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Bloody Revenge in "God's Playground": Poles' Collective Memory of Relations with Germans, Russians, and Jews
Abstract
The chapter analyzes the assignment, perceptions, and representations of the roles of aggressors, offenders, victims, and witnesses in Polish relations with Germans, Russians, and Jews in the aftermath of World War II as reflected in recent public discourse in Poland. Analysis will focus on debates triggered in Poland by the following issues: (1) the German project to create a "Center Against Expulsions" (inspired by the forced migration of Germans from Poland); (2) a demand for recognition of massacre of the Polish prisoners of war in Katyń as an act of genocide and a crime against humanity; (3) the publication of Jan T. Gross's book Neighbors, on the massacre of Jews in Jedwabne. The theoretical and methodological framework is derived from Thomas J. Scheff's theory of pride and shame emotions as key mechanisms that generate both strong social bonds and intractable conflicts. Conclusions will recommend the acknowledgment of feelings and apologies as directions toward resolution of the protracted conflicts and reconciliation between nations.
... Different groups exhibit a sense of historical collective victimhood as part of their shared identity, either as a muted note or a more fundamental tone. Examples of historical collective victimhood can be found among Poles (e.g., Jasiñska-Kania, 2007), Serbs (Volkan, 1997), and Jews (e.g., Bar-Tal & Antebi, 1992; Schori-Eyal, Klar, Roccas, & McNeill, 2014;Wohl & Branscombe, 2008), to name just a few. Based on an experience of considerable harm embedded in a society's collective memory as severe and unjust (Paez & Liu, 2011;Wertsch, 2002), it is a sense of unforgotten shared trauma and unjustified wrongdoing by others done (e.g., Armenians carry in their collective memory the traumatic event of the genocide performed during War World I; see Wertsch, 2002). ...
... As mentioned before, it is possible to a group to experience different combinations of the three layers of victimhood. A group may be imbued with a strong sense of historical wrongdoing that occurred once but was not repeated (such as the Armenian genocide; Hovannisian, 2011), or historical victimhood that is restricted to the past but is not reflected in contemporary intergroup conflicts (as is the case with Poles; e.g., Confino, 2005;Jasiñska-Kania, 2007), or experience historical victimhood that still plays a part in the group's internal and international politics, but not as part of an active, violent conflict (e.g., China; Callahan, 2004;Renwick & Cao, 1999). It is also possible for a group to experience victimhood only in the context of a specific conflict (e.g., American perception of victimhood in the wake of the 9/11/2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the following wars); or to experience both layers simultaneously (e.g., Jewish Israelis' interlocking layers of historical victimhood, particularly the Holocaust, and the general conflict layer of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict). ...
Perceived collective victimhood plays a significant role in conflictual intergroup relations. We suggest a conceptualization of three different layers of collective victimhood: historical victimhood, general conflict victimhood, and conflict event victimhood. Three studies explore the interrelationship between the layers and their effects in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In Study 1, general conflict victimhood mediates the relationship between historical victimhood and willingness for compromise. In Study 2, conducted in two waves, changes in general conflict victimhood predict support for military actions against the out-group. The relationship between general conflict victimhood and support for military actions was mediated by conflict event victimhood. In Study 3, three new scales were developed, and their relations with different outcomes examined. Findings were nearly identical to the models tested in Studies 1–2.
... Such groups hold onto the collective memory of a long-ago trauma and maintain a sense of woundedness and past injustice across generations (Staub & Bar-Tal, 2003, p. 722). Examples of these "chosen traumas" can be found among some European nations, such as the Serbian defeat in the Battle of Kosovo (Volkan, 2001), the Polish suffering under the dominance of their Russian and German neighbors (Jasińska-Kania, 2007), and the lasting memory of the Great Famine in Ireland (Rice & Benson, 2016). In some instances, the group utilizes the memory of such an event to mobilize its members in the future, particularly when an opportunity arises to pursue the group's political goals or seek revenge (Bar-Tal & Čehajić-Clancy, 2014, pp. ...
The texts in this handbook are focused on a conceptual framework articulated around two axes; the first one explores the historic shift from a heroic to a post-heroic
vision, and the second one investigates the concepts of victims, victimization, and victimhood. The authors delve into questions such as how this shift occurs and its reflection in academic and public discourse, as well as in commemorative practices. Through the examination of different cases, the authors seek to provide a thorough understanding of the postheroic shift occurring in Europe. This shared concern lends unity and complementarity to the handbook.
