Bystanders as visual subjects : onlookers, spectators, observers, gawkers in occupied Poland

In this essay, bystanders are analyzed not through the lense of topography (i.e. geographical closeness to the events expressed in the term “by-stander”), but as visual subjects. Concerning those who witnessed the Holocaust, bystanders are linked with various types of scopic activities, especially negative ones: they are often generalized as passive onlookers, as “those who stare” with libidinal pleasure [Polish: gapie; French: badauds; German: Schaulustigen]. It is surprising, however, that the frequent use of scopic vocabulary is not necessarily associated with developed theoretical concerns. The recent visual (iconic) turn, however, has provided a refined and varied set of tools for analysing the faculty of seeing. Therefore, it is no longer plausible to discuss the processes of seeing without precise conceptualizations. Instead of employing visual terms merely as synonyms, this essay challenges and restructures available categorizations for bystanders as those acquiring knowledge through the sense of sight. The analysis will be supported by references to specific accounts: an oral narration by Jan Karski (filmed by Claude Lanzmann in The Karski Report, 2010) and the sketches of the painter Józef Charyton (shown courtesy of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw)