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THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE Institute of Human Relatrons 165 East 56 Street New York NY 10022 2746 SlnplWOQY%? M, b EAMER~JPNISHCO~HTEEir&ib1leoftiUrnantlelsllm1~~~158~ NRYork NYlOM2n48 pbs nrequasl ;!!EL auanuy 1 Working Papers on Contemporary Anti-Sernltlsm KNOWLEDGE AND REMEMBRANCE OF THE HOLOCAUST -- IN POLAND * The Jewuh Commtfee pmtecfs the rtghts and freedom of Jews the world over combats b~gotiyand ant1 SemztIsm and promotes Renae Cohen human right.v for all works for the securzty of Israel and deepened ul derstanding Amerwms and lsraelu dvocateS PoSrtions Amertcan democra~cvalm and the poltcy lhe Jewish herria@ and enhances the creattve vital19perspectives of people in of the ~~,,~~h Unrted States lt IS the ploneer humn re[atlons rh FOREWORD Jennifer Golub is a research analyst and Renae Cohen Ph D is senior Jennifer Golub and Renae Cohen s Knowledge and Remembrance of the research analyst in the Department of Research and Publicahons at the Holocaust m Poland is the twenty second in a senes of Worlung Papers Amencan Jewish Comrmttee on Contemporary Anh Sermhsm pubhshed by the Amencan Jewish Com nuttee The Worlung Papers senes seeks to ennch our understanding of con temporary anti Senuhsm by inventorying current knowledge pmv~ding analyhcal perspechves and suggesting avenues for further research Among the issues that call for analysis are the following Is contemporary anh Sem~tisma dtrect conhnuahon of the Jew hatred of the past or is it in some sense a new phenomenon? Has the Holocaust finally deleghmated anh Senuhsm or has it merely dnven it underzmund?- What are the Images- of Jews that currently circulate in society? Are there populahon subgroups that are especially suscephble to anh Senuhsm? How has the real~tyof the State of IS& affected eipress~onsof anh Senuhsm? Knowledge and Remembrance of the Holocaust m Poland reports on the seventh in a senes of internahonal surveys dealing with knowledge of the Holocaust the phenomenon of Holocaust denial and percephons of the lessons and im~l~cahonsof the Holocaust The results of the Pohsh sur vey are mixed While Poles dlsplay strong factual knowledge about some aspects of the Holocaust they are far less knowledgeable about other as &ts Moreover wlule the vist majonty of Poles strongly favor keeptng the memory of the Holocaust allve Poles see themselves as fully equal to Jews as vichms of the Nazis Copynght O 1995 The Amencan Jewish Comrmttee David Singer Director All nghts resewed Department of Researrh and Publrcalrons KNOWLEDGE AND REMEMBRANCE OF THE HOLOCAUST IN POLAND The data reported here are fmm a public opinlon survey conducted in Po land shortly before the fifheth anniversary commemoration of the l~bera tlon of Auschwitz The survey bnngs together two streams of research that the Amencan Jewish Comminee has been conduchng in vanous countnes over the last several years One such stream relates to knowledge and re membrance of the Holocaust a theme that the NC has exmned in the United States Great Bnmn France Germany and Australia A second stream focuses on attitudes toward Jews and other nunontles these have been explored in the United States the Commonwealth of Independent States Germany Great Bntiun Aushla Poland Hungary Czechoslova ha and Argenhna Among the themes probed in the current Polish survey are factual knowledge about the Holocaust the importance of Holocaust memory the relative suffenng of Poles and Jews at the hands of the Nazis Polish be havior toward Jews in the context of the Holocaust and athtudes toward Jews and other mlnonties in contemporary Poland The Polish survey was camed out for the Amencan Jewtsh Comm~t tee by Demoskop a leading public opinion orgaruzatlon based in Warsaw In conducung the survey Demoskop interviewed 1 145 respondents face I to face between December 29 1994 and January 5 1995 Those inter viewed constitute a representative natlonal sample of Polish men and women 18 years of age and older The findings can be reported for the sample as a whole as well as by sex age education and relig~ousprac tice The esumated sampling error for the total sample 1s plus or nunus three percentage points Summary of Key Finmngs of Poles cite yellow star or a vanant as the symbol that Jews were forced to wear dunng the Second World War At the same time only 34 percent of 1 The vast majonty of Poles strongly favor keeping the memory of the Ho Poles in a mulhple choice format select 6 million as the approximate locaust alive Thus 85 percent of Poles feel that we should keep the re number of Jews lulled by the Nazis dunng the Second World War while membrance of the externunatlon of the Jews strong even after the passage 38 percent choose much lower figures and 22 percent respond don t of hme as aganst 10 percent who say that 50 years after the end of know Still further when asked agan in a multlple choice format what World War I1 it is tlme to put the memory of the Nazi extemnatlon of the percentage of Polish Jews were lulled by the Nazis dunng the Second Jews behind us Simlarly 86 percent of Poles deem it essential (17 World War only 13 percent of Poles correctly answer 80+ percent (his percent) or very Important (69 percent) that Poles know about and un tonans agree that 90 percent of Polish Jews died in the Holocaust) 38 per derstand the Nazi extermination of the Jews while 12 percent see it as cent of Poles answer 50 79 percent 31 percent say 10 49 percent 3 only somewhat important (Il percent) or not important (I percent) percent respond less than I0 percent and 1.5 percent don t know (It is Moreover 68 percent of Poles disagree ( mostly disagree 43 percent rmportant to note that while 48 percent of Poles respond don t know to strongly disagree 25 percent) w~ththe view that the Nazi extermina the open ended question What does the term the Holocaust refer to? hon of the Jews is not relevant today because it happened almost 50 years this reflects nothing more than lack of usage of the English term Holo- ago 28 percent agree ( mostly agree 22 percent strongly agree 6 caust in Poland In fact 99 percent of respondents are aware of the Nazi percent) I I externunatlon of the Jews ) 2 Poles stress their own suffenng under the Nazis alongside that of 4 A substantlal majonty of Poles acknowledge the reality of antl Jews Thus in response to the open ended questlon In your view who Semitism in contemporary Poland Thus when asked Do you thrnk that was the man vlchm of the Nazis dunng the Second World War? 28 per anti Semitlsm in Poland is currently a very senous problem somewhat of a cent answer Jews 26 percent Poles and another 28 percent Poles problem or not a problem at all? 18 percent answer very senous prob and Jews Asked directly Which group suffered more from Nazi perse lem 49 percent somewhat of a problem and 23 percent not a problem cutlon dunng the Second World War Poles or Jews? 29 percent indicate at all Moreover m loolung ahead over the next several years 26 per Jews 28 percent Poles and 40 percent both groups suffered about cent of Poles see anu Semttlsm increasing ( increase greatly 5 percent the same r increase somewhat 21 percent) and 42 percent remruning the same Poles take a largely positwe vlew of Polish behavior toward Jews in while only 13 percent see it decreasing ( decrease somewhat 10 percent the context of the Holocaust Thus in response to the question Did Poles decrease greatly 3 percent) do enough to help Jews dunng the Second World War or not? 75 percent In terms of the respondents own attitudes toward Jews (comparative answer either did enough (49 percent) or did as much as they could un data for other groups are shown in the tables) 30 percent prefer not to der the circumstances (26 percent) while 15 percent respond d~dnot do have Jews as neighbors 16 percent see Jews,as having too much influ enough In addition 67 percent of respondents mantan that many ence in Polish society and 13 percent th~nkthat Jews behave in a man Poles parhcipated in rescuing Jews dunng the Second World War in ner which provokes hostility toward them in our country (In a 1991 sur contrast to 11 percent who see many Poles having participated in the vey conducted for the Amencan Jewish Committee in Poland the respec persecution of Jews dunng the Second World War tlve figures for the same items were 40 percent 26 percent and 19 percent 3 Poles display strong factual knowledge about some aspects of the indicating a positive trend line over time ) Moreover 36 percent of re Holocaust but are far less knowledgeable about other aspects Thus in re spondents agree ( strongly agree 13 percent somewhat agree 23 per sponse to two open-ended queshons 91 percent of Poles identify cent) that Now as in the past Jews are responsible for lull~ngChnst Auschwiu Dachau and Trebl~nkaas concentratlon camps and 74 percent Finally 35 percent of respondents see it as good that there are now many fewer Jews in Poland than there were before the Second World percent of those in the highest educauon group would prefer not having War Jewish neighbors as compared with 38 percent of those in the lowest group 13 percent of those in the highest group agree that Now as in the Subgroup Dflerences past Jews are responsible for lulling Chnst as compared with 44 percent of those in the lowest group and 28 percent of those in the highest group In an examination of subgroup differences for some key items increased say it is good that there are fewer Jews in Poland than before World War education emerges as the key vanable associated with knowledge of the U as compared with 40 percent