... (Prussia was predominantly Protestant and Russia predominantly Orthodox.) These foreign occupations were moreover partially interpreted in religious terms, as signing meaning to the Polish fate by relating it to the suffering of Christ, claiming that Poland atones on behalf of other nations (Bar-Tal, Chernyak-Hai, Schori, & Gundar, 2009;Jasińska-Kania, 2007). Such religious interpretations probably tightened the connection between being Polish and being Catholic. ...
The concept of respect figures prominently in several theories on intergroup relations. Previous studies suggested that the experience of being respected is primarily related to the feeling of being recognized as an equal, as opposed to social recognition of needs or achievements. Those studies focused, however, on either minority groups or ad hoc groups, thereby possibly giving equality recognition an advantage. This article extends previous findings by comparing societal groups situated in various contexts. We examined eight groups from four countries. We anticipated and found that the link between respect and equality recognition was stronger for groups that are in the position of minorities compared to groups associated with majorities. Owing to the moral and legal force of the norm of equality, disadvantaged minorities in particular might be able to improve their societal position by founding their claims on the equality principle. Need recognition, in contrast, was less influential for minority groups than for majority groups. While we observed these context-dependent variations, an internal meta-analysis showed that feeling recognized as an equal was, overall, the strongest indicator for feeling respected. This suggests that demands for respect could often be addressed by establishing relationships in society that are based on mutual recognition as equals, while the implications of achievement and need recognition should additionally be considered in specific contexts.
... Okrucieństwa II wojny światowej i dziedziczone w ich następstwie traumy są dojmujące i wciąż mają wpływ na mentalność narodów i społeczeństw po obu stronach Odry. Taka opowieść jest standardem, którego w żadnej mierze nie zamierzamy umniejszać czy unieważniać (Davies, 2005a;Davies, 2005b;Jasińska--Kania, 2007). ...
The shared pedagogy of Andrzej Jaczewski and Karl-Josef Kluge grew out of the political and social changes taking place in West Germany after 1968. Their pioneering work focused on international integration, participation, intercultural learning, educating the gifted, giving space to creativity, and building leadership skills. The international pedagogical interactions initiated at that time were primarily the result of Andrzej Jaczewski’s long life journey marked first by German aggression and World War II and later by his conciliatory response to the postwar West German peace impulse. More than half a thousand participants in German-Polish encounters experienced transformative contact and spaces for dialogue in the Europeanising integration current despite the Cold War. We are reconstructing the shape of this experience and its immediate and distant effects by analysing documents, recording oral histories and describing our own autobiographical encounter experience in the stream of humanistically oriented social sciences. Our exchange of ideas was carried out in 2019–2021 remotely and during study visits to Berlin, Kraków, and Andrzej Jaczewski’s home in Ropki. With this article we contribute to the critical debate on the superficiality of the currently proposed education based on behavioural control in a barren and alienated education system. We advocate a pedagogy that prioritises individual freedom, more vibrant communities, increased autonomy, and cosmopolitanism.
... In addition to beliefs about their victimhood being forgotten and invisible, Central Eastern European peoples are also likely to hold beliefs about betrayal by others (Jasinska-Kania, 2007). Moreover, this sense of betrayal is associated with the belief that historical self-sacrifices often served the interests of other groups such as Christendom, Europe, or the so-called free world. ...
This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the existing social psychological literature on collective victim beliefs. This mostly includes comparative victim beliefs—above all, competitive victimhood and, to a lesser extent, inclusive victim consciousness. Other collective victim beliefs that have been studied include siege mentality, PIVO and FOV, dangerous ideas, and downward comparisons. The review illustrates that completely opposite intergroup outcomes can occur as a result of collective victimization, depending on how it is construed. However, the existing research so far has mostly been conducted in contexts of intractable conflicts and, therefore, may not generalize to other historical, political, and cultural contexts. For example, drawing on the Central Eastern European context (specifically, Hungary and Poland), this chapter suggests that other relevant collective victim beliefs involve invisibility of collective victimhood by third parties, feelings of betrayal, perceived territorial threat, and pride born of suffering.
... For more than a thousand years, Jewish people have recited the chilling verse: "In every generation they rise against us to annihilate us" at the annual Passover service and cite the list of historical enemies starting from the ancient Pharaoh of Egypt (e.g., Klar, Schori-Eyal, & Klar, 2013;Ophir, 1994;Zrubavel, 2004). In Poland, dubbed the "Christ of nations" by the 19th century national poet Adam Mickiewicz, much of the national identity has been constructed around the recurrent victimization Poles have suffered at the hands of their successive enemies (Jasińska-Kania, 2007;Snyder, 2012;Vollhardt, Bilewicz, & Olechowski, 2015). The Shiite-Muslim collective identity has been shaped to a large extent around the memory of the Battle of Karbala (680 AD) in which Imam Hussein ibn Ali (grandson of the Prophet Muhammad), and his supporters were killed as part of a power struggle within Islam. ...
