2005/01/01 by Klaus-Peter Friedrich · 3 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #European history and politics #Polish Historical and Cultural Studies #German History and Society
paper · pdf · doi:10.2307/3649910
openalex publication_date 2005/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Astonishingly, we still do not have a history of collaboration in Poland during World War II. Klaus-Peter Friedrich shows that the building blocks for such a history already exist, however. They are scattered throughout the contemporary Polish press and studies on the Nazi occupation regime. Examples include institutionalized cooperation ( Baudienst , Polish Police), ethnically defined segments of the population ( Volksdeutsche ), informal support of Nazi projects on ideological common ground (anti- Semitism and anticommunism), and the stance of the Polish peasantry as well as the Roman Catholic Church. Friedrich concludes that collaboration eludes study because of a mental image according to which ethnic Poles were the foremost victims of the occupiers and heroically resisted them. Questionable views of national self-interest keep Polish society from coming to terms with the past. Nevertheless, debates on “Polish collaboration” continue to recur—as they have since 1939.