Discrimination Against Minorities in Poland on the Basis of History

Abstract

This article touches on autochthonic national and ethnic minorities in Europe, not immigrant collectives. The introduction defines "discrimination on the basis of history." Subjective and objective discrimination on the basis of history are differentiated. The categories introduced serve to describe the "memory collective" (a technical term defined in the article) "grandfather in the Wehrmacht," or Polish citizens, whose descendants served—voluntarily or, more frequently, as a result of local pressures or direct coercion—in the army of the Third Reich. In the aftermath of the war, people serving in the Wehrmacht were discriminated against, repressed, and ostracized, and even today their descendants are perceived as people who do not fully belong to the Polish national collective, which is clearly illustrated by the Polish presidential elections of 2005, analyzed in the article. The article concludes with a discussion of the results of research on collective memory among the youth at a high school in Krzanowice, whose residents are autochthonic or immigrants and of varying national identification (above all, Polish and German). The conclusion considers the utility of the category of discrimination on the basis of history for describing the situation of ethnic and national minorities.