ABSTRACT
The text provides a critical analysis of the Polish Holocaust bystander/witness category which appeared as early as the 1940s and also proved to be sustainable and present in contemporary writing (Chmielewska 2021). The author presents the antisemitism which persisted after the war but also the early reactions of Polish culture to the Holocaust and the phenomenon of Polish antisemitism. She focuses on the example of the well-known Polish literary critic, Kazimierz Wyka, who pointed to the significance of the Holocaust for Polish culture and society in examining the wartime period. It were the first analysis of the Holocaust in social and economic terms in Poland. Contemporary researchers, Marcin Zaremba and Andrzej Leder, who operate in the same field of concepts and images of economic involvement in the Holocaust, do not seem to notice the complications of the processes and attitudes of witnesses/bystanders. The chapter shows how problematic the witness category becomes when the many forms of Polish involvement in the Holocaust and the benefits derived from it are taken into account.
