My Brother's Keeper Recent Polish Debates on the Holocaust

What responsibility do the Polish people share for the mass murder of the Jews, which took place largely on Polish soil? In this major contribution to the history of the Holocaust, Antony Polonsky brings together in translation the most important arguments in this very public and controversial debate. The volume's contributors grapple with the complex moral issues and painful questions which are history's legacy: What could the Polish people have done, and what were they willing to do? Many have argued their innocence and utter helplessness before the Nazis, while others resolutely refuse excuses for standing by, or even aiding, the slaughter. "My Brother's Keeper?" meets these dilemmas head-on, in a tough and troubling debate.

In recent years, a lively debate has developed in Poland on the question of what responsibility the Poles share for the mass murder of the Jews, which took place largely on Polish soil. This debate was sparked off by the showing in Poland of Claude Lanzmann's film, Shoah , which revealed how deeply-rooted anti-Jewish prejudice could still be found in the Polish countryside. Anti-semitism is something which Poland has preferred to forget. But before the Second World War hostility to the Jews was widespread and this climate of pervasive anti-semitism may have facilitated the Nazis' murderous plans. But Poles now, with great courage, are facing this dark side of their past. This book, translated and edited by a leading British historian of Poland, Antony Polonsky, is a major contribution to the history of the Holocaust. It gathers together the most important contribution to the current debate, revealing the agony many Poles feel about their lack of action during the war.

Antony Polonsky