Pierre Nora, “Czas pamięci,” trans. Wiktor Dłuski, Res Publica Nowa, No. 7 (2001), pp. 37−43; Pierre Nora, “Between Memory and History: Les lieux de memoire,” trans. Marc Roudebush, Representations, No. 26, Special Issue: Memory and Counter-Memory (Spring 1989), pp. 7–24.
36 Idith Zertal, Israel’s Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2011), p. 6.
37 Scholem considered Eichmann’s execution ill-advised and claimed that, with such a criminal, the death penalty had produced an illusion of law and wrongly suggested that the Holocaust could be comprehended and find closure through punishing the guiltiest individuals.
38 Robert Szuchta, “Refleksje o nauczaniu historii Holokaustu w polskiej szkole,” in Tematy żydowskie, eds. Elżbieta Traba and Robert Traba (Olsztyn: Wspólnota Kulturowa Borussia, 1999), pp. 259–272.
39 This model also underlies the educational practices of Israeli schools, where teaching about the Holocaust begins in the earliest grades. Older children are expected to subdue emotions and acquire an intellectual grasp of the events, while adolescents are encouraged to link their emotional and intellectual experiences to the historical narrative with the support of teachers. This does not mean, however, that Holocaust education is an already settled issue in Israel. On the contrary, the Israeli memory of the Event is by no means an expression of national unity, which results in multiple curricular arrangements.
40 Bogusław Śliwerski, Współczesne teorie i metody wychowawcze (Kraków: Impuls, 2010), p. 363.
41 Admittedly things can look rather different in practice, as it is difficult to avoid the pitfalls of the “diversity festival” which favours quick and superficial contacts with the Other. They easily breed complacency, stirred by the misguided belief that we are all similar to each other. Tomasz Szkudlarek, “Postkolonializm jako dyskurs tożsamości: w stronę implikacji dla polskich dyskusji edukacyjnych,” in Spory o edukację. Dylematy i kontrowersje we współczesnych pedagogikach, eds. Zbigniew Kwieciński i Lech Witkowski (Warszawa: Instytut Badań Edukacyjnych, 1993), pp. 301–314, on p. 310.
42 Ernst van Alphen, “Afekt, trauma i rozumienie: sztuka ponad granicami wyobraźni,” an interview by Roma Sendyka and Katarzyna Bojarska, Teksty Drugie, No. 4 (2012), pp. 207–218, on p. 210.
43 Jérémie Dres, We Won’t See Auschwitz, trans. Edward Gauvin (London: Self Made Hero, 2012).
44 See Robert Szuchta, “Edukacja o Holokauście AD 2013, czyli czego uczeń polskiej szkoły może się dowiedzieć o Holokauście na lekcjach historii w dziesięć lat po ‘dyskusji jedwabieńskiej’?” in Auschwitz i Holokaust. Edukacja w szkole i miejscu pamięci, ed. Piotr Trojański (Oświęcim: Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2014), pp. 23−48.
45 See Sylwia Karolak, Doświadczenie Zagłady w literaturze polskiej 1947−199: Kanon, który nie powstał (Poznań: Nauka i Innowacje, 2014).
46 See Ibid., pp. 33‒34. Karolak also lists the titles of texts read at schools between 1947 and 1990, i.e. when the Holocaust was consigned to the peripheries of Polish language instruction. They are, for example, Dzieciństwo w pasiakach (Childhood behind Barbed Wire) by Bogdan Bartnikowski, Samson and Miasto niepokonane [The Invincible City] by Kazimierz Brandys, Rozmowy z katem (Conversations with an Executioner) by Kazimierz Moczarski, Ślady [Traces] by Ludwik Hering, “Campo di Fiori” by Czesław Miłosz, “Warkoczyk” (“Pigtail”) by Tadeusz Różewicz, “Żydom polskim” (“To Polish Jews”) by Władysław Broniewski and Niemcy [The Germans] by Leon Kruczkowski.
47 See Ibid., p. 38.
48 Agnieszka Rypel, “Toposy kształtujące nacechowaną ideologicznie zbiorową tożsamość narodową i społeczną,” in Agnieszka Rypel, Ideologiczny wymiar dyskursu edukacyjnego na przykładzie podręczników języka polskiego z lat 1918−2010 (Bydgoszcz: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego, 2012), pp. 175–244, on p. 209.
49 What is alluded to, but not articulated explicitly, is that her migration was one of the enforced departures of Jews from Poland under a government-orchestrated campaign which reached its peak in 1968. Citizens of Jewish descent were stripped of Polish citizenship and coerced to leave the country without the right to return.
50 For compelling examples of anti-Semitism ingrained in Polish culture, see Bożena Keff, Antysemityzm: Niezamknięta historia (Warszawa: Czarna Owca, 2013).
51 I mean the perennial conflict between the imperative to bear witness and the distrust of style, as expressed for example by Elie Wiesel, whose words have already become a metonymy of the inexpressibility of the Holocaust: “One generation later, it can still be said and must now be affirmed: There is no such thing as a literature of the Holocaust, nor can there be. The very expression is a contradiction in terms. Auschwitz negates any form of literature, as it defies all systems…” Alvin Hirsch Rosenfeld, A Double Dying: Reflections on Holocaust Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980), p. 14.
52 Podstawa programowa kształcenia ogólnego dla gimnazjów i szkół ponadgimnazjalnych, których ukończenie umożliwia uzyskanie świadectwa dojrzałości po zdaniu egzaminu maturalnego. Annex No 4 to the Regulation of the Minister of National Education of 23rd December 2008 on the core curriculum of pre-school education and general education in particular types of schools (JoL of 15th January, 2009, No 4, item 17).
53 Between 1999 and 2016, Poland had a tripartite education system, including elementary school (6 years), junior secondary school (3 years) and senior secondary school (3 years). The Law of 14th December 2016 on the reform of education revoked this system, reinstating the prior two-tier system of elementary schooling (8 years) and post-elementary schooling (4 years).
54 In broad lines, the Matura exam is taken at the end of secondary education (in high schools and technical high schools). Students must sit written tests in three obligatory subjects (Polish, mathematics and a foreign language) and in at least one elective subject. The obligatory exams are taken at what is referred to as the basic level, while the elective ones at the advanced level, with the levels differing in terms of knowledge and skills which are expected of students. The Matura exam scores are (usually) the only criterion of admission to university degree programmes, with universities, faculties and programmes autonomously determining their own score thresholds and required subjects. Importantly, in case of Polish, students must take their Matura exam at the basic level, but can choose to take the exam at the advanced level. Reading lists for the two levels differ, as do the respective standards regarding students’ scope of knowledge, competencies
