Epilogue: Facing the Past

Abstract

The history of the Jews in Poland should be an important subject for Polish historians, and it certainly deserves more space in historical textbooks than it has at present. Jews have lived in Poland for a millennium and, as indicated in this study, have always in some way either actively or indirectly contributed to the development of Poland; yet one would be hard pressed to find significant work on the history of Polish Jewry written by a Polish historian. ‘It is indeed unfortunate that there is no one now in Poland who is able to study and revive the history of Polish Jews — a history that is most important to the Polish people, for its own sake and because of Jewish participation in or contribution to Poland’s past’ (Kieniewicz, 1986, in Abramsky et al., p. 71). Even when Jews are mentioned it is always in a superficial fashion and more often than not in a negative manner. After the shock of the Holocaust, there is silence.