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7 Ethnocentrism in Getrmairand Polish Textbooks 59

the arguments o£ both sides (i.e. Poles and Germans in this case). Therefore it is reasonably to label these textbooks as "national" and "Eurocentric" iextbooks, respectively.

2.2.1 IMAGE OF GERMANS IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF POLISH-GERMAN RELATIONS

Contrhry to the German textbooks, the Polish textbooks do not expose much the subject of the displacement and the change of the borders (Table 2). The presentation of the delicate problem of the displacement of Germans stresses out two aspects. The first aspect is the principle of the histo-rical justice and is emphasised by the lexical means: the “Regained Territo-ries". The second aspect is the principle of legality. Poles are presented as the nat.on acting according to the international law. It is worth mentioning that both aspects are clearly called into ąuestion in the German textbooks. The choice of the lexical means is illustrated in Specification 4.

In the textbooks of the national type the motive of the German threat is exjx>sed. This motive is strongly rooted in the memory of the Second World War but also is linked to the perception of the morę recent interior and ex-terior German policy. The problem of the displacement loses its one-dimen-sional feature in the textbook of the Eurocentric type. The aspect of the "ar-■duousness" for Germans is indicated and the motives of Poles are explained in terms of justice and necessity.

2.2.2. IMAGE OF GERMANS “IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY"

The mage of Germans "in their own country" is essentially enigmatic. Germans are mainly described in the perspective of the German State or ra-ther both, Western and Eastern States (Specifications 5 and 6).

The old "national" textbook displays elements indicating the threat •existing from the German side. To this end, the military and economic power of West Germany is emphasised (the period before the year 1970 is particu-larly stressed out). The new “Eurocentric" textbook emphasises mainly the political aspects of the analysed period. The essence of the latest events is presented, including description of the reunion process of Germany. From this perspective the image of East Germany certainly is not very appealing ("the police-state") and cannot be improved by the reports of the East German opposition activity ("weak opposition"), especially against abackground of the Polish experience of this sort.

3. CONCLUSIONS

The aim of the textbook analysis was the searching for the answers to the following ąuestion: How does the textbook content influence the new model formation of the relations between Poles and Germans? The textbook content can create a new merit of these relations in the integrated Europę. The problem of the existence of the ethnocentric model in the presentation and teaching history has also been elucidated.