Abstract
This article offers a new perspective on a central source of legitimization of Nazi violence against Polish civilians. Focusing on so-called “Polish cruelties,” it reconstructs a specific German Feindbild, according to which a specific Polish affinity to violence constantly endangered Germans of both sexes and all ages. This German self-victimization turned German violence against Poles into a defensive reaction, thus providing a strategy of legitimizing violence that was declared both justified and necessary. The article argues that the persistence and potency of this specific Feindbild were based on the mutual interlocking of three levels: Firstly, the memory of specific elements of German-Polish history; secondly, the mobilization strategies of German propaganda with the expectation of future conflicts; and thirdly, the updating of Feindbilder through concrete experiences of violence and powerlessness in the context of the German occupation.
