Reflections on German and Polish Historical Policies of Holocaust Memory

Abstract

Abstract The aim of these reflections is to confront the German and Polish historical policies concerning the Holocaust. The author outlines their different historical backgrounds, and takes note of the most heated debate of recent times on this subject that revolved around the amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) from January 2018. He ends with a case study analysis of the ways in which historians behave in the public sphere: the case of the researchers belonging to the so-called New Polish School of the Holocaust. Historical or memory policy is understood as the image of a society or a country as a whole, a certain hypostasis created by public discourses of political actors, intellectuals, and media people. This image plays an important role in international relations. Taking the perspective of critical theory, in particular an analysis of the status of knowledge/truth and its political role the author also explores media releases made by professional historians as well as political statements and actions directly pertinent to historical policy.