„Ertragen können wir sie nicht“... Martin Luther und die Juden

Author(s): Wilhelm Schwendemann / Language(s): German Issue: 1 (18)/2017

Martin Luther as anti-Semite? Anti-Semitism is defined as having various ideological justifications for a general hostility and vilification towards Jews. Luther has never been good friends with Jews. The biblical Judaism as well as the contemporary one remained estranged from him for his lifetime. His relationship to biblical related religions was embittered by the overall anti-Judaism of his times, by apocalyptic conceptions, by dangerous threats of pests and wars and finally by personal crises. In addition there was his Christological perspective on old-testament texts. Luther insisted on a literal exegesis of the sonship of Jesus Christ and he hoped that the Jewish community would accept this. The reformers wanted to convert their Jewish contemporaries. With regard to Luther we can not uphold to the idea of a racial anti-Semitism. Rather, he was a religious anti-Semite, more precisely a theologically motivated anti-Judaist. In addition to that he “does not refer to medieval anti-Semite stereotypes, but pushes for the correct interpretation of the scripture. In much the same way he imputes theological delusion as well as the wrong interpretation of the scripture to the Jews.” There is a need to reconsider and replace the understanding that the church respectively the Christian religious community replaced Judaism, and is now historically taking over Israel’s role in this world. There is a challenge to proclaim and articulate Christian faith in a way that does not harm the religious identity of Muslims or Jews.

„Es ist noch nicht vorbei, wir bleiben deutsch und treu“ - Nationalsozialismus und Postnazismus in der Fernsehkabarettsendung Das Zeitventil

Author(s): Eva Waibel / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2014

The Austrian television cabaret show Das Zeitventil was produced from 1963 to 1968 by the national Austrian Broadcasting Company under the artistic direction of the cabaret artist and musician Gerhard Bronner. The show saw itself as a decidedly political cabaret and expressed in numerous sketches and chansons its critique on current political events and social developments. In different contexts it also dealt with the issues antisemitism, National Socialism and the Holocaust in post-Nazi Austrian society, which was very progressive and unusual during this period of time in Austria. With reference to current socio-political events and media debates taboo subjects of the Second Republic were portrayed with the means of satire and parody: the failed denazification after 1945 and the consequent continuing effects of a widespread antisemitic Nazi ideology in Austria. The comedians parodied politicians who advocated for the amnesty and the concerns of former Nazis, caricatured German national and antisemitic individuals and organisations, themed the failed denazification and debunked antisemitic resentments and trivialisations of the Holocaust. However, the focus of the cabaret was, as selected examples will show, less on a confrontation with Nazi crimes, in particular the mass murder of the European Jews, but rather in demonstrating personnel continuities of former Nazis and their unwavering Nazi sentiments.

„Ez a lux megeszen bennünket”

A különbség politikája és a társadalmi integráció

Author(s): Gyöngyi Schwarcz / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 3/2016

Berta Péter: Fogyasztás, hírnév, politika. Az erdélyi gábor romák presztízsgazdasága. Budapest, MTA Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont Néprajztudományi Intézet, 2014, 728 p.

„Facing a crisis unparalleled in history“ - Jüdische Reaktionen auf den Holocaust aus New York, 1940 bis 1945

Author(s): Elisabeth Gallas / Language(s): German Issue: 2/2014

Der Beitrag beschreibt und analysiert die Tätigkeiten zweier Expertenkommissionen für jüdische Politik und Gegenwartsanalyse, die 1940 und 1941 in New York entstanden. Am Research Institute on Peace and Post War Problems sowie am Institute of Jewish Affairs trafen sich jüdische Akteurinnen und Akteure, die auf Grundlage verschiedener Erfahrungen der Zwischenkriegszeit politische Strategiepapiere für den Umgang mit der apokalyptischen Gegenwart von der Vernichtung der europäischen Juden entwickelten. In der Tradition osteuropäischen Minderheitenschutzpolitik und dem jüdischen Abwehrkampf der Weimarer Republik stehend, versuchten sie Möglichkeiten der Rettung, aber auch der Zukunft jüdischer Existenz zu diskutieren. Dabei entstanden weitreichende Dokumentationen und Berichte zur Realität des Nationalsozialismus, die in ihrer Aussagekraft für die Frage nach der unmittelbaren Wirkung des Ereignisses auf die Zeitgenossen bedeutsam sind und davon zeugen, wie zeitgleich zu Krieg und Vernichtung in Amerika versucht wurde, zu handeln, zu verstehen, zu berichten und die Erinnerung an die Opfer zu bewahren ebenso wie neues jüdisches Leben nach der Katastrophe gestaltbar zu machen.

