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From Silence to Recognition: The Holocaust in Polish Education since 1989

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on the implementation of educational reforms since 1989, which aimed to integrate the subject of the Holocaust into Polish schools. It describes textbooks from the first half of the 1990s that were still marred by common stereotypes, such as Jewish passivity in the face of German aggression. It also examines textbooks since the late 1990s representing Jewish reactions to Nazism with more nuance and situating the fate of Poland's Jews in a larger historical context. The chapter discusses the subject of the Holocaust in several schools that reside in the shadow of Polonocentrism and explains how it is treated like an appendage to the dominant history of Polish heroism and martyrdom under the German occupation. It points out that the positive shift in attitude in Polish schools, where Polish teachers no longer ask if the Holocaust should be taught, but how to teach it.

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Volume/Issue

20

Page Number / Article Number

305-317

ISBN/ISSN

9781904113058

DOI

Link

Link to article (paywalled), From Silence to Recognition: The Holocaust in Polish Education since 1989

Bibliographic Information

Szuchta, Robert From Silence to Recognition: The Holocaust in Polish Education since 1989. POLIN: Studies in Polish Jewry. 2007: 305-317.  https://archive.jpr.org.uk/10.3828/liverpool/9781904113058.003.0012