Reframing the Past: The Concept of Genocide in Contemporary Poland

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Notes

1 Helen Fein, “Definition and Discontent. Labelling, Detecting and Explaining Genocide in the Twentieth Century,” Stig Förster/Gerhard Hirschfeld (eds.) (Münster, 1999), pp. 11–21; Birthe Kundrus and Henning Strotbeck, “‘Genozid:’ Grenzen und Möglichkeiten eines Forschungsbegriffs,” Neue Politische Literatur [the New Political Literature], LI (2006), 397–423; Boris Barth, Genozid: Völkermord im 20 (Munich, 2006); Anthony Dirk Moses (ed.), Empire, Colony, Genocide. Conquest, Occupation and Subaltern Resistance in World History (New York, 2008); Dieter Pohl, “Genozid: Einige Bemerkungen zum neuen Paradigma eines globalen Gewaltgedächtnisses,” Gedächtnis im 21. Jahrhundert, Ljiljana Radonić and Heidemarie Uhl (eds.) (Bielefeld, 2016), pp. 109–18.

2 Linda Melvern, A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Runada’s Genocide, (London/New York, 2000); Alan Kuperman, The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention, Genocide in Ruanda (Washington, DC, 2001); Alison Des Forges, Kein Zeuge darf überleben: Der Genozid in Ruanda (Hamburg, 2002); Samantha Power, “A Problem from Hell” America and the Age of Genocide (New York, 2003), pp. 329–89; Jan Eckel, Die Ambivalenz des Guten: Menschenrechte in der internationalen Politik seit den 1940ern (Göttingen, 2014); Marie-Janine Calic, “Srebrenica 1995: ein europäisches Trauma,” Themenportal Europäische Geschichte, 2013, www.europa.clio-online.de/essay/id/fdae-1597; Matthias Fink, Srebrenica: Chronologie eines Völkermords oder Was geschah mit Mirnes Osmanović (Hamburg, 2015); Gerd Hankel, Ruanda 1994 bis heute (Springe, 2019).

3 Herfried Münkler, “‘Nothing to kill or die for … ’—Überlegungen zu einer politischen Theorie des Opfers,” Leviathan, XXVIII: 3 (2000), 343–62; Svenja Goltermann, Opfer: Die Wahrnehmung von Krieg und Gewalt in der Moderne (Frankfur, 2017); Harriett Rudolph and Isabella von Treskow, “Opfer: Opferschaft, Viktimisierung,” Opfer. Dynamiken der Viktimisierung vom 17 bis zum 21. Jahrhundert, Harriett Rudolph and Isabella von Treskow (eds) (Heidelberg, 2020), pp. 7–20.

4 Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes, Das Licht, das erlosch. Eine Abrechnung (Berlin, 2019), p. 112f.

5 Anton Weiss-Wendt, “Hostage of Politics: Raphael Lemkin on ‘Soviet Genocide,’” Journal of Genocide Research, VII: 4 (2005), 551–59; Norman Naimark, Stalin und der Genozid (Frankfurt, 2010); Robert Brier (ed.), “Entangled Protest: Dissent and the Transnational History of the 1970s and 1980s,” Fibre (Osnabrück, 2013), pp. 11–42. for the example of Czechoslovakia, see Tomaš Sniegoň, Vanished history. The Holocaust in Czech and Slovak historical culture (New York, 2017), pp. 46–51.

6 Tanja Penter, “Der Untergang der Sowjetunion und die Entdeckung der Opfer,” Opfer. Dynamiken der Viktimisierung vom 17. bis zum 21, Harriett Rudolph and Isabella von Treskow (eds.) (Heidelberg, 2020), pp. 317–32.

7 Yvonne Robel, Verhandlungssache Genozid. Zur Dynamik geschichtspolitischer Deutungskämpfe (Paderborn, 2013).

8 Donald Bloxham and Anthony Dirk Moses, “Changing Themes in the Study of Genocide,” The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies, Donald Bloxham and Anthony Dirk Moses (eds.) (Oxford, 2010), pp. 1–18.

9 Raphael Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation, Analysis of Government, Proposals for Redress (New York, 1944), p. 79.

10 Ibid.

11 Philippe Sands, East West Street. On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity (London, 2017), pp. 106f, 380f; Daniel Marc Segesser and Myriam Gessler, “Raphael Lemkin and the international debate on the punishment of war crimes (1919–1948),” Journal of Genocide Research, VII: 4 (2005), 453–68.

12 Piotr Madajczyk, “Polskie problemy z genocydem Rafała Lemkina,” Dzieje Najnowsze, XLVIII:1 (2016), 5–13; Maciej Jan Mazurkiewicz, “Genocide studies a zagłada Polaków. Refleksje o kierunku i istocie historycznoprawnych badań nad zbrodniami przeciwko narodowi polskiemu (1939–1945),” Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość, XXXVI:2 (2020), 366–81.

