The Occupied City as a Sociological Laboratory : Developing and Applying Social Psychology in Warsaw 1939-1945

Abstract

The article explores the sociopsychological considerations made by Polish sociologist Stanisław Ossowski (1897-1963) during World War II in reaction to his specific experiences in Soviet-occupied Lwów and German-occupied Warsaw. Based on readings of Ossowski’s publications and so far unpublished archival material, the influences and practical consequences of permanently observed violations of ethical and moral boundaries in that “great sociological laboratory” of war and occupation shall be traced in the texts he wrote during that time. As a member of a group of engineers, town planners, and architects, Ossowski sketched various psycho- and sociotechnical means of controlling that should guarantee for a peaceful social existence of free individuals in a new Polish state. Particular attention will be directed to the specific difficulties of attaining, communicating, and distributing knowledge in the de facto doubled cities that developed along the lines of opposition between the occupying and the occupied.