Publication details
Paradox vymístení:príspevek k posttotalitní reflexi vztahu se sudetskými Nemci a polsko-zidovských vztahu
| Title in English | Displacement Paradox:Reflections on the Post-toatlitarien Relations of Czechs to Sudeten Germans and Jawish-Polish Relations |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2004 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Sociální studia |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Sociology, demography |
| Keywords | communism; collective trauma; Czechs-Sudeten germans Relations; displacement; Jewish-Polish relations |
| Description | The Jewish minority in Poland, which similar to the German minority in the Czech borderlands was often the local majority or at least equal in number, was left in the aftermath of the war as merely a memory that was quickly fading due to the rapid intrusion of communism. These minorities pre-war reality and coexistence with the majority were erased at the time of the Communist regime, when the minority became perceived as a threat. The members of the minority were not physically present, however, the general mentality represented and frequently still represents the given minority group as the key threat, which reinforced the totalitarian regime. I call this process the displacement paradox. Regarding the displacement of Germans from Czechoslovakia and the Jewish minority from Poland, the subject matter is not a comparison of the actual terror and displacement as they touched both minorities. My aim is an analysis of their symbolic role in maintaining and legitimizing the Communist totalitarian regime, the prevailing residues of this attributed role in the current socio-political context, the re-emergence of those residues and their shift from political marginality to the political mainstream in the Czech Republic. Thus, I contrast these developments in the Czech context with the discussion on Jedwabne and Jewish-Polish relations in general. The text highlights how the historically antagonistic character of Jewish-Polish relations is being stripped of its explosive and threatening potential and is becoming the subject of wider reflection. This makes possible not only the historic return of the Jewish minority and its fight against existing displacement, but also contributes more generally to creating a post-national society that does not tolerate the idea of forced displacement. |