13 Polski Instytut Wydawniczy, Proces Artura Greisera przed Naywyższym Trybunałem Narodowym (Warsaw, 1946), https://pbc.gda.pl/publication/71864/edition/65222/proces-artura-greisera-przed-najwyzszym-trybunalem-narodowym?language=pl.

14 A recent argument for the ideological causes of especially the Holocaust as a genocide (and a critical assessment of the legal concept) is Yehuda Bauer, “Genocide and Genocide Prevention,” Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, XVI:3 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1080/23739770.2022.2163791.

15 This wording admittedly originates from Martin Broszat, Nationalsozialistische Polenpolitik 1939–1945 (Stuttgart, 1965), p. 27.

16 See Daniel Brewing, Im Schatten von Auschwitz: Deutsche Massaker an polnischen Zivilisten 1939–1945 (Stuttgart, 2016), pp. 105–128.

17 Wanda Jarząbek, “Genocide or Exceptionally Cruel Regime: How to define the German occupation policy against the Polish nation during World War II,” Social Engineering in Central and South-East Europa in the Twentieth Century Reconsidered, Piotr Madajczyk (ed.) (Warsaw, 2017), pp. 79–118.

18 Richard Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation (Lexington, 1986).

19 Jan Grabowski and Shira Klein, “Wikipedia’s Intentional Distortion of the History of the Holocaust,” The Journal of Holocaust Research, XXXVII:2 (February 2023), 6f, 57.

20 Czesław Madajczyk, Polityka III Rzeszy w okupowanej Polsce, Vol. 1, 2 (Warsaw, 2019); the new edition comes with a foreword by Piotr Madajczyk in which he hints at the use of Lemkin’s genocide concept, pp. XXXf.

21 Jarząbek, op. cit.

22 Catalogue of the Permanent Exhibition, ed. Museum of the Second World War (Gdańsk, 2016), esp. pp. 140–43.

23 Piotr Madajczyk, “The Second World War and the Warsaw Uprising—finding the proper terminology,” Eryk Habowski (ed.), Wola 1944. An unpunished crime and the notion of genocide (Warsaw, 2019), pp. 213–233, here 226f.

24 See, for example, Piotr Madajczyk, “II wojna światowa i Powstanie Warszawskie—szukanie właściwych terminów,” Eryk Habowski (ed.), Wola 1944. Nierozliczona zbrodnia a pojęcie ludobójstwa (Warsaw, 2019), pp. 17–36; Tomasz Ceran, “Masakry czy ludobójstwo? Uwagi w kontekście książki Daniela Brewinga W cieniu Auschiwtz. Niemieckiej masakry polskiej ludności cywilnej 1939–1945,” Rocznik Polsko-Niemiecki, XXVIII (2020), 265–275; Ludwik Hirszfeld, Historia jednego życia (Kraków, 2011), p. 389.

25 For the General Plan East see: Isabel Heinemann, “Wissenschaft und Homogenisierungsplanungen für Osteuropa: Konrad Meyer, der ‘Generalplan Ost’ und die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft,” Wissenschaft—Planung—Vertreibung : Neuordnungskonzepte und Umsiedlungspolitik im 20. Jahrhundert, Patrick Wagner (ed.) (Stuttgart, 2006), pp. 45–72; Karl Heinz Roth, “‘Generalplan Ost’—‘Gesamtplan Ost.’ Forschungsstand, Quellenprobleme, neue Ergebnisse,” Mechthild Rössler and Sabine Schleiermacher (eds.), Der “Generalplan Ost.” Hauptlinien der nationalsozialistischen Planungs- und Vernichtungspolitik (Berlin, 1993), pp. 25–95; Czesław Madajczyk (ed.), Vom Generalplan Ost zum Generalsiedlungsplan (Munich, 1994).

26 Wanda Jarząbek, “Rzeź Woli—wydarzenie jednostkowe czy wynikające z ‘logiki’ niemieckiej polityki okupacyjnej w Polsce?” Eryk Habowski (ed.), Wola 1944. Nierozliczona zbrodnia a pojęcie ludobójstwa (Warsaw, 2019), pp. 37–52.

27 For an early example, see: Czesław Pilichowski, Badanie i ściganie zbrodni hitlerowskich 1944–1974 (Warsaw, 1975), p. 151f; and Wanda Jarząbek, “Genocide or Exceptionally Cruel Regime,” op. cit.

28 Robert Melson, Revolution and Genocide: On the origins of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust (Chicago, 1992).

