Stigmatisierung wirtschaftlicher Kontakte mit Juden.
6 Literature
Burszta, J. Wojciech: Struktury trwania. Kultura chłopska i jej determinanty (The Structures of Duration. Peasant Culture and its Determinants). In: Zarys krajobrazu. Wieś polska wobec zagłady Żydów 1942–1945 (The Outline of the Landscape. Polish Village in the Face of the Extermination of the Jews 1942–1945). ed. Barbara Engelking/Jan Grabowski. Warszawa 2011.Search in Google Scholar
Buttaroni, Susanna/Musiał, Stanisław (ed.): Ritual Murder. Legend in European History. Kraków 2003.Search in Google Scholar
Cała, Alina: The Image of the Jew in Polish Folk Culture. Jerusalem 1995 (originally published in Polish in 1987).Search in Google Scholar
Czubala, Dionizjusz: Folklor garncarzy polskich (Polish Potters’ Folklore). Katowice 1978.Search in Google Scholar
Czubala, Dionizjusz: Polskie legendy miejskie. Studium i materiały (Polish Urban Legends. Study and Materials). Katowice 2014.Search in Google Scholar
Czubala, Dionizjusz: Pamięć Zagłady w narracji folklorystycznej (Memory of the Holocaust in Folklore Narrative). In: Zagłada Żydów. Studia i materiały 13 (2017) 203–229.10.32927/ZZSiM.357Search in Google Scholar
Czubala, Dionizjusz/Kozera, Andrzej (ed.): Wojenne opowieści wspomnieniowe (War Memoirs). Kielce 2012.Search in Google Scholar
Datner, Szymon: Las sprawiedliwych. Karta z dziejów ratownictwa Żydów w okupowanej Polsce (Forest of the Righteous. A Page from the History of Jewish Rescue in Occupied Poland). Warszawa 1968.Search in Google Scholar
Dobrosielski, Paweł: Spory o Grossa. Polskie problemy z pamięcią o Żydach (Disputes about Gross. Polish problems with the memory of Jews). Warszawa 2017.10.4000/books.iblpan.10338Search in Google Scholar
Engelking, Anna: Kołchoźnicy. Antropologiczne studium tożsamości wsi białoruskiej przełomu XX i XXI wieku (Collective farmers. Anthropological study of the identity of the Belarusian village at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries). Toruń 2012.Search in Google Scholar
Engelking, Barbara: Such a beautiful sunny day. Jews seeking refuge in the Polish countryside, 1942–1945. Jerusalem 2016 (originally published in Polish in 2011).Search in Google Scholar
Forecki, Piotr: Po Jedwabnem. Anatomia pamięci funkcjonalnej (After Jedwabne. Anatomy of functional memory). Warszawa 2018.10.4000/books.iblpan.14353Search in Google Scholar
Grabowski, Jan: Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland. Bloomington-Indiana 2013 (originally published in Polish in 2011).Search in Google Scholar
Grabowski, Jan/Libionka, Dariusz (ed.): Klucze i Kasa. Losy mienia żydowskiego w okupowanej Polsce, 1939–1945 (Keys & Cash. The Fate of Jewish Property in Occupied Poland, 1939–1945). Warszawa 2014.Search in Google Scholar
Grochowski, Piotr (ed.): O tym nie wolno mówić … Zagłada Żydów w opowieściach wspomnieniowych ze zbiorów Dionizjusza Czubali (We are not allowed to speak about it … The extermination of the Jews in memoirs from the collections of Dionizjusz Czubala). Toruń 2019.Search in Google Scholar
Gross, Jan Tomasz: Neighbors. Princeton 2001 (originally published in Polish in 2000).10.1515/9781400843251Search in Google Scholar
Gross Jan Tomasz, Grudzińska-Gross Irena: Golden Harvest. Events at the Periphery of the Holocaust. New York 2012 (originally published in Polish in 2011).Search in Google Scholar
Kłoskowska, Antonina: Polacy wobec zagłady Żydów. Próba typologii postaw (Poles in the Face of the Extermination of Jews. Attempt at Typology of Attitudes). In: Kultura i Społeczeństwo 4 (1988) 111–127.Search in Google Scholar
