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Will the Truth Set Us Free?. Breaking the resistance in the education about Holocaust
Marta Witkowska
redakcja@holocaustresearch.plMichał Bilewicz
bilewicz@psych.uw.edu.pl Author BiographySocial psychologist and sociologist. He works at the Department of Psychology at the Warsaw University, where he heads the Center for the Study of Prejudices. Works on the psychology of intergroup relations, particularly the contact hypothesis, dehumanization and stereotyping. In 2013, a special issue of the Journal of Social Issues, which he edited, was published on post-genocide reconciliation. He is currently conducting research on post-genocide reconciliation in Armenia, Turkey, Poland, Germany and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5027-1691
University of Warsaw, Department of Psychology
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. 10 (2014), Pages: 803-822
Submission Date: 2020-10-26Publication Date: 2014-12-01
https://doi.org/10.32927/ZZSiM.549
Abstract
The introduction of the programs on Holocaust education in Poland and a broader debate on the transgressions of Poles against the Jews have not led to desired improvement in public knowledge on these historical events. A comparison of survey results from the last two decades (Bilewicz, Winiewski, Radzik, 2012) illustrates mounting ignorance: the number of Poles who acknowledge that the highest number of victims of the Nazi occupation period was Jewish systematically decreases, while the number of those who think that the highest number of victims of the wartime period was ethnically Polish, increases. Insights from the social psychological research allow to explain the psychological foundations of this resistance to acknowledge the facts about the Holocaust, and indicate the need for positive group identity as a crucial factor preventing people from recognizing such a threatening historical information. In this paper we will provide knowledge about the ways to overcome this resistance-through-denial. Implementation of such measures could allow people to accept responsibility for the misdeeds committed by their ancestors.
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