When historians contribute to the fragmentation of memories. The case of “Polish-Jewish relations” during World War II

Résumé En

The fragmentation of Holocaust memory in Poland is not just a question of competition between Jewish victims (mainly of Nazism) and Polish victims (of Nazism and Soviet-style Communism). State narratives are challenged by the memory work performed by civil society actors and historians. This chapter shows how various rationales are connected to contribute to the fragmentation of Holocaust memory. It is based on an analysis of the debates on Polish-Jewish relations in Poland since 2015, using scholarly publications and media discussions dedicated to the Holocaust. The stances taken by the actors are analyzed in relation to their positions in social space. This case of memory fragmentation is related to broader research questions, i.e., the autonomy of the social sciences and the political role of scholars. The problem is far from limited to a schematic opposition between an authoritarian political power, on the one hand, and historians suffering from restrictions in their research autonomy, on the other. I argue that the role of historians is more ambivalent. Historical policy is legitimized and conducted by academic historians, whereas the work of critical historians is not exempt from moral considerations. The fragmentation of Holocaust memory thus highlights both the divides in the historiographical field and the political cleavages within Polish society.