German-Polish relations in the historical consciousness of Polish youths

Abstract

From the point of view of sociological research, historical consciousness is better understood as social consciousness. This term is more appropriate when describing the kinds of topics that sociology is capable of studying. At present, most Poles think that the memory of prejudice and discrimination suffered at the hands of the Germans during the Second World War still has a great influence on Polish attitudes towards Germans. This opinion is expressed both by people belonging to the generation that still remembers the war, and the young generations, for whom this history is part of school and textbook knowledge. Images of the past, which are evoked in the minds of young Poles when they think about Polish-German relationships, are explicitly negative; there are no positive views in this context. For more than a half of the students queried, the word Germans was associated with the events of the Second World War. Students' declarations did not differ from the opinions held by the Polish people at large. The negative images in the consciousness of the students regarding Polish-German relations is not unconditionally connected with a negative attitude towards Germans in general. It is striking that many associations related to the present are quite positive ones.