The Holocaust in Poland: Controversies and Explanations

The Annual Zaleski Lecture in Modern Polish History
Timothy Snyder Housum Professor of History, Yale University
Chaired by Grzegorz Ekiert Professor of Government, Harvard University; Director, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
More than 90% of Poland’s Jewish citizens were murdered under German occupation and by German policy, and Polish Jews constitute an absolute majority of the victims of the Holocaust as a whole. Holocaust historiography, generally based in a narrative of the German 1930s, and often oriented towards issues of discourse and memory, fails to account for the reality and significance of non-German societies and institutions. The new Polish micro-history of the Holocaust, although it has brought major factual breakthroughs about local collaboration and important debates about national responsibility, tends to rest on a non-existent consensus about what caused the Holocaust as a whole, and to reproduce the limitations of national history already apparent in the German case.
Can Polish discussions, fruitful in themselves, help to break the deadlock in Holocaust historiography and build a larger explanation of the Holocaust as a whole?

[@alexandrahollander3762]

There was no "Holocaust in Poland". Poland did not exist. It was "occupied". Please respect Polish sensitivities about history of their region and address it in an appropriate manner. "Holocaust in occupied Poland" or if you want to be more precise "Holocaust in German-occupied Poland".

[@Lucillesgirl]

Have been following Tim for a bit, have read his books & listening his many lectures on several subjects...a great mind.

[@margalacabe6338]

Once again, a brilliant lecture. Thank you.