Augenzeugenschaft, Visualitat, Politik: Polnische Erinnerungen an Die Deutsche Judenvernichtung

This study shows how the Poles themselves eyewitnessed the murder of the Jews by the Nazis. It enables conclusions about the Polish self-image and its relationship to the discussion of Holocaust in the West. Poland lay at the center of European Judaism and during World War II was the setting for much of the German annihilation of the Jews. Hanna Maischein analyzes in this volume the extent to which the proximity to these crimes has influenced the discussion about the Holocaust among the eyewitnesses in Poland. Do the Poles see themselves as heroes and as rescuers of the Jews - or as perpetraters as well who profited from the destruction of the Jews? The author uses a multitude of visual media such as film, museum exhibitions and monuments to examine the self-image of Polish eyewitnesses.