New Books Network Jan Borowicz, "Perverse Memory and the Holocaust: A Psychoanalytic Understanding of Polish Bystanders" (Routledge, 2024)
May 21, 2025
Jan Borowicz, a member of the Holocaust Remembrance Research Team at the University of Warsaw, discusses his book that delves into the psychological dimensions of Polish bystanders during the Holocaust. He highlights the indifference to violence, drawing parallels to current humanitarian crises at the Polish-Belarusian border. Borowicz explores themes of denial, guilt, and the complexities of Polish identity shaped by historical trauma. He emphasizes the importance of confronting painful memories to foster understanding in the context of Polish-Jewish relations.
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Linking Border Crisis to Holocaust
- Jan Borowicz relates the current humanitarian crisis at the Poland-Belarus border to Holocaust history as a lived experience of denial and disavowal.
- This realization deepened his understanding of Holocaust bystanders as people knowing and not knowing their violence participation.
Perverse Memory Explained
- Perverse memory involves denial combined with knowing, creating simultaneous realities of acknowledging and disavowing atrocities.
- This mechanism allows bystanders to say something happened and yet emotionally disconnect or distort its meaning.
Indifference to Violence Impossible
- Indifference to violence is impossible; being eyewitness to atrocities always leaves an imprint.
- Polish society tries to live as if untouched by Holocaust horrors, but social denial cannot erase the trauma.