„Félzsidó" sorsérzések és sorsjavaslatok – egy Nobel-díj kapcsán (vallomás)

Author(s): György Fekete / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2003

György Fekete has written a “confession” as a reaction to Imre Kertész’s award and its reception – we have received several such essays, and we will publish them anon. Fekete’s confession sheds light upon the trauma of non-discussion.

„Ghetto beze zdi” – od wykluczenia do Terezína

Author(s): Joanna Brodniewicz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 12/2017

Dana Kasperová, Výchova a vzdělávání židovských dětí v protektorátu a v ghettu Terezín, Filozofická Fakulta Univerzity Karlovy, Praha 2010, 224 s. Książkę Dany Kasperovej Výchova a vzdělávání židovských dětí v protektorátu a v ghettu Terezín opublikowało Wydawnictwo Wydziału Filozoficznego Uniwersytetu Karola w serii „Humanitas”, poświęconej naukom społecznym i edukacji. Choć ukazała się ona parę lat temu, warto o niej napisać, gdyż podjęte zagadnienie opracowane zostało niezwykle rzetelnie, wieloaspektowo, na podstawie różnorodnych źródeł. W 2011 roku publikację doceniła Rada Naukowa Uniwersytetu Karola, przyznając autorce Nagrodę Rektora za najlepszą pracę naukową, podręcznik i skrypt roku.

„Gniew” Boga według św. Tomasza z Akwinu

Author(s): Stanisław T. Zarzycki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 33/2018

The article starts with the question: Can God be angry with man? In attempting to explore the issue of God’s wrath. The problem of knowing God is taken as the point of departure. The existential “otherness” between God and man is one reason why God’s emotionality, including anger, cannot be discussed in isolation but only by analogy to man’s anger. Therefore, the explication of God’s “wrath” demands first of all asynthetic presentation of man’s anger, including its origins, types and functions. In the second half of the article, the author presents the notion of God’s wrath in a metaphorical sense, shedding some light upon its object and purpose. He explains the nature of God’s wrath toward pagans, who relied on human wisdom, and then toward Jews, who placed their trust in the value of the Law of Moses. The wrath of Christ is shown within the framework of the mystery of incarnation, the reality of the humanity of Christ, and His attitude toward certain categories of people. In its conclusion, the article first presents the way of “mitigating” God’s wrath, according to Aquinus, through the satisfaction for the sins of humanity performed by Christ in His passion and the sacrifice of the cross, and then compares this interpretation of overcoming God’s “wrath” with the viewpoints of other theologians.

„Ha látszólag egészen másról beszélek, akkor is Auschwitzról beszélek” (esszé)

Author(s): Maria Janion / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2009

According to Polish scholars Imre Kertész has had a far more serious reception in Poland than in Hungary. Perhaps the question is difficult to investigate but Maria Janion in her essay entitled „Even if I seem to be talking of something else entirely I am still talking about Auschwitz” seems to support this view, as Imre Kertész himself agreed, much touched by reading the translation of Janion’s article in manuscript.

„Helf uns lieber Gott …" Zur Entdeckung eines einzigartigen Holocaustdenkmals am Wiener Zentralfriedhof

Author(s): Tim Corbett / Language(s): German Issue: 2/2019

This essay recounts a jouney of scholarly discovery in a brief and freely anecdotal form relating to a unique but hitherto almost completely unnoticed Holocaust memorial at Vienna’s Central Cemetery – a rabbinical gravehouse that is covered in ,petitions‘ by Viennese Jews from the period of the Shoah. The essay aims thereby not least of all to showcase the largely neglected and sometimes extremely difficult study of gravestones as historiographic sources. It offers a brief excursion into the Chassidic practice of leaving written petitions at rabbinical graves as an attempt to account for the origins of the ,graffiti‘ at this particular grave house, aiming finally thereby to garner greater public attention for this unique Holocaust memorial as well as for the largely still unrealised potential of Vienna’s Jewish cemeteries to serve as cultural and sociohistorical archives.

