Relacja gospodarz–gość w Polsce międzywojennej i obecnie
The Host-guest Relation in Inter-war and Present-day Poland

Summary/Abstract: Polish-Jewish relations spanning from the interwar period and wartime to the present served the author as material for reflections concerning social relations between the guest and the host. In doing so, Katarzyna Prot-Klinger dealt with a particular Jews-Poles formation, the axis of the article being the history of her Jewish family. The text demonstrates how the figure of “the Other” – “the guest”, who feels at home and wants to resemble the host, was and continues to be regarded as a threat to Polish society. In the conditions of a crisis a group begins to function according to principles described by Bion as “basic assumptions”. While examining society conceived as a group one may observe how the mechanism of the “scapegoat” becomes activated. “The guest” (Jew / refugee) represents and supposedly stores the unwanted elements of the host, thus rendering any closer proximity between them impossible.

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