Poland as Israel's Antinomy in Contemporary Israeli Post-Holocaust Narratives

• In Event: Behind the Scenes of Jewish Narratives: Yugoslav Peripheries, Hasidic Shadows and Polish Phantasms

Abstract

The paper will explore the geographical setting of Israeli national Holocaust discourse and the role Poland as a symbolic space plays within it. The main focus of this exploration will be to show how the binary opposition between Poland–the land of death–and Israel–the land of life–for several decades provided tools not only to talk about the Jewish past, but also to navigate the Israeli present. The phenomenon will be juxtaposed with literary works that involve Holocaust narration in a familial, rather than national, context.

Author

• Jagoda Budzik, U of Wrocław (Poland)