Although the effects of group-based victimhood on attitudes and emotions have been demonstrated in previous research, the ways it affects cognitive processes remain unclear. Four studies examined how a perpetual ingroup victimhood orientation (PIVO) affects cognitive biases. High levels of PIVO were associated with the categorization of more outgroups as hostile to the ingroup, and more rapid responses when using an enmity criterion (Study 1). PIVO was also associated with more attributions of malevolent intentions and fewer attributions of neutral intentions to outgroup members in ambiguous situations (Study 2a); when primed with reminders of historical group trauma, attribution of malevolent intentions increased among high- but not low- PIVO individuals (Study 2b). However, the effect extended to all participants when using a larger sample (Study 2c). The implications of these categorization and attributional biases are discussed in particular as regards the self-perpetuating nature of perceived group victimhood.
... .is full of instances of genocide against Serbs and of exoduses to which they were exposed ( [30], p. 124). Many Poles traditionally view Poland as the 'Christ of nations' [31]. The association between current and historical enemies can be also manipulated. ...
Piotr Toczyski eksploruje społeczne i kulturowe aspekty aktywności cyfrowej osób starszych od 15 lat. Jako autor monografii "Srebrne treści cyfrowe" koncentruje się na badaniach związanych z aktywnym tworzeniem i odbiorem tytułowych treści przez osoby starsze w dialogu międzypokoleniowym. Autor, przemieszczając refleksję przez obszary nauk społecznych, humanistyki i społecznej informatyki, proponuje wprowadzenie tego pojęcia do dyskursu akademickiego. Celem publikacji jest refleksja internetoznawcza i ocena badań dotyczących roli technologii w życiu osób starszych oraz zachęcenie do działania w nurcie społecznie odpowiedzialnej twórczości cyfrowej. Wprowadzenie koncepcji srebrnych treści cyfrowych odwołuje się do interdyscyplinarnego podejścia, włączając nawet tak odległe źródła, jak elementy korczakowskiej pedagogiki inkluzji medialnej sprzed drugiej wojny światowej czy polska recepcja pedagogiki wyzwolenia. Monografia skupia się na badaniach czynników sprzyjających twórczości internetowej osób starszych, definicji pojęć oraz historii tworzenia treści medialnych we współpracy międzypokoleniowej. Autor podkreśla również znaczenie więzi i zaangażowania osobistego we współpracę twórczą, co miejscami nadaje pracy osobisty charakter. Rozdziały są powiązane tematycznie, ale układ książki umożliwia czytelnikom korzystanie jedynie z wybranych fragmentów. Odniesienia do postaci tak uznanych profesorów i eseistów jak Andrzej Jaczewski i Halina Bortnowska miejscami nadają tekstowi charakter gawędy. Stałe kreślenie kierunków dalszych badań uwydatnia dynamiczny charakter tematu i zachęca kolejne pokolenia badaczy do rozwijania zarysowanej koncepcji.
This article investigates two literary texts, House of Day, House of Night (2002) by Olga Tokarczuk and Piaskowa Góra [Sand Mountain] (2009) by Joanna Bator and how they overcome the divisive and politicized narration of the post-WWII population expulsions and resettlement in Poland. The article argues that by employing the “tender narrator,” (Tokarczuk, 2019) e.g. directing readers’ attention to the former German items of everyday use and their stories, the writers create a more empathetic version of this period of history, thus recovering the memories of the, largely silenced, Polish and German experiences of displacement. Adopting postcolonial approaches, the article draws from affect theories and studies of how displaced populations relate emotionally to the changing material environment (Svašek, 2012) to examine the attitudes and emotions of the Poles dealing with the objects, landscape and property of the German deportees. These texts raise important questions about the foundations of the communities in the Polish-German borderlands, and their wider implications for Polish-German relations.
In this chapter, we review Daniel Bar-Tal’s pioneering work on collective victim beliefs and how they influence intractable conflicts and intergroup relations more generally. Bar-Tal’s early work on siege mentality and on societal beliefs related to collective victimhood stimulated research in social and political psychology on this important, understudied topic. We discuss his contributions and review empirical evidence of his postulates as well as more recent conceptualizations of collective victimhood that build on his work. In the second part of this chapter, we discuss collective victimhood in Poland where Bar-Tal grew up. Although Poland is not involved in an intractable conflict, centuries of occupation by surrounding empires and countries contribute to a powerful self-view of Poland as the “Christ of Nations.” We discuss research on the relationship between this victimhood-based identity and anti-Semitism as well as reactions to the role of Poles during the Holocaust. We also discuss some evidence of positive consequences of victim beliefs for the support of refugees in Poland, and end with a discussion of interventions and moral exemplars that may help transform collective victimhood and improve contemporary relations between historically victimized groups—in Poland, Israel, and beyond.