29 United Nations, Treaties and international agreements registered or filed and recorded with the Secretariat of the United Nations (1951), p. 278–87, https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%2078/v78.pdf.

30 Christian Gerlach, “‘Das Konzept, extrem gewalttätige Gesellschaften:’ Überlegungen zu NS-Deutschland, der Sowjetunion 1929–1953 und dem Spätosmanischen Reich 1913–1923,” NS-Gewaltherrschaft. Beiträge zur historischen Forschung und juristischen Aufarbeitung, Alfred Gottwald et al. (eds.) (Berlin, 2005), pp. 40–47.

31 Tom Lawson, Debates on the Holocaust (Manchester, 2010), pp. 55–61, 74–78.

32 Kundrus and Strotbeck, “‘Genozid:’ Grenzen und Möglichkeiten eines Forschungsbegriffs,” Neue Politische Literatur, XXXXXI (2006).

33 Lemkin himself commented only on German or Prussian colonialism in Africa. See Dominik J. Schaller, “Raphael Lemkin’s view of European colonial rule in Africa. Between condemnation and admiration,” Journal of Genocide Research, VII:4 (2005), 531–38, 533f.

34 It was in this context that the first Polish translation of Lemkin's American autobiography was published: Donna-Lee Freeze (ed.), Nieoficjalny. Autobiografia Rafała Lemkina (Warsaw, 2018).

35 “Zawołani po imieniu,” Instytut Pileckiego, https://instytutpileckiego.pl/pl/wystawy/lemkin-witness-of-the-age-of-genocide-otwarcie-wystawy-w-now.

36 This multifaceted, Polish “victim myth” has been described many times. See Klaus-Peter Friedrich, “Die Legitimierung ‘Volkspolens’ durch den polnischen Opferstatus: Zur kommunistischen Machtübernahme in Polen am Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs,” Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, LII:1 (2003), pp. 1–51; Peter Oliver Loew, “Helden oder Opfer? Erinnerungskulturen in Polen nach 1989,” Osteuropa, LVIII:6 (2008), 85–102.

37 See Stephanie Kowitz-Harms, Die Shoah im Spiegel öffentlicher Konflikte in Polen. Zwischen Opfermythos und Schuldfrage (1985–2001) (Munich, 2014). For recent developments, see Marta Bucholc and Maciej Komornik, “The Polish ‘Holocaust Law’ revisited. The Devastating Effects of Prejudice-Mongering,” Cultures of History Forum, February 19, 2019, https://cultures-of-history.uni-jena.de/politics/poland/the-polish-holocaust-law-revisited-the-devastating-effects-of-prejudice-mongering/.

38 Witold Kulesza, “Zbrodnia Katyńska jako akt ludobójstwa (geneza pojęcia),” Zbrodnia Katyńska: W kręgu prawdy i kłamstwa, Sławomir Kalbarczyk (ed.) (Warsaw, 2010), pp. 52–67. See also the source edition by Wojciech Materski (ed.), Katyn: Documents of Genocide. Documents and Materials from the Soviet Archives turned over to Poland on October 14, 1992 (Warsaw, 1993).

39 Lech Wyszczelski, Jeńcy wojny polsko-rosyjskiej. 1919–1920 (Warsaw, 2014), pp. 487–505. The search of the People's Republic of Poland for a sort of compensatory genocide of bourgeois Poland against the Soviets in 1919–1920 described in Maciej Korkuć, “Wykorzystać—jeżeli to się okaże niezbędne,” Jeńcy 1920, Maciej Korkuć (ed.) (Warsaw, 2020), pp. 7–64, here 20.

40 Maren Röger, Flucht, Vertreibung und Umsiedlung. Mediale Erinnerungen und Debatten in Deutschland und Polen seit 1989 (Marburg, 2011), pp. 79–109.

41 For recent developments, see Stephan Lehnstaedt, “Reparationen und Wiedergutmachung: Aktuelle Entwicklungen im deutsch-polnischen Fall,” Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, LXXI (2023), 54–68.

42 Exemplary of this attitude is the statement of the political scientist Herfried Münkler, according to whom reparations are un-European-national, which Europe cannot want in view of Germany's importance for the EU-which means equating Germany with Europe: Sven Felix Kellerhoff, “Reparationszahlungen heilen nicht—sie schaffen neue Probleme,” Welt Online, May 20, 2019, https://www.welt.de/debatte/kommentare/plus193790071/Zweiter-Weltkrieg-Reparationen-heilen-nichts.html.

