Housing Situation of Holocaust Survivors Returning to Their Hometowns in Poland after the Second World War. Examples from Kraków and Łódź
Housing Situation of Holocaust Survivors Returning to Their Hometowns in Poland after the Second World War. Examples from Kraków and Łódź
Author(s): Monika StępieńSubject(s): Political history, Recent History (1900 till today), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), History of the Holocaust
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: Holocaust survivors; post-war Poland; returns; Kraków; Łódź [Lodz]; literary personal accounts; Jewish property; housing policy; neighbours;
Summary/Abstract: This article discusses the housing situation of Holocaust survivors returning to post-war Kraków and Łódź – cities which were home to two of the largest pre-war Jewish communities in Poland, and which were not destroyed during the Second World War. The author indicates and describes factors which shaped the housing situation, including wartime and post-war displacements, the plunder of Jewish property during and after the war, Polish legislation regarding its restitution, as well as the post-war housing policy of the Polish state. Personal literary accounts by Jewish people reveal not only the creation and functioning of ‘camp families,’ but also the peculiar, neighbourly communities full of tensions, misunderstandings and, sometimes, violence.
Journal: Scripta Judaica Cracoviensia
- Issue Year: 2018
- Issue No: 16
- Page Range: 109-122
- Page Count: 14
- Language: English