Suchergebnisse

Encounters with the Holocaust in Poland
Repressed memories remain active and their outcomes bring undesirable effects for education about the Holocaust. How can facts and events that have been repressed or dismissed from the individual and collective memory be reintegratedinto social consciousness? When will the memory of the Holocaust in Poland become a shared, collective legacy for Poles? How can education about the Holocaust deal sensitively with the Polish national sense of martyrdom? This remains a crucial question for Polish society. Can memorial sites, museums, historians, writers, educational institutions and civic organizations in post‑communist Poland create space where the voice of Jewish victims and second and third generations can be heard and where communities of memory can integrate? Or will Polish society continue to be characterized by rivalry between competing memories? These questions form the foundation of my empirical studies and trigger interest in the evaluation of existing educational programs. A qualitative research, namely a participant observation of the Forum for Dialogue among the Nations program 'School of Dialogue' in Warsaw, will attempt to answer the above questions.

REMEMBRANCE AND EDUCATION ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST AND GULAG CRIMES IN SELECTED MUSEUMS AND MEMORIAL SITES IN THE CONTEXT OF LEARNING FROM THE PAST AND HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATIONDiff erent historical narratives and collective memories linked to the constructions of national identity still divide Western and Central-Eastern Europe. The framework of Human Rights Education addressing universality and interdependence of Human Rights may have a potential to overcome divisions connected with national approaches to history. They may connect young people to "negative" memory and shameful, hidden, distorted historical narratives of the past of their own countries. The attitude of European societies towards the Holocaust is one of the themes still not included in many curricula. The history of the Holocaust and Soviet crimes in many countries still waits for contextual approaches. Museums and memorial sites in this context are carriers of memory of wars, genocides, slavery, totalitarian regimes, crimes against humanity, mass atrocities and memories of their victims. They are also signifi cant agents of historical socialisation. History education at memorial sites is a form of historical education based not on teaching about but rather on learning through the past. The text deals with empirical studies focused on education at museums and memorial sites and will explore issues related to education about the Holocaust and Gulag in selected case studies.

"…THE WORLD FELT A HUGE GUILT OVER THE SCALE OF THE HOLOCAUST…". DEBATES SURROUNDING THE TEACHING ABOUT THE HOLOCAUSTIn Europe a strong association with a sense of victimhood based on the memory of terror and murder in many cases creates conflicting approaches and generates obstacles to providing education about Jewish victims. Suppressed shame and tension together with conflicts related to insufficiently acknowledged victimhood of one's own group intersect with political agreements on teaching about the Shoah such as the signing of the Stockholm Declaration and membership in the IHRA and other IGOs. The text presents selected challenges and the dynamics of education about the Holocaust and poses questions such as whether it is possible to identify clear concepts, strategies and good educational practices, whether there are links between education about the Holocaust, education against genocides and human rights education, and how education about the Holocaust relates to attitudes toward Jews? In many European countries disparities have grown between Holocaust research and education about the Holocaust. Empirical studies in the field of education reveal that there is a gap between research and education in some aspects of the way the Holocaust is presented, particularly with regard to the attitudes of local populations towards Jews during the Shoah. Nevertheless, the number of educational initiatives designed to teach and learn about the Shoah is steadily increasing.

A study from 1996 through 1998 assessed the attitudes of 568 Polish students, ages 13-16, in 22 schools in Cracow, Warsaw, & southeastern & southwestern Poland to determine the attitudes of young Poles in cities, towns, & villages toward Jews. The study also sought to influence school policy toward instruction concerning the Holocaust & the need for prejudice awareness & to create a framework for additional research. Political anti-Semitism can be traced to ethnocentrism & xenophobia rather than theological anti-Judaism. Interest in Jewish history & culture increases positive attitudes. Only two classes participated in experimental programs; & therefore educational programs were seen as having a positive, but weak effect on attitudes toward Jews. Positive attitudes were achieved through tolerance, Jewish contacts, & interests in Jewish history & culture. Unbiased & interested teachers can assist adolescents in overcoming the nation's long-standing anti-Jewish prejudices & stereotypes. 1 Appendix. L. A. Hoffman

The memory of World War II in Poland is sometimes plagued by an us/them mentality or a competition of suffering. This paper will attempt to answer several questions: how are non-Jews contributing to Holocaust memorialization in Poland today? How can recognizing this contribution serve to heal rifts and change deep-seated stereotypes? We will present a case study, based on participant observation, of Bridge To Poland, which emphasizes memory work conducted by non-Jewish Poles. Bridge To Poland's latest project in conjunction with the Grodzka Gate-NN Theatre Centre, The Neshoma Project: Conversations with Poles Rescuing Jewish Memory, highlights those whom Tec calls "Rescuers of Memory". Exposing people to their work, Tec believes, results in breaking down negative stereotypes about non-Jewish Poles and building bridges between people.

The conflicts associated with the memory of the Holocaust in Poland reflect educational gaps in the Polish education system (lack of bad memory). Comparison with other similar studies in Europe and beyond allows one to reveal affinities and divergences in patterns of behaviour in various states in relation to the historical past, social identity and collective memory. This text looks at the consciousness of young Poles, in terms of attitudes toward Jews, the Holocaust and memory of the Holocaust. The data presented are the preliminary results of the author's longitudinal study "Attitudes of Young Poles to-ward the Jews and the Holocaust". Quantitative and qualitative studies include field studies and participant observation of educational projects in Tykocin, Treblinka, Warsaw, Lublin, Bodzentyn and Kielce. The number and scope of initiatives in Poland attempting to bring back the memory of Jewish neighbours indicate that civic institutions and individuals are intensifying their efforts to teach their fellow citizens about the Holocaust, however their impact should be assessed in detail.

Dear Professor Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, you are an icon for education about the Holocaust in Poland, you are very well regarded abroad and well known for that reason. I will start with some simple questions to get our conversation going. First question: Would you say that there are challenges in the preservation of memory about the Holocaust and challenges for the preservation of historic objectivity?

The Enlightenment instilled European and European-rooted societies with certain fundamental principles which are generally taken for granted; among the most important are democracy, education, and human equality. Not all of mankind experienced this period of cultural history, but in those areas that the Enlightenment touched, a tautology functions in the collective subconscious that where there is democracy and where there is an educated people, there will be equality. Western nations—their politicians, scholars, and common folk alike—believe that a preordained consequence of the system of democratic rule in a developed country is open-mindedness and tolerance; in contrast, it is generally maintained that non-democratic governments where knowledge is evidently censored and controlled, such as those of the former Soviet Bloc, produce narrow-mindedness and intolerance.