Poles accused Jews of collaboration they themselves engaged in, as an act of projection

Evidence

One explanation offered for the murderous hostility some Poles felt toward the country’s Jewish population is that it was in revenge for the Jews’ alleged collaboration with the earlier and extremely brutal Soviet occupation of 1939–41. Historian Jan Gross (2001), however, found no evidence to support the claim that a disproportionate number of Jews cooperated with the Soviets. Instead, he found ample evidence for a different wartime collaboration. He concluded that in eastern Poland, “it is manifest that the local non-Jewish population enthusiastically greeted entering Wehrmacht units in 1941 and broadly engaged in collaboration with the Germans.” Gross goes on to say that “it appears that the local non-Jewish population projected its own attitude toward the Germans in 1941 … onto an entrenched narrative about how the Jews allegedly behaved vis-à-vis the Soviets in 1939.” — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2334 (#expands, via linked claim)

Historian Jan Gross (2001), however, found no evidence to support the claim that a disproportionate number of Jews cooperated with the Soviets. Instead, he found ample evidence for a different wartime collaboration. He concluded that in eastern Poland, “it is manifest that the local non-Jewish population enthusiastically greeted entering Wehrmacht units in 1941 and broadly engaged in collaboration with the Germans.” Gross goes on to say that “it appears that the local non-Jewish population projected its own attitude toward the Germans in 1941 … onto an entrenched narrative about how the Jews allegedly behaved vis-à-vis the Soviets in 1939.” — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2334 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The morbid aspect of anti-Semitism is not projective behavior as such, but the absence from it of reflection. When the subject is no longer able to return to the object what he has received from it, he becomes poorer rather than richer. He loses the reflection in both directions: since he no longer reflects the object, he ceases to reflect upon himself, and loses the ability to differentiate. Instead of the voice of conscience, he hears other voices; instead of examining himself in order to decipher the protocol of its own lust for power, it attributes the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” to others. … The resistance of which the paranoiac individual incessantly complains is the consequence of the lack of resistance, the vacuum which he generates around himself. He cannot stop. The idea which finds no firm hold in reality, insists, and becomes an idee fixe. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 150 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Poles projected their own collaboration with Germans onto Jews as alleged Soviet collaboration. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 2334; Polish anti-Jewish violence grew from projecting Polish collaboration onto Jews — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2334; A significant share of anti-Jewish violence in Poland was perpetrated spontaneously by Poles themselves. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 2333 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Poles projected their own collaboration with Germans onto Jews as alleged Soviet collaboration. #expands (0.97) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2334
• Polish anti-Jewish violence grew from projecting Polish collaboration onto Jews #corroborates (0.92) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2334
• Anti-Semitism is pathological projection stripped of self-reflection, not projection itself #complicates (0.80) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 150