Large parts of the Polish population during the Holocaust believed helping Jews went against their local norms, a new study from the Polish Academy of Sciences shows.
The academy, a state-run institution, focused on a period beginning in 1942 that saw an intense effort on the part of the Nazi occupiers to wipe out Jewish ghettos across Poland.
According to the scholars, this can be explained by the norms that were prevalent among Poles in urban areas.
“Poles who chose to save Jews were essentially violating the unwritten norms of their community,” the scholars wrote.
The new publication comes amid renewed tension between Israel and Poland over the issue of Polish complicity in Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust.
On Sunday, newly appointed acting Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz drew anger when he said that Poles “suckle anti-Semitism with their mothers’ milk,” resulting in a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
Katz was quoting a famous statement by former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. The acting minister made the accusation in reference to a controversial Polish law that makes it a civil offense to accuse the Polish nation – rather than individual Poles – of complicity in the Holocaust.