Socjologia emocji według Thomasa Scheffa. Abstrakt. W artykule zostaną przedstawione podstawowe pojęcia socjologii emocji według Thomasa Scheffa: koncepcja pułapek uczuciowych, wewnętrznego i zewnętrznego poszukiwania, dwóch ro-dzajów wstydu (nieskrywany wstyd niewyodrębiony oraz wstyd pomijany), główny zarys teorii socjologii emocji – diagram struktury wstydu. Omówione zostaną także inspiracje teoretyczne, z których korzysta Thomas Scheff: • socjologia Charlesa Cooleya i jego koncepcja podstawowych uczuć społecznych, dumy i wstydu jako elementów pierwotnie socjalizujących jednostkę oraz jako własności pojęcia jaźni odzwierciedlonej; • teoria psychoanalityczna Helen Lewis, w której koncepcja stłumienia i odczytywania niewy-powiedzianych treści z gestów ma znaczenie dla interpretacji ludzkich zachowań. W artykule zostaną przedstawione inspiracje, a także różnice w podejściu do emocji T. Scheffa i E. Durkheima, socjologii E. Goffmana oraz analizy konwersacyjnej. Przedstawione zostaną rów-nież zastosowania teorii T. Scheffa. Autor referatu spróbuje objaśnić polityczne implikacje działania emocji (duma/wstyd a problem rankizmu).
Słowa kluczowe: socjologia emocji, interakcjonizm symboliczny, Thomas Scheff, wstyd, me- todologia, pragmatyzm, historia myśli socjologicznej, mikrosocjologia.
Sociology of Emotions According to Thomas Scheff Abstract
The paper will present the basic concepts of sociology of emotions by Thomas Scheff: the concept of emotional traps, internal and external search, two types of shame (undifferentiated, overt shame and bypassed shame), the main outline of the theory of sociology of emotions – shame structure diagram.
Will also be discussed theoretical inspirations used by Thomas Scheff: sociology of Charles H. Cooley and his concept of basic social feelings, pride and shame, as the elements originally socializing an individual and as part of the concept of “looking-glassself”; Helen Lewis psychoan- alytic theory in which the concept of suppression and reading the unspoken content of gestures is important for the interpretation of human behaviour.
The article will also presents differences between the approaches of T. Scheff and E. Durkheim to emotions, and sociology E. Goffman, and also conversational analysis. There will be also presented practical applications of the theory of T. Scheff. The author of the paper attempts to explain the political implications of experiencing the emotions (pride/shame dynamics and the problem of rankism).
Keywords: sociology of emotions, shame, symbolic interactionism, Thomas Scheff, method- ology, pragmatism, history of sociological thought, microsociology.
This article identifies the conditions under which the interplay of past and present enables or constrains political action in the Polish public sphere. Using data from the Polish quality broadsheet Gazeta Wyborcza, I account for the puzzles in the Jewish, German and Ukrainian minorities' memory work. The study reveals that history empowers ethnic groups differently, in the function of the certification by external allies, diverse salience of the arguments raised and the state's distinct memory projects. Namely, the high resonance of the Jews' claims that seize on the Holocaust narrative and official acknowledgement of their past allow the group to escape the limits of their narrow organizational capacities. In contrast, the state's rejection of the Germans' and Ukrainians' interpretations of the past has the effect of channelling minority claims towards the fight for acknowledgement.
Intractable intergroup conflict is an extremely severe, violent and protracted form of intergroup conflict (Bar-Tal, 2013; Coleman, 2003; Kriesberg, 1993). Such conflicts include a number of unique characteristics that set them apart from other types of intergroup conflicts. One of these characteristics is the perception of irresolvability, which is closely associated with the feeling and development of hopelessness. According to the seminal work of Daniel Bar-Tal (1990, 2007, 2013), the lack of hope and the belief that the conflict cannot be resolved becomes, over time, an inherent part of the so-called Ethos of Conflict and thus helps to perpetuate intractable conflict by inducing indifference and inaction. Hope, on the other hand, has been suggested as an important emotion within conflict resolution (Bar-Tal, 2001; Jarymowicz & Bar-Tal, 2006) because it induces constructive and goal-directed behaviour (Stotland, 1969). We suggest in this chapter that one such behavioural manifestation of hope may be action to achieve social change, or in this context, collective action to achieve conflict resolution (which is a specific form of social change).
