Polish teachers' strategies and approach to education about the Holocaust through social activism in local communities
Polish teachers' strategies and approach to education about the Holocaust through social activism in local communities

Summary/Abstract: Occupied Poland was the site of the murder of almost five million Jews, including three million Polish Jews, and is still remembered by the Jewish community as a graveyard. A strong sense of victimhood among the Polish population, based on the memory of the murder of almost 2 million ethnic Poles during World War II, in many cases gives rise to conflicting approaches and generates obstacles to providing sound education about the holocaust (EaH). The new Holocaust historiography in Poland, revealing the facts of group and individual complicity in the Shoah, causes discomfort in the Polish state, national community, and individuals. The cognitive dissonance and undesirable emotions also create serious pedagogical challenges. The article aims to investigate these challenges in the area of EaH in Poland on the basis of the findings of the Sites of Tension research project, which are related to regional/local history and social activism in Poland. The text focuses on the connection, as presented in the interviews with teachers, between education and social actions in the context of the concepts of collective memory and national identity in contemporary Poland. It presents activities aimed at recreating the memory of the Jewish past and identifies good educational practices for teaching about Jewish history and culture and cultivating the memory of the Holocaust in Poland. The text addresses, among others, the question of whether extracurricular EaH tackles the dark sides of history related to the Holocaust. The evaluation of specific educational programs, as viewed by the teachers interviewed, is intended to determine whether the aim of particular projects related to the development of students’ attitudes towards Jews and their history, including the Holocaust, is likely to be achieved.

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