834707847

Ewa Nasalska

The inspection of the German textbook content shows that the image of Poland and Poles becomes morę positive if this image is less perceived in the context of the German-Polish relations. In other words, Poles are des-cribed less unfriendly when the distance between Poles and Germans is as-sumed to be larger in the German perception. The category "the stranger in the right place" becomes morę adeąuate and the term "stranger” is gradually substituted by the term "different".

It appears that the analogy in the Polish perception of Germans is quite large. In this image the elements of negative evaluation dominate, al-though the elements of the neutral informative character are also present. The image of Germans in their own country is closely correlated with the image of their state. The motive of the powerful neighbour is decisive and it could give rise to a strong feeling of danger and threat — especially in the context of the still fresh historical memory of Polish society. In the Polish perception the strength of Germans is balanced by the stereotype model of courage and patriotism of Poles.

In conclusion, it could be stated that both young Poles and Germans are educated in the world of the values and views of their parents, at least where their imagination about their neighbours is concemed. The ąuestion how to overcome the mutual antagonistic attitudes of both nations still de-serves futurę work.

In some discussions on the role of school in overcoming national anta-gonisms the efficiency of the educational substance has been called into ąuestion. The intemational exchange of youths has been suggested as the morę effective mean. The exchange has, however, its own limitations. It has not got a mass character and its effects depend substantially on the situation context. It sometimes even leads to the unintended effects. The researches of the social consciousness should constantly draw attention to the textbooks' content, as the mean of the widest rangę of a mass interaction.

The role of teachers in the integration process of the European nations is certainly decisive. Their effectiveness depends primarily on the textbook content. The suitable history textbook has been prepared in the Institut fur Internationale Schulbuchforschung in Braunschweig, Germany. The text-book is planned to be used in Poland and Germany simultaneously and scien-tists from both countries have been working on this task for a long time.

Speeification 1

Displacement of Germans versus the image of Poles in German text-books

— evaluative lexical means used.

hatred

(HaB)

brutality

(Brutalitat)

cruelty

(Grausamkeit)

to expel    by shear force

(Vertreiben)    (gewaltsam)

cruelly

(rucksichtslos) to rob

(ausplundern)