What responsibility do the Polish people share for the mass murder of the Jews, which took place largely on Polish soil? In this major contribution to the history of the Holocaust, Antony Polonsky brings together in translation the most important arguments in this very public and controversial debate. The volume's contributors grapple with the complex moral issues and painful questions which are history's legacy: What could the Polish people have done, and what were they willing to do? Many have argued their innocence and utter helplessness before the Nazis, while others resolutely refuse excuses for standing by, or even aiding, the slaughter. "My Brother's Keeper?" meets these dilemmas head-on, in a tough and troubling debate.

Antony Polonsky is Reader in International History at the London School of Economics. Among his books are Politics in Independent Poland (Oxford, 1972), The Little Dictators (London 1975) and, with Boleslaw Drukiér, The Beginnings of Communist Rule in Poland (London 1981). He is President of the Institute for Polish-Jewish studies and editor of POLIN: A Journal of Polish-Jewish Studies.

1 INTRODUCTION 2 THE POOR POLES LOOK AT THE GHETTO 3 THE DEEP ROOTS AND LONG LIFE OF STEREOTYPES 4 A REPLY TO JAN BLONSKI 5 GUILT BY NEGLECT 6 THE 'JUST' AND THE 'PASSIVE' 7 THE MISSION THAT FAILED: A POLISH COURIER WHO TRIED TO HELP THE JEWS 8 'THE BLACK HOLE': CONVERSATION WITH STANISLAW KRAJEWSKI, 'A POLE AND A JEW IN ONE PERSON' 9 DO NOT SPEAK FOR ME, PLEASE 10 DIFFERING ETHICAL STANDPOINTS 11 IN A SENSE I AM AN ANTI-SEMITE 12 POLISH REASONS AND JEWISH REASONS 13 THE EIGHTY-FIRST BLOW 14 PILATE'S GESTURE 15 THE DISSEMINATOR OF ANTI-SEMITISM? A REJOINDER TO JAN BLONSKI 16 THE HIDDEN COMPLEX OF THE POLISH MIND: POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS DURING THE HOLOCAUST 17 ETHICAL PROBLEMS OF THE HOLOCAUST IN POLAND