„IAȘII SUB CUȚITUL HAHAMULUI”. ANTISEMITISM ECONOMIC ÎN PROHIBIȚIA CĂRNII TRIF (1867−1868)

Author(s): Mihai Chiper / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 52/2015

The present study is a page of economic micro-history of the city of Iași, focused on one of the most acute problems in the public agenda: the control of the beef market by the Jewish traders. The prohibition of the treif and kosher meat – the latter generically called in those days “passed through the hakham’s knife” –, an economic and social experiment implemented in Iași over a period of 10 months between 1867 and 1868, was the result of the decisions made by the local authorities under the pressure of the Romanian bourgeoisie. From a larger perspective, this action marked the enforcement of the idea of economic nationalism, which aimed, among other things, at taking the control from the hands of the Jewish entrepreneurs. By using the anti-Semitism entailed by the ritual of the kosher kitchen, prescribing differences in the food area and inevitably raising social, cultural and political barriers between the Jews and the non-Jews, the local authorities inflicted heavy losses to the Jewish businesses. Mainly, these dealt with the reorganization of the market on anti-competitive bases, laying on a legislation that represented a combined form of boycott, prohibition and segregation of consumption, on ethnic and religious criteria. From the perspective of the local officials, Romanians could not be humbled by being given a product that the Jews deemed inferior and impure (the treif meat), a fact established under the decisions of the city council of Iași. The results of the prohibition had a major impact upon the financial status of both the Romanian and the Israeli communities, leading to an artificial food crisis and to a social revolt situation. Forced by a powerful economic failure, the authorities gave up the anti-Semite economic policies, going back to the principles of free competition.

„Izraelici czynili to, co złe w oczach Pana” (Sdz 2,11). Teologiczne aspekty upadku w Księdze Sędziów

Author(s): Dariusz Dziadosz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2018

The theme of the article is the Biblical concept of the ‘Fall’ elaborated by the Deuteronomic writers and theologians of Israel in the period of the Babylonian exile of the Jewish people (597-538 BC). The presentation of the theme is referred to the source material found in the Book of Judges, in which a theological vision of the ‘Fall’ is the main motif. The Deuteronomic editor of the Book of Judges presents the problem in question in the context of the difficult period of the history of his people, presenting a multi-layered conception of the fall of the human being, which is reflected in the religious, moral, social, and political aspects of the history of the Jewish people, as well as in the lives of particular Israelites. The paper comprises a synthetic review of the Biblical concepts related to the problems of the ‘Fall’ and reflects on the fundamental principle of Judaism, namely, the doctrine of Divine retribution. Against such theological background, selected parts of the source material, most representative of the theme in question, have been discussed.

„Jak pamiętamy, tak będziemy pamiętani”. Sztuka Janusza Marciniaka wobec Zagłady

Author(s): Renata Rogozińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2016

The interest in the tragedy of Shoah demonstrated by Janusz Marciniak, although not devoid of personal motivations, coincided with the emergence of art conceived as “a discourse about the past”. German genocide treated as the most grievous crisis of history and rationalism is the object of a particularly in-depth debate, not merely artistic but also historical, philosophical, and sociological. Today, grief and commemoration of the Holocaust continue to function in Poland as a constant element of culture. Contrary to his oeuvre from the last two decades of the twentieth century, whose characteristic features include a considerable dose of painterly expression, Marciniak avoids affectation in his works dedicated to the Holocaust and is concerned with concise statements. Instead of an art of “the cry and suffering”, revealing the presence of fear, dread, and catastrophe, he proposes the poetic of calmness and reflections, and prefers to the artistic experiment the transparency of the document, the discipline of the text, and finally, the digital image, which became helpful in ridding the gesture of all rhetorical features, depersonalizing the visual stratum, and freeing activity via the image. Both in his undertakings pursued in the building of the public swimming pool in Poznań – originally a synagogue, and in monument projects and realizations an evocative visual effect was created with the assistance of simple means of expression and lucid metaphors. Due to their transparency they referred the recipient to his previous knowledge about the Holocaust and the life of the Jews in Polish lands, to the stories and images carried by all of us. The most essential has not been said, presented or enacted. It came into existence “between” and lasted outside all words. The works of the Poznań-based artist dealing with the Holocaust thus became part of a discourse about the “non-presentability of the Holocaust”, initiated by Theodor Adorno’s famous declaration about writing poetry after the barbarity of Auschwitz.

„Jedna z najdonioślejszych epok w życiu Żydów”. Kongres Żydów Amerykańskich w Filadelfii (15–18 grudnia 1918 roku)

Author(s): Dariusz Jeziorny / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2018

