Antoni Sułek

“To America!” Polish Sociologists in the United States after 1956 and the Development of Empirical Sociology in Poland

America was an attractive destination for European scholars and social scientists— their contacts, observations, experiences, and thoughts often became a subject of interest in itself to many other sociologists. Poles are no exception. Florian Znaniecki and William I. Thomas and their classic Polish Peasant in Europe and America, first published in 1918—20, is symbolic of contacts and influences between Polish and American sociology in the first half of the twentieth century. However, sociologists other than Znaniecki and their transatlantic journeys remain somehow in the shadows to this day. This article presents a more recent and yet less known chapter of Polish— American relations—Polish sociologists visiting American universities in the 1950s and 1960s.

Ordinary Poles Look at the Jews

This article constitutes a meta-analysis of sociological surveys conducted between 1967 and 2010 on the attitudes of Poles towards Jews. This analysis covers factual knowledge about Jews, like/dislike feelings, social distance, cognitive schema, and views regarding Polish–Jewish history. The results reflect a general nonacceptance of strangers as well as a specific type of anti-Semitism with strong roots in and encompassing a broad spectrum of Polish society. In this respect, Poland and some of the other Central Eastern European countries are much alike and distinguish themselves negatively in comparison to Western Europe. Nevertheless, in the last decade a positive shift in Polish attitudes towards Jews has been manifesting itself: feelings of closeness are increasing while disapproving cognitive schemes are decreasing. Further changes depend upon the reconstruction of Polish national identity as well as on the public debates delving into Polish–Jewish relations past and present.

Paul Lazarsfeld and Polish sociology: A historical record of contact, perception, and impact

This paper records the Polish aspects of P. F. Lazarsfelds sociointellectual biography and examines his impact on Polish sociology. The analysis is divided into three chronological parts. In the 1930s, Lazarsfelds empirical work inspired Polish sociologists in their studies on unemployment. In the late 1950s and 1960s, his model of empirical social research shaped the style of sociological practice in Poland. In the 1990s, some of Lazarsfelds substantive contributions, mainly in the area of election studies, were taken up in Polish sociology. Lazarsfelds influence on Polish sociology was conditioned by changes in Polish society and sociology, which is emphasized in this analysis.

Both Researcher and Second-Generation Witness—On Rescuing Local Memory of the Holocaust in Poland

This sketch narrates an account of the author’s abundant years of fieldwork, delving into the Holocaust and memory thereof in the Polish countryside. The region selected is highly representative in a phenomenological sense: much of the destiny met by Polish Jews in rural areas played itself out in these lands. Born and raised in this vicinity, the author of the text at hand was able to obtain otherwise inaccessible information about the fate of local Jews, culled from conversations with current and former inhabitants. Moreover, this inquiry was accompanied by engagement: a complementary goal was to reintroduce Polish Jews and the Shoah into the memory of a community and, by the same token, to demonstrate that the rebuilding of memory is possible in contemporary Poland. In consequence, a memory that includes the Jews who used to live in this area is gradually returning to the region under investigation. Among other things, a monument now stands in the village, playing a central role for the community—a wall commemorating murdered local Jews as well as local non-Jewish Poles recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. This provincial society has thus also been prepared to face knowledge about local persecutors and perpetrators of Holocaust crimes against local Jews.