Holocaust Bystander in Polish Culture, 1942-2015

Maryla Hopfinger is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Literary Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland. She works in the areas of the theory of culture and social communication. She has authored numerous books and articles and has also acted as editor to a number of collected volumes. Her most recent publication in English (2010, translated in 2020) is entitled Literature and Media.Tomasz Żukowski is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Literary Research at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland. He is a literary historian interested in the identity and discourses in the context of the Shoah. Previous works include The Great Whitewash (2018) and Under Pressure.(2021).

“This is a very important book with a clear and strong message. One of its biggest contributions is the critical light in which a number of important Polish books and cultural and literary artifacts are shown, revealing their silences as well as angles that helped present Polish Jewish history from a more positive perspective. … it is a must-read book for graduate students and scholars interested in the debates as well as a critical overview of many critical Pol­ish texts.” (Anna Müller, The Polish Review, Vol. 69 (2), 2024)

• 1. Chapter 1: We are all witnesses. Instead of an introduction; Maryla Hopfinger.- 2.  Chapter 2: Constructing the Figure of the Polish Shoah Witness; Katarzyna Chmielewska.- 3.  Chapter 3: Alternative Narratives of the 1940s vs. the Politics of Memory; Katarzyna Chmielewska.- 4.  Chapter 4: Hand in hand. Calling on witnesses to Polish-Jewish brotherhood; Anna Zawadzka.- 5. Chapter 5: Bearing witness to witnessing: Jewish narratives about Polish “witnesses” to the Holocaust; Anna Zawadzka.- 6. Chapter 6: The guilt of indifference; Aránzazu Calderón Puerta, Tomasz Żukowski.- 7. Chapter 7: Nostalgic archeology and critical archeology; Tomasz Żukowski.- 8. Chapter 8: Documents and fictions; Wojciech Wilczyk.-