Rethinking Poles And Jews

Foreward
Eli Zborowski

Preface

Introduction: Confronting Negative Stereotypes: Polish Behavior In Wartime And Contemporary Poland
Robert Cherry And Annamaria Orla-Bukowska

Anti-Polish Stereotypes

Introduction: Anti-Polish Stereotypes
Thaddeus Radzilowski
Poland And The Poles In The Cinematic Portrayal Of The Holocaust
Mieczyslaw B. Biskupski
Cinema In The Crossfire Of Jewish-Polish Polemics: Wajda’s Korczak And Polanski’s The Pianist
Lawrence Baron
American Press Coverage Of Poland’s Role In The Holocaust
Shana Penn
Measuring Anti-Polish Biases Among Holocaust Teachers
Robert Cherry

Contextual Understanding And Dialogue

Introduction: Polish-Jewish Relations In America
Guy Billauer
Polish-Jewish Relations During The Holocaust: A Changing Jewish Viewpoint
Havi Ben-Sasson
Polish And Jewish Historiography Of Jewish-Polish Relations During World War II
Helene Sinnreich
The Holocaust: A Continuing Challenge For Polish-Jewish Relations
John Pawlikowski
Polish-Jewish Relations Since 1984: Reflections Of A Participant
Antony Polonsky

Contemporary Poland

Introduction: Polish-Jewish Relations In Poland: Where Have We Come From And Where Are We Headed?
Michael Schudrich
The Evolution Of Catholic-Jewish Relations After 1989
Stanislaw Krajewski
Antisemitism In Contemporary Poland: Does It Matter? And For Whom Does It Matter?
Joanna B. Michlic
Polish Historians Respond To Jedwabne
Natalia Aleksiun
March Of The Living: Confronting Anti-Polish Stereotypes
Carolyn Slutsky
Gentiles Doing Jewish Stuff: The Contributions Of Polish Non-Jews To Polish Jewish Life
Annamaria Orla-Bukowska

Additional Info
Since Polish Catholics embraced some anti-Jewish notions and actions prior to WWII, many intertwined the Nazi death camps in Poland with Polish anti-Semitism. As a result, more so than local non-Jewish population in other Nazi-occupied countries, Polish Catholics were considered active collaborators in the destruction of European Jewry. Through the presentation of these negative images in Holocaust literature, documentaries, and teaching, these stereotypes have been sustained and infect attitudes toward contemporary Poland, impacting on Jewish youth trips there from Israel and the United States.

This book focuses on the role of Holocaust-related material in perpetuating anti-Polish images and describes organizational efforts to combat them. Without minimizing contemporary Polish anti-Semitism, it also presents more positive material on contemporary Polish-American organizations and Jewish life in Poland. To our knowledge this will be the first book to document systematically the anti-Polish images in Holocaust material, to describe ongoing efforts to combat these negative stereotypes, and to emphasize the positive role of the Polish Catholic community in the resurgence of Jewish life in Poland. Thus, this book will present new information that will be of value to Holocaust Studies and the 100,000 annual foreign visitors to the German death camps in Poland.

List of Contributors
Natalia Aleksiun, Lawrence Baron, Havi Ben-Sasson, Guy Billauer, Mieczyslaw B. Biskupski, Robert Cherry, Stanislaw Krajewski, Joanna B. Michlic, Annamaria Orla-Bukowska, John Pawlikowski, Shana Penn, Antony Polonsky, Thaddeus Radzilowski, Michael Schudrich, Helene Sinnreich, Carolyn Slutsky, and Eli Zborowski.