The Golden Mean Principle. A Handful of Comments on the Currently Dominant Discourse on ‘Polish-Jewish Relations’
The Golden Mean Principle. A Handful of Comments on the Currently Dominant Discourse on ‘Polish-Jewish Relations’
Author(s): Piotr Forecki, Anna ZawadzkaSubject(s): History of the Holocaust, History of Antisemitism
Published by: Stowarzyszenie Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów & IFiS PAN
Keywords: anti-Semitism; Polish-Jewish relations; POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews; Ida; monument of the Righteous; dominant discourse
Summary/Abstract: The article attempts to deconstruct the dominant Polish discourse regarding the ‘Polish-Jewish relations’. Its central figures are: the logic of the golden mean as a tool to reach historical truth, symmetrisation of Polish and Jewish wrongs and faults, and hospitality as the prevalent attitude of Poles towards Jews. The authors show its opinion forming power using three examples: a review of Paweł Pawlikowski’s film Ida, the reception of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and a discussion on the Righteous monuments, which were to be erected in Warsaw.
Journal: Holocaust Studies and Materials
- Issue Year: 2017
- Issue No: 4
- Page Range: 328-349
- Page Count: 22
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF