Date of Award
2019
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. History Dept.
Advisor(s)
Arnout van der Meer
Second Advisor
Raffael Scheck
Abstract
This thesis explores the ways in which American Jews - and Americans more generally, by way of the Americanization of the Holocaust - have come to think about and understand Poland and how Poland has subsequently rejected their narratives. Historically, American Jewish cultural works have placed Poland as a geographic space, nation, and people at the center of stories of Jewish suffering in the Holocaust and World War II. In its quest to right and correct historical misunderstandings, this project looks at the ways Poland has worked to completely revise the historical narrative.
Through tracing historiographies of separateness between Jewish and Polish suffering, drawing on archival research of American Jewish institutions and cultural works, examining Polish national historical campaigns, and analyzing scholarship like Neighbors by Jan Gross, this project shows the stakes of what happens when histories aren't told in all of their complexities.
Keywords
Holocaust, Poland, United States, Schindler's List, Nationalism, Jan Gross
Recommended Citation
Gutow-Ellis, Noa, "On Writing and Righting History: The Stakes of Holocaust Interpretation and Remembrance in Poland and the United States" (2019). Honors Theses. Paper 917.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/917