A Strange Twist of Divine Providence: Polish Holocaust Memory from a Catholic-National Perspective Cover Image
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Osobliwe zrządzenie Opatrzności Bożej… Polska pamięć Zagłady w perspektywie katolicko-narodowej
A Strange Twist of Divine Providence: Polish Holocaust Memory from a Catholic-National Perspective

Author(s): Jacek Leociak
Subject(s): History, Social Sciences, Jewish studies, Sociology, Special Historiographies:, Theology and Religion, Nationalism Studies, Fascism, Nazism and WW II, History of Antisemitism, Sociology of Religion, Identity of Collectives
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: public discourse after 1945; Polish-Jewish relations; Catholic Church and the Holocaust

Summary/Abstract: The Jewish Holocaust has a special place in Polish discourses on memory. It would be hard to overestimate its importance in constructing a model of Polish identity. But Leociak points out a weakness in Polish Holocaust memory – one that appears especially in narratives about saving Jews. The rhetoric, poetics and metaphors of these discourses – both private and public – are astonishingly durable, given the changing political context. This article is a preliminary exploration of a certain type of Polish discourse on Holocaust memory, one that has a long tradition but is now gaining prominence. It could be described as a Catholic-national discourse, where both elements have equal weight, affirming its rootedness in the ideology of the prewar Catholic National Democracy formation (also known as ND or ‘Endecja’).

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 6
  • Page Range: 122-152
  • Page Count: 31
  • Language: Polish