English
Język Polski
“Ever New Demands, Ever New Grimaces” – the Power and Subordination Relation between Poles and Jews Hiding on the ‘Aryan’ Side
Justyna Kowalska-Leder
j.kowalska-leder@uw.edu.pl Author Biographycultural studies expert at the Institute of Polish Culture of Warsaw University, where she heads the Holocaust Memory Research Team. Author of: Doświadczenie Zagłady z perspektywy dziecka w polskiej literaturze dokumentu osobistego (2009) and “Nie wiem, jak ich mam cenić…” Strefa ambiwalencji w świadectwach Polaków i Żydów (2019); also of the academic edition of Renia Knoll’s diaries (Dziennik Reni Knoll, 2012); co-author and co-editor of the volume Ślady Holokaustu w imaginarium kultury polskiej (2017)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4727-4431
Institute of Polish Culture, Warsaw University
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. 12 (2016), Pages: 209-241
Submission Date: 2020-10-19Publication Date: 2016-11-30
https://doi.org/10.32927/ZZSiM.413
Abstract
This texts talks about three single, uneducated Polish women living alone (a dressmaker, servant, and kitchen worker), who during the war sheltered Jews in their apartments in Warsaw and Drohobych. All three of them helped the Jews for money, but – as far as we know – none of them resorted to financial blackmail or any other major abuse of a financial character. Nevertheless, the war circumstances became an opportunity for them to fulfill their emotional needs, otherwise impossible to satisfy. They derived pleasure from having power and control over another person and their actions towards the Jews they sheltered also bore traces of a class revenge. The authors analyze the relations between the helpers and helps mostly on the basis of Jerzy Feliks Urman’s diary and memoirs of Karol Rotgeber and Calek Perechodnik. Aside from the sociological theory of exchange systems, another useful tool facilitating comprehension of the Polish women’s behavior and their interactions with the Jews in hiding, which are described in those texts, is Erich Fromm’s concept of human cruelty as a highly complex phenomenon that cannot be reduced to openly violent actions.
Keywords
diary , memoir , ‘Aryan’ side , hiding Jews , dominance and subordination relation , Warsaw , Drohobycz
License
Copyright (c) 2016 Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Justyna Kowalska-Leder, Called by Their Name’ or Harm and Justice , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 18 (2022)
- Justyna Kowalska-Leder, Fetishization of Authenticity – The Casus of the Museum and Memorial Site , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 17 (2021)
- Justyna Kowalska-Leder, Troublesome Category – On the book Świadek: jak się staje, czym jest? , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 16 (2020)
- Justyna Kowalska-Leder, Polish Literature of the Last Decade about the Holocaust – Attempts to Face the New Challenges , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 10 (2014)
- Justyna Kowalska-Leder, rEVIEW: Reprezentacje Zagłady w kulturze polskiej (1939–2019). Problematyka Zagłady w sztukach wizualnych i popkulturze, t. 1–2, red. Sławomir Buryła, Dorota Krawczyńska, Jacek Leociak, Warszawa: Wydawnictwo IBL PAN, 2021, 672 s. , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 18 (2022)
- Justyna Kowalska-Leder, Omnipresence of the Righteous , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 10 (2014)
- Justyna Kowalska-Leder, Dawid Sierakowiak, Dziennik , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 13 (2017)
- Justyna Kowalska-Leder, Helping Those Doomed to Annihilation as a Source of Destruction – On the Basis of Brandla Siekierkowa’s Personal Documents , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 8 (2012)
- Justyna Kowalska-Leder, Jacek Leociak, Ratowanie. Opowieści Polaków i Żydów, Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2010, 313 s. , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 7 (2011)
- Justyna Kowalska-Leder, The Omnipresence of the Righteous , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. Holocaust Studies and Materials (2017)
Similar Articles
- Editors Journal, Jan Grabowski, From the editors , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: 2010: Holocaust Studies and Materials
- Marta, Procedures Reversing Circumcision Performed in Warsaw During World War II. An Initial Attempt at Description , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 13 (2017)
- Havi Dreifuss, Secret Cities. A Few Remarks on Gunnar S. Paulsson’s Methodology , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 10 (2014)
- Jan Grabowski, Hunting down Emanuel Ringelblum. The Participation of the Polish Kriminalpolizei in the ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. Holocaust Studies and Materials (2017)
- Jan Grabowski, Tracking Emanuel Ringelblum. Participation of Polish Kriminalpolizei in the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 10 (2014)
- Stephan Lehnstaedt, German Occupants in Warsaw and the Publicness of the Holocaust , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 12 (2016)
- Dariusz Libionka, Adam Kopciowski, The Life and the Holocaust in Hrubieszów in the Eyes of a Young Woman from Warsaw , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 3 (2007)
- Krzysztof Czubaszek, Stanisław Żemis – Witness to the Extermination of Jews in Łuków , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 14 (2018)
- Bella Gutterman, On Her Guard – Zivia Lubetkin on the Aryan Side of Warsaw and during the Warsaw Uprising , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 8 (2012)
- Witold Mędykowski, Against One’s Own: Patterns of Jewish Collaboration and in Cracow and the Cracow Area , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 2 (2006)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 > >>
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