A sense of self-perceived collective victimhood emerges as a major theme in the ethos of conflict of societies involved in intractable conflict and is a fundamental part of the collective memory of the conflict. This sense is defined as a mindset shared by group members that results from a perceived intentional harm with severe consequences, inflicted on the collective by another group. This harm is viewed as undeserved, unjust and immoral, and one that the group could not prevent. The article analyses the nature of the self-perceived collective sense of victimhood in the conflict, its antecedents, the functions that it fulfils for the society and the consequences that result from this view.
This article focuses on problems of remembering a painful and still contentious historical past and examines the interaction between remembrance and reconciliation initiatives undertaken by local communities, on the one hand, and state-sanctioned national commemorations on the other. Using the sixtieth anniversary of the massacre of Jewish inhabitants of Jedwabne in northeast Poland during World War II as a case study, the article argues that interference from the"outside"—in this case by groups holding political power, the media and intellectual elites— is detrimental to local remembering.
Memory chains establish the statement of stability, durability, and continuity in peculiarity to the never-ending change of the unique world and set up a horizon, border, and space of possible pasts. There is no possible way to picture a land beyond the horizon of triumph and trauma. Traumas and triumphs comprise the “mythomoteurs” of national identity. They stand for experiences and ultimate horizons for the self-constitution of a collective subject. Similar to this topic, collective identity is built according to a similar logic. It is not only founded on past triumphs. It references the past and can also be traumatic. The trauma is the opposite of triumph, but it is constructed according to similar logic.
This article proposes a unitary explanation of social control for normal and rigid conformity. Conformity may arise from the interaction of deference with normal pride and shame; rigid conformity from chain reactions of shame. I show that Darwin, Cooley, and others suggested the same context for pride and shame: self's perception of the evaluation of self by other(s). Their work, which assumes a continuous social monitoring of the self from the standpoint of others, suggests a puzzle: If social monitoring is continuous and causes either pride or shame, why are so few manifestations of either emotion visible in our lives? One possible explanation is that pride and shame usually have very low visibility. I call this the Cooley-Scheff conjecture. Goffman's work on "face" implies this conjecture and Lewis's discovery of unacknowledged shame confirms it. Her analysis of hundreds of clinical interviews demonstrates that low-visibility shame was present in every session, though neither therapist nor patient seemed to be aware of it. Drawing on Lewis's exact description of the markers of various manifestations of shame and Goffman's analysis of the relation between deference and embarrassment, a deference-emotion system is described. Members perceive this system as compelling conformity to norms exterior to self by informal but pervasive rewards (outer deference and its reciprocal, inner pride) and punishments (lack of deference, and the inner shame that is its reciprocal). I show how Asch's study of conformity and independence illustrates the role of shame in compelling conformity to exterior norms.
Thomas Scheff argues that the roots of protracted conflict lie in unacknowledged feelings of shame and rage.
Scheff builds from the assumption that the social bond is a real and palpable phenomenon and that in every type of human contact the bond is either built, maintained, repaired, or damaged. He then demonstrates how damaged bonds are the basic cause of conflict. When one side or the other in a dispute is humiliated or threatened in such a way as to disturb fundamental bonds, the feelings that follow are often not acknowledged. Threats to the social bond give rise to violent emotions, shame, and rage. Unless these feelings are resolved, the stage is then set for cycles of insult, humiliation, and bloody revenge.
According to Scheff, it is by recognizing the emotional source of conflict and repairing the broken social bond that both sides achieve cognitive and emotional understanding, allowing them to trust and cooperate, and perceive themselves as "all in the same boat." Thus, secure social bonds ensure clear boundaries—even during competition or conflict—that help keep wars limited and make disagreements productive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present
- N Davies
Poland: The ‘Christ’ of Nations
- A Jasińska-Kania
Writing History, Writing Trauma
- D Lacapra
Analiza dyskusji o Centrum przeciwko Wypędzeniom w latach 1999-2004 w perspektywie teorii pamięci spolecznej
- K Mojkowski
Debata wokół ‘Sąsiadów.’ Próba wstępnej typologii
- A Paczkowski
Polish Memory of World War II
- B Szacka
Rzeczy mgliste [Misty Things
- J Tokarska-Bakir
Unsettled Memory of World War II in Postcommunist Poland
- E Wolentarska-Ochman
Uwagi na marginesie debaty publicznej o wypędzeniach
- P Ciołkiewicz
Poland as the Sick Man of Europe?
- J Tokarska-Bakir
Centrum pojednania, a nie centrum roszczeń
- L Miller