Can a victim be responsible? Anti-Semitic consequences of victimhood-based identity and competitive victimhood in Poland Michał Bilewicz, Anna Stefaniak “The Holocaust was not unique to the Jewish population in Europe. Many oth- ers, including Poles, died in the same way,” said Romanian President Jon Iliescu in 2003 (Davidovitz, 2003), later mentioning that his nation cannot be accused of genocide in Transnistria. Similar statements were often made by other political leaders who denied the uniqueness of the Holocaust in order to present their own nations as unique victims of historical atrocities and to deny the historical cru- elties perpetrated by ingroup members. Thus, perception of ingroup victimhood serves as a strategy that allows for denial of responsibility. * * * One of the prevailing explanations of anti-Semitism is related to national iden- tities, namely distinctive national narratives based on victimhood (Krzemiński, 1993, 2002; Bergmann, 2008). A strongly identifying member of such national groups tends to deny the status of the Holocaust and the historical Jewish vic- timhood in order to protect the uniqueness of their ingroup’s victimhood. In to- day’s world the position of a historical victim has become a highly valued one. As argued by Moscovici and Pérez (2009), a reversal of traditional judgments of