Obraz Żydów w wybranych polskich materiałach autobiograficznych z okresu II wojny światowej

Abstract

The paper presents conclusions from the researches on the depiction of Jewish people set in the selected narrative interviews, being part of a larger survey ‘War and the national identity’. The data consists of 47 biographical interviews with respondent who were born between 1908-1930 and have lived their lives during the Second World War in a central or eastern region of the Second Republic of Poland. In the first part, the text reviews the concept of cliche and rationale of applying the ‘image’ as key idea that organizes the interpretation of proceedings. The latter show following tendencies predominate the images of Jews embedded into the autobiographies: first, display of respondent’s ‘undervaluation’ in relations with Poles and the Polishhood, second, the inclination to ‘overvalue’ the relationships with ‘the strangers’, and third, an emphasis on such features possessed by the Jewish people’s that counts in competition for the status in the society.