The Congress of American Jews began its activities as an organization established to represent all Jews living in the United States during the Congress in Philadelphia. On December 15–18, 1918, a meeting of 400 delegates representing all Jewish political parties and social groups in the USA took place. It aroused great hopes because new opportunities were opening up for the Jews to resolve the Palestinian question, the main Zionist project, and to guarantee equal rights for Jewish minorities in East-Central Europe. The article answers questions about how the Congress of American Jews was convened. How did the main political groups of Jews in the USA respond to it? What was the subject of the debate? What decisions were made? And then how were they implemented and what was the future of the initiative launched in Philadelphia? Answers to these questions will allow us to draw a conclusion as to the importance of the December congress in the history of Jews in the USA and whether it fulfilled its tasks. // Kongres Żydów Amerykańskich jako organizacja mająca na celu reprezentowanie wszystkich Żydów zamieszkujących Stany Zjednoczone zapoczątkował swoją działalność od zjazdu w Filadelfii. W dniach 15–18 grudnia 1918 r. doszło do spotkania 400 delegatów reprezentujących wszystkie żydowskie stronnictwa polityczne i grupy społeczne w USA. Budził on ogromne nadzieje, ponieważ przed Żydami otwierały się nowe możliwości co do rozwiązania kwestii palestyńskiej, głównego projektu syjonistów, a także zagwarantowania równych praw mniejszościom żydowskim w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej. W artykule została udzielona odpowiedź na pytania o to, jak doszło do zwołania Kongresu Żydów Amerykańskich. Jak ustosunkowały się do niego główne ugrupowania polityczne Żydów w USA? Co było przedmiotem obrad? Jakie decyzje podjęto? A następnie w jaki sposób je zrealizowano i jakie były dalsze losy inicjatywy zapoczątkowanej w Filadelfii? Odpowiedzi na powyższe kwestie pozwolą sformułować wniosek co do tego, jaką wagę miał grudniowy kongres w dziejach Żydów w USA oraz czy wypełnił stawiane przed nim zadania.

„Jestem sobie piękną dziewczyną, czerwone nici przędę” – genderowe odczytanie obrazu kobiecości w żydowskich pieśniach ludowych

Author(s): Joanna Lisek / Language(s): Polish Issue: 31/2013

The article offers a gender reading of Yiddish folk songs: lullabies, family songs, love songs, mikveh songs, lyrical dialogues between mothers and daughters. Placed in their cultural context, they are analyzed from the perspective of the female subjectivity they express. Numerous Yiddish folk songs emerged among women, who also recorded and transmitted many of them. Alongside tkhines (women’s prayers in Yiddish), folk songs constitute the most important sphere of female literary expression before the emergence of modern Yiddish literature. By means of simple forms they describe typical gender roles of a daughter, bride, wife and mother, as well as an agunah (deserted wife); quite often they also contain social criticism of the constraints these roles imposed upon them.

„Kamienie niepokoją się i stają się agresywne”. Holokaust w świetle ekokrytyki

Author(s): Aleksandra Ubertowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 25/2015

The article is an attempt to apply the theoretical and analytical tools derived from ecocriticism and the environmental studies, in the analyses of the literature of the Holocaust. The author proposes a thesis that a full recognition of the role of non-human factors (non-humans), such as nature, landscape, climate, plants and animals became only possible after the anthropocentric paradigm in the humanities have been overcome and a new, supra-species kind of “agency”—elaborated from the theory of Brunon Latour—became widespread. The principal part of the essay contains the analyses of the role of landscape, organic and inorganic nature in the autobiographical prose of Piotr Rawicz, Henryk Grynberg and Wilhelm Dichter. In all of the studied writings nature assumes the function of an ethical subject and additionally the role of anti-historical narration.

„Ki itt belépsz...”. Valkó László kiállítása elé

Author(s): János Weiss / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 1/2013

A kiállításra érkezőt egy hatalmas diptichon fogadja, egy női és egy férfiarc, alig-alig felismerhetően, mintha a vászon furcsán meggyûrődött volna, talán a festés előtt, de az is lehet, hogy utána. A két portré tekintete keresztezi egymást. Ez szinte arra ösztönzi a látogatót, hogy álljon be ebbe a keresztezési pontba. Ezzel az invitálással fogadja (a művész és a kurátor) a kiállítás a látogatóit. Te, aki itt belépsz, egy életműkiállítással találkozol, Valkó László kaposváribudapesti- pécsi festőművész és grafikus kiállí - tásával.

„Klin” Tuwima: strategie przeżycia polsko-żydowskiego poety

Author(s): Giovanna Tomassucci / Language(s): Polish Issue: 4/2014

Tuwim’s approach to the “Jewish question” has already been analyzed by Polish and foreign scholars. The article is intended to consider some “survival strategies” of the Polish poet from a slightly different angle. In Poland, in the period between the wars Jewish writers were persuaded to accept total polonization and a rejection of their ethnic identity; yet, at the same time they often suffered rejection from the circles of Polish artists. Any attempt of highlighting their Jewish identity or even a slight interest in Jewish culture incited brutal Jew-bashings. Tuwim considered his being a Polish Jew not only as a fact to be proud of, but also as an opportunity for engaging with self-criticism. He painfully felