The study on which the book is based was designed to carry out research on, and through its findings to increase awareness of, the attitudes towards Jews, the Holocaust and memory of the Holocaust among young Poles. It was also intended to promote interest in school programmes and projects that can overcome prejudice and antisemitism according to the findings of empirical studies confirming that prejudices are “bad” habits that could be extinguished (Dovidio et al., after: Grzesiak-Feldman 2006).

The phenomenon of antisemitism, one of the main variables in this study, does not have one agreed definition and historians, political scientists and sociologists describe it from various angles. According to the working definition of the IHRA, “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred towards Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed towards Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, towards Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.” It was hoped that the research results would be used as a pedagogical basis for educational programmes that would bring the research findings and recommendations into practice to combat antisemitism. Despite many obstacles, comparative research was applied as a way of studying the direction of the educational process and the interdependence of different factors affecting attitudes towards Jews and the Holocaust in Poland. The first empirical study that I conducted in 1998 was undertaken before the first major (but belated, since it occurred more than 10 years after the fall of communism) debate on the attitudes of Poles towards Jews. The current study was carried out 10 years later. Both debates deleted the line (strongly engraved in Polish consciousness) between German persecutors and the local ethnic Polish population and were related to the publication of Jan Tomasz Gross's books. The first, Neighbors (2000) discussed the murder of Jews by ethnic Poles in Jedwabne and neighbouring Radziłow, Wizna, Wąsosz, Stawiski, and Szczuczyn and the second, Fear (English edition June 2006, Polish edition January 2008) investigated antisemitism and pogroms in Poland after the Holocaust.