Kozera, Andrzej/Kozera,Łukasz (ed.): Z teki folkloru Dionizjusza Czubali. Wojenne opowieści wspomnieniowe (From the Folklore Portfolio of Dionizjusz Czubala. War Memoirs) T. 1–2. Kielce 2008–2010.Search in Google Scholar
Leociak, Jacek: Ratowanie. Opowieści Polaków i Żydów (Rescue. Tales of Poles and Jews). Kraków 2010.Search in Google Scholar
Polonsky, Antony/Michlic, Joanna B. (ed.): The Neighbors Respond. The Controversy Over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland. Princeton 2009.10.1515/9781400825813Search in Google Scholar
Reszka, Piotr Paweł: Płuczki. Poszukiwacze żydowskiego złota (Gold Panners. Seekers of Jewish Gold). Warszawa 2019.Search in Google Scholar
Schnepf-Kołacz, Zuzanna: Pomoc Polaków dla Żydów na wsi w czasie okupacji niemieckiej. Próba opisu na przykładzie Sprawiedliwych wśród Narodów Świata (Polish Help for Jews in the Countryside during the German Occupation. An Attempt of Description based on the Example of the Righteous Among the Nations). In: Zarys krajobrazu. Wieś polska wobec zagłady Żydów 1942–1945 (The Outline of the Landscape. Polish Village in the Face of the Extermination of the Jews 1942–1945). ed. Barbara Engelking/Jan Grabowski. Warszawa 2011.Search in Google Scholar
Thomas, William/Znaniecki, Florian: The Polish peasant in Europe and America. Monograph of an immigrant group. Vol. 1: Primary-group organization. Boston 1918.Search in Google Scholar
Tokarska-Bakir, Joanna: Pogrom Cries. Essays on Polish-Jewish History 1939–1946. Frankfurt a. M. 2017 (originally published in Polish in 2012).10.3726/b15601Search in Google Scholar
Tokarska-Bakir, Joanna: Legendy o krwi. Antropologia przesądu (Blood Libel Myths. Anthropology of Prejudice). Warszawa 2008.Search in Google Scholar
Trachtenberg, Joshua: The Devil and the Jews. Philadelphia 1983.Search in Google Scholar
Zerubavel, Eviatar: The Elephant in the Room. Silence and Denial in Everyday Life. New York/Oxford 2008.Search in Google Scholar
Żyndul, Jolanta: Zajścia antyżydowskie w Polsce w latach 1935–1937 (Anti-Jewish Incidents in Poland in 1935–1937). Warszawa 1994.Search in Google Scholar
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- The Spring Man of Prague
- Remembering Pablo: Escobar refuses to be forgotten
- When Objects Misbehave
- “Separated in Neither Death nor Life”: The Folk Traditions Linking Judah Halevi and Abraham ibn Ezra
- How and why Polish peasants (do not) talk about the Holocaust
- The First Oral Folk Tale Ever?
- The Ant and the Lion: Reassessing Philological-Folklore Approaches toReinhart Fuchs
- Reviews
- Crossen, Carys: The Nature of the Beast. Transformations of the Werewolf from the 1970s to the Twenty-First Century (Gothic Literary Studies 9). Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2019. 280 S.
- Submitted Books
- Submitted Books
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- The Spring Man of Prague
- Remembering Pablo: Escobar refuses to be forgotten
- When Objects Misbehave
- “Separated in Neither Death nor Life”: The Folk Traditions Linking Judah Halevi and Abraham ibn Ezra
- How and why Polish peasants (do not) talk about the Holocaust
- The First Oral Folk Tale Ever?
- The Ant and the Lion: Reassessing Philological-Folklore Approaches toReinhart Fuchs
- Reviews
- Crossen, Carys: The Nature of the Beast. Transformations of the Werewolf from the 1970s to the Twenty-First Century (Gothic Literary Studies 9). Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2019. 280 S.
- Submitted Books
- Submitted Books
