Miłosz Lindner
Caption: Museum of the History of Polish Jews
in Warsaw, Poland. © Wojciech Kryński
Is there a successful
way to tell the difference between you and me, us and them? How do I draw a
dividing line so that a stranger won’t penetrate the inner circle? How can I
differentiate the members of the in-group from those to fear, coming from the
out-group. Well, you can try using any of the social or religious categories
that you find in a discourse nowadays, but be cautious, the outcome might be
deplorable. Based on what I’ve learnt today, I’m going to help you with your
aesthetic choices. Othering[1]
is totally passé.
It was a fruitful day for me, full of enriching
experiences. We visited the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and began
with a talk by Justyna Koszarska-Szulc, one of the museum’s curators, who
introduced us into the core principles that were used while constructing the
exhibition. It’s the thousand years of joint Polish-Jewish history that matter,
not just the regrettable chapter of Shoah. The museum tries to represent a
broad spectrum of relations between the two groups and to show that Jews are
agents of the history, not objects on which people projected their fears and
fantasies. What I like the most about the museum is that it is the radiant
educational center that stands tall in the former Jewish district and the
former Warsaw Ghetto. Indeed, opening a new chapter.
The introduction we had was then supplied with
a panel on different faces of anti-Semitism in Poland as well as with a visit
to the core exhibition and the fellows’ discussion. Regarding that the day
before we had an occasion to visit the site of the former death camp in
Treblinka, it was a strongly emotional discussion, but a very well-organized
one. Our two German fellows, Genie Becker and Sarah Bhatti, wanted us to
discuss three questions:
·
How
is the category “race” used in your country? Do you see any potential problems?
·
How
was the Holocaust addressed in your education, media and your peer group?
·
Why
is there more awareness of certain genocides in comparison to others?
Caption: Annual commemoration of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, volunteers distribute
the symbolical paper daffodils[2]
© Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Poland
It turns out that we have different opinions on
each of these issues and that our perspectives vary depending on the place of origin,
the country we were brought up in or the educational system we followed. For
many of the European fellows the category of race was almost insignificant in
the terms of their identity, whereas the American students internalized it and
differentiated it from ethnicity. The term happens to be gradually eradicated
from the coursebooks in Europe due to its negative connotations. For a
comparison, in the U.S. “it is all about race and racism,” which is broadly
discussed and frequently addressed, even in casual peer conversations.
All of the fellows agreed that the Holocaust
was covered to a great extent during their education; however, they do see some
problematic points about that. Hardly any other genocide that happened on a
large scale was mentioned or narrated the same way. The reasons might be for
example the prevalent presence of white history or the business participation
in reparation processes, which is not a case of the Rwandan or Armenian
genocides. The American fellows mentioned an interesting thing about the WWII
narrative they encountered while being students. In the U.S., the aftermath of
the war is taught as a victory and the beginning of the Western super power.
Despite the time that passed and amount of
effort we dedicated to discuss the topic, did we learn anything from Holocaust?
How can one be sure that such atrocities won’t happen ever again? What happens
when the Holocaust survivors will be a thing of the past? How do we take up on
that mission and familiarize the generations to come with the dangers of
authoritarian regimes?
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