Bridging the gaps between Holocaust accounts: Fieldwork evidence for compromising forms of narrative

This research discusses whether various educational approaches can bridge the wide gaps between national narratives of the Holocaust, augmented by the Act on the IPN: 44, and the reactions that followed it in Israel, Poland, and the West. We start with a brief account of the Polish narrative of the World War II experience, and the Israeli narrative of the Holocaust. We then give an account from the field: during January and February 2020, we visited the Majdanek Concentration Camp Museum, where we met and interviewed some of the local guides; we also went to the Grodzka Gate Centre in Lublin and discussed things with their guides. For the Israeli narrative, we referred to surveys and interviews of IDF reserves officers who participated in the “Witnesses in Uniform” project of commemoration delegations to Poland. Our analyses show that in each of the two societies one can find national narratives that can create paths of compromise and conciliation. The findings indicate the existence of a spirit that can enable each group to stick to its own heritage yet at the same time to respect the narratives of others.