Social Distance and the Holocaust: A New Approach

• In Event: Crises, Methods, and Knowledge Production

Abstract

Whereas microhistories of the Holocaust in Poland generally focus on how social distance between Poles and Jews—understood as the bonds of intimacy and familiarity between them—influenced patterns of genocidal violence, this paper takes a different approach and asks: How did social distance between Poles influence patterns of violence against Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland? How did it influence postwar efforts to hold Poles legally accountable for involvement in the persecution and murder of Jewish people? I excavate these questions by analyzing trial testimony of Poles who were tried by the Lublin special criminal court between 1944 and 1947 for crimes perpetrated against Jews. In doing so, I highlight methodological difficulties associated with using records that were produced in the aftermath of a devastating occupation and war and during a period of profound political and social upheaval produced by the socialist regime transition. My preliminary findings suggest that ties of trust between local Poles of similar social standing were necessary to carry out acts of violence and denunciation directed against Jews. By contrast, the investigation and trials of Poles for acts involving
Jewish victims were driven by grievances against a suspect who was perceived to have violated bonds of solidarity with the local Polish community at some point during the occupation.

Author

• Louisa M McClintock