How and why Polish peasants (do not) talk about the Holocaust

Abstract

Abstract In this article I discuss how images of the Holocaust are contained in Polish oral narratives and the special way of transmitting them among peasants. Based on materials collected during ethnographic research conducted by Dionizjusz Czubala in the 1970s and 1980s in the southern part of the Świętokrzyskie Province in Poland I try to show, how traditional stereotypes concerning Jews and social relations influence the way of shaping and transmitting stories about the Holocaust. Analysing a sample of texts, I am arguing that core motif connects to the economic aspects of Polish-Jewish relations before and during the Second World War. I also claim that these recollections circulated in a situation that can be described as a pact of silence and therefore fulfilled several significant functions, among which the most important were: a) building and framing knowledge about past events, b) protection of the good reputation of the local community, c) maintaining relatively correct neighbourly relations, d) setting social status by stigmatizing economic contacts with Jews.