“The Conquest of History?” Toward a Usable Past in Poland

Abstract

Abstract In his explanation for why the provocative title “Is There a History of Poland beyond the Holocaust?” was chosen for this forum, John Bukowczyk wrote that the goal was to stimulate contributions which would take this as a springboard and “engage the broader topic of Polish-Jewish relations, for which the Holocaust has become a metonym.” Before one can examine why the study of Polish-Jewish relations has become so central in Polish historical discourse in recent years one must pose two other questions. The first is whether the long-standing Polish belief that the study of the past has clear and obvious lessons for the present remains valid today. The second is how successful have been the attempts since the 1970s and, more particularly, since the negotiated end of communism in 1989 to fill in the “blank spots” in the account of the recent past which was established in the half-century of communist rule in Poland.