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“At the Limit of a Certain Morality”: Debates on the Trials of Functionary Prisoners in Poland 1945–1950
Zofia Wóycicka
woycicka@dhi.waw.pl Author Biographyhistorian, employe of thehistoryk, pracownik Educational Department of the Museum of the History Polish Jews POLIN. Recently she published Zur „Interna tionalität” der Gedenkkultur: Die Gedenkstätte Au schwitz -Bir ke nau im Span nungs feld zwi schen Ost und West 1954–1978, in: „Archiv für Sozialgeschichte” 45/2005.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9461-2387
Museum of the History Polish Jews POLIN
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. 3 (2007), Pages: 355-385
Submission Date: 2020-10-14Publication Date: 2007-12-01
https://doi.org/10.32927/ZZSiM.243
Abstract
During 1945–1950 several trials of functionary prisoners of Nazi concentration camps were held in Poland. these trials brought about, particularly among former concentration camp prisoners, a painful debate on the involvement of KZ-lager victims in the terror system of the concentration camps. This debate was the background of the polemic surrounding the Tadeusz Borowski's Auschwitz stories. Apprehensive of its impact on the image of their organisation and its members, the board of the Polish Union of Former Political Prisoners (PZbWP) attempted to silence this discussion. this policy was in line with that of PPR/PZPR. This debate upset the clear-cut division into victims and executioners, led to a disintegration of the already divided Polish society and dislodged the hard-achieved national consensus, largely based on the general hostility towards Germany. Thus it deprived the Communists of one of their chief arguments to legitimise their power. This debate was also embarrassing for a sizeable section of popular opinion, as it questioned the image of Poles as a nation of unfortunate victims and heroes. in the late 1940's, with the increasing Stalinisation, PZbWP and PPR/PZPR were largely able to silence the debate on the attitude of functionary prisoners. the dominant narration turned out to be that that portrayed KZ-lager prisoners as a solidary, international community of anti-fascist resistance movement led by the Communists. The difficult and painful debates of the immediate post-war years are now largely forgotten. In this respect, one could even talk about a symbiosis of the "national" and "Communist" historical interpretations.
Keywords
Nazi concentration camps , functionary prisoners , war crimes , war crimes trials
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