43 Marek Cichocki, Nord und Süd. Texte zur polnischen Geschichtskultur (Wiesbaden, 2020), p. 281.

44 Volhynia Massacre, www.volhyniamassacre.eu.

45 Grzegorz Motyka, “Czy zbrodnia wołyńsko-galicyjska 1943–1945 była ludobójstwem? Spór o kwalifikację prawną ‘antypolskiej akcji’ UPA,” R ocznik Polsko-Niemiecki, XXIV:2 (2020), 45–71, here 50.

46 Katrin Stoll, Sabine Stach, and Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska, “Narodowy Dzień Pamięci Ofiar Ludobójstwa dokonanego przez ukraińskich nacjonalistów na obywatelach II RP,” Zeitgeschichte Online, July 20, 2016, http://orka.sejm.gov.pl/opinie8.nsf/nazwa/625_u/$file/625_u.pdf.

47 Bartosz T. Wielinski, “A Letter from the Polish Ambassador in Berlin to his Ukrainian Counterpart Leads to a Diplomatic Scandal,” wyborcza, May 27, 2020, https://wyborcza.pl/7,173236,26383322,a-letter-from-the-polish-ambassador-in-berlin-to-his-ukrainian.html?disableRedirects=true.

48 The most accurate analysis can be found in Maria Janion, “Polen in Europa,” Die Polen und ihre Vampire. Studien zur Kritik kultureller Phantasmen (Berlin, 2014), pp. 85–121, here 113. For a meta-analysis of current politics of history in Poland see Stoll, Stach, and Saryusz-Wolska, “Verordnete Geschichte? Zur Dominanz nationalistischer Narrative in Polen. Eine Einführung,” zeitgeschichte-online, July, 2016, https://zeitgeschichte-online.de/themen/verordnete-geschichte-zur-dominanz-nationalistischer-narrative-polen.

49 Robert Kostro and Tomasz Merta, Pamięć i odpowiedzialność (Kraków, 2005), p. VIIf. Kostro is now director of the Museum of Polish History. Merta was undersecretary of state for culture from 2005 until his death in 2010.

50 See Martin Schulze Wessel, “Konvergenzen und Divergenzen in der europäischen Geschichte vom Prager Frühling bis heute,” Geschichte und Gesellschaft, XLIII: 1 (2017), 92–109.

51 Lemkin, “Axis Rule,” op. cit., pp. 83–90.

52 Ervin Staub, The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence (Cambridge, 1989), p. 8.

53 Carl Joachim Friedrich and Zbigniew Brzeziński, Dyktatura totalitarna i autokracja (Warsaw, 2021).

54 “European Parliament resolution of 19 September 2019 on the importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe,” European Parliament, September 19, 2019, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2019-0021_DE.html. See also the permanent exhibition at the Brussels House of European History, which adopts a similarly vulgar-totalitarian interpretation. See Thomas Lutz, “Das Haus der Europäischen Geschichte in Brüssel—oder reicht die Totalitarismustheorie zur Erklärung der europäischen Geschichte,” Politisches Lernen (2019), 45–51.

55 This Catholic-Polish concept of nation—to the exclusion of the Jews in particular—has been described many times and can also be observed in the communist period: Marcin Zaremba, Im nationalen Gewande. Strategien kommunistischer Herrschaftslegitimation in Polen 1944–1980 (Osnabrück, 2011); for the anti-communist opposition, see Gregor Feindt, Auf der Suche nach politischer Gemeinschaft: Oppositionelles Denken zur Nation im ostmitteleuropäischen Samizdat 1976–1992 (Berlin, 2015). See also Andrzej Leder, Polen im Wachtraum, Die Revolution 1939–1956 und ihre Folgen (Osnabrück, 2019), pp. 83–130.

56 This is why the definition of genocide is also being discussed legally; see Alexander R. J. Murray, “Does International Criminal Law Still Require a ‘Crime of Crimes?’ A Comparative Review of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity,” Goettingen Journal of International Law, III: 2 (2011), 589–615.

57 International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Urteil, ICTR-97-23, 4.9.1998, Paragraph 16.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniel Brewing

Daniel Brewing is Assistant Professor of Modern History at RWTH Aachen University and the author of In The Shadow of Auschwitz: German Massacres against Polish Civilians, 1939–45, which was originally published in German. Dr. Brewing is the recipient of several awards, including the Geisteswissenschaften International Prize in 2019.

Stephan Lehnstaedt

Stephan Lehnstaedt is Professor for Holocaust Studies and Tolerance Studies at the Touro University Berlin. His main fields of interest are the history of the two world wars, the Holocaust, and ghetto labor pensions. He recently published a book comparing the imperialism of Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I with that of the Nazis in World War II through the prism of occupied Poland. Prof. Lehnstaedt is also the author of monographs dealing with Aktion Reinhardt, German everyday life in wartime Eastern Europe, and the compensation of surviving ghetto forced laborers.