Poland's Resurretion and Traumatic Identity

I. The Resurrection

How does one recover from an apocalypse like this? One does not simply recover; one can only resurrect. This was the work of John Paul II, the Polish Catholic saint specializing in the resurrection of half-dead states.

This is why talking to a Pole, even today, entails this difficulty: you are speaking with a severely wounded individual. It is common to encounter someone who had a family member shot in the street, another burned alive, another dead from exhaustion in a labor camp, etc. These experiences leave terrible memories, even after several generations, much stronger than those in history books because they imprint on your memory and worldview from the moment your understanding awakens, that is, deep within you, in your family setting, in everything closest and dearest to you. For several generations, Poles were raised by people whose traumas were passed onto them, starting with the impression of always being the target of attacks and plots of all kinds, leading today to many defensive reactions, often justified and often unfounded.