The intricacies of education about the Holocaust in Poland. Ten years after the Jedwabne debate, what can Polish school students learn about the Holocaust in history classes?

Abstract

In many European countries, disparities have grown between history and the memory of the Holocaust. Debates on Polish–Jewish relations during the Holocaust and empirical studies in the field of education reveal that there is a gap between research and education. The emphasis in this paper is on the content of new history textbooks published after the 2008 educational reforms in Poland.

Keywords:

• Holocaust education
• Poland
• empirical studies
• memory of the Holocaust
• Jedwabne debate
• history teaching

Notes

1. Jedwabne was a typical shtetl, a small town in Central and Eastern Europe with a large percentage of Jews. More than 60% of the inhabitants of Jedwabne – total population just above 1000 – were Jewish before World War II. More than 340 Polish Jews were murdered in July 1941.

2. Some studies have summaries in English.

3. CBOS, ‘Polacy wobec zbrodni w Jedwabnem – przemiany społecznej świadomości’ http://www.cbos.pl/SPISKOM.POL/2001/K_120_01.PDF [accessed 18.03.2014].

4. Parts of the paper were based on the research project: Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, ‘Attitudes towards Jews and the Holocaust among Polish Youth’ which was conducted in 2008–2011 at the Centre for Holocaust Studies, Jagiellonian University, Kraków. The study was supported by grants from the International Task Force for Holocaust Education Research and Remembrance (currently the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) and La Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah.

5. Reports on the content of Polish history and literature textbooks, prepared by a team of four experts (Barbara Hondo, Elzbieta Mach, Renata Rosa-Chlobowska, and Robert Szuchta), were presented for in-depth discussion during a workshop entitled ‘Educating for Reconciliation: Can Tolerance Towards Former Enemies Be Taught?’ organized in Lublin in June 2001 by the Carnegie Council (New York), the Department of Judaic Studies of the Jagiellonian University (Cracow) and Brama Miejska –Teatr NN (Lublin).