Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, born 10.08.1889 (August 10th, 1889) in Kośmin

Zofia Kossak-Szczucka was born into a well-known family of artists. She made her debut as a writer with the novel “Pożoga” (“Conflagration”), which described revolutionary moods among peasants and the Polish-Soviet War. In the interwar period, she became involved in the literary trend of Catholic prose. Her texts from the 1930’s expressed repulsion towards the Jews, which even worsened the already tense ethnic relations in Poland. From the beginning of the German occupation, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka was involved in underground resistance and charity work. Despite her religiously motivated Antisemitism, in August 1942, in the face of the mass deportation of Warsaw Jews to Treblinka, she published her “Protest!” A month later, she founded the Provisional Committee to Aid Jews, which was later transformed into “Żegota.” She opposed the progressive polarization of society and, in the face of the war and the Holocaust, pointed at Nazi Germany as the common enemy, publicly appealing to Polish people not to support the murder of Jews. In the fall of 1943, she was accidentally arrested and imprisoned at Auschwitz-Birkenau, from where she was taken to the Pawiak prison in Warsaw in 1944. She was sentenced to death but the Polish underground was able to free her. After the war, she settled in England, where she continued her writing career. After returning to Poland in 1957, she collaborated with the Catholic press. Zofia Kossak-Szczucka died on April 9th, 1968. She was posthumously awarded the Medal of the Righteous Among the Nations.

"Protest!" Leaflet by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka;
source: Polona

Ruins of Pawiak gate;
author: Thunderman 83; source: Wikipedia

Warsaw, Muranów - the site of the former Jewish district;
author: Tomasz Cebulski

Warsaw, Monument to the Ghetto Heroes;
author: Tomasz Cebulski

Pawiak Prison before 1939, view from Dzielna Street;
source: "Tygodnik Ilustrowany", no. 41, 13.10.1906, p. 911

Pawiak prison in 1864; source: D. Kobielski "Warsaw in the XIX century photographs",
Wydawnictwo Artystyczno-Graficzne, Warsaw 1970, p. 122

Polarization

At this stage, there is a differentiation in the attitudes of people belonging to given groups towards certain types of problems. Using hateful propaganda, extremists divide people, which usually creates two camps – those against and those in favor of solving a given social problem. The process of polarization very often contributes to the outbreak and escalation of social conflicts. Paradoxically, people with moderate views who are members of the perpetrators’ group have the greatest ability to stop genocide, which is why they are usually arrested and murdered first. The dominant group establishes unlimited power for itself by introducing states of emergency or ruling by decree, abolishing civil rights and liberties. The victim group is disarmed so that it cannot defend itself and the dominant group can take full control.

To prevent polarization, human rights groups and organizations must be supported and international sanctions must be put in place.

How is this person’s story related to the stage of genocide in G. Stanton’s theory?

In the 1930’s, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka’s texts and cultural activities contributed to strengthening tensions between Poles of Jewish and non-Jewish origin. Such activities led to an escalation of conflicts and deepened the polarisation of attitudes towards Jews. Her initial anti-Semitic attitude was verified as a result of her war experiences and observations of Nazi policy. Zofia Kossak-Szczucka experienced a transformation and from 1942 on, she loudly opposed the polarization, not only by speaking out – like in her famous “Protest!” – but also by taking concrete actions that led to the creation of “Żegota” and providing real help to many Jews.