UNRIGHTEOUS RIGHTEOUS: OBSERVATIONS ON THE POLISH DISCOURSE OF SAVING THE JEWS DURING WORLD WAR II IN THE MOVIE “IN DARKNESS“ (2011)

Abstract

The aim of the text is to analyze the Polish movie “In Darkness” with regards to the figure of the Righteous Pole saving Jews during the Nazi occupation in Poland. The article first outlines the discourse practices when dealing with the highly sensitive and debatable topic of the Polish attitudes towards the Jews in the time of the Holocaust, before trying to position Agnieszka Holland’s movie within the frame of the debates over the tumultuous Polish-Jewish past. The paper analyzes the motivation of its main character, Leopold Socha, in his efforts to save Jewish lives in the sewers of Lvov and argues that the movie narrative can be characterized by both its critical stance toward the idealized representation of the Polish-Jewish relationships, as well as by an affirmative self-representation of the Polish people as helping and saving their Jewish neighbors during the war.