Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold?
Edited by Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński
IWP Professor and holder of the Kościuszko Chair in Polish Studies,
Dr. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, has published a new study, co-edited with
Dr. Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński from Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, on the Holocaust in Poland. IWP student Paweł Styrna also contributed an essay to the anthology.
Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold? rejects the pop-cultural-cum-post-modernist image of a Polish Christian benefiting from the Holocaust and, instead, recognizes a variety of nuanced attitudes of the gentiles toward the great Jewish tragedy. There were a few who harmed the Jews, while reaping a "golden harvest" from the Jewish misfortune. The majority was cowed into inaction by fear of the Nazis. There were also others who assisted Jewish fugitives - both actively and passively - at a time when even the failure to report the presence of a Jew nearby might have cost one and one's family their lives. However, neither a "golden harvest" nor "hearts of gold" were the norm. Pathologies and heroism never are. The reality was much more nuanced and involved a variety of attitudes. The conclusions of Chodakiewicz's team were the results of careful primary source research.
An English version of this book is forthcoming. Meanwhile, please visit http://heartsofgoldpl.com for more information and synopses of the book's contents in English.
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz and Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński, eds., Złote serca czy złote żniwa. Studia nad wojennymi losami Polaków i Żydów (Hearts of Gold or a Golden Harvest? Studies on the Wartime Fate of Poles and Jews)(Warsaw: The Facto, 2011).
You can purchase this book by clicking here.
IWP Professor and holder of the Kościuszko Chair in Polish Studies,
Dr. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, has published a new study, co-edited with
Dr. Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński from Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, on the Holocaust in Poland. IWP student Paweł Styrna also contributed an essay to the anthology.
Golden Harvest or Hearts of Gold? rejects the pop-cultural-cum-post-modernist image of a Polish Christian benefiting from the Holocaust and, instead, recognizes a variety of nuanced attitudes of the gentiles toward the great Jewish tragedy. There were a few who harmed the Jews, while reaping a "golden harvest" from the Jewish misfortune. The majority was cowed into inaction by fear of the Nazis. There were also others who assisted Jewish fugitives - both actively and passively - at a time when even the failure to report the presence of a Jew nearby might have cost one and one's family their lives. However, neither a "golden harvest" nor "hearts of gold" were the norm. Pathologies and heroism never are. The reality was much more nuanced and involved a variety of attitudes. The conclusions of Chodakiewicz's team were the results of careful primary source research.
An English version of this book is forthcoming. Meanwhile, please visit http://heartsofgoldpl.com for more information and synopses of the book's contents in English.
Marek Jan Chodakiewicz and Wojciech Jerzy Muszyński, eds., Złote serca czy złote żniwa. Studia nad wojennymi losami Polaków i Żydów (Hearts of Gold or a Golden Harvest? Studies on the Wartime Fate of Poles and Jews)(Warsaw: The Facto, 2011).
You can purchase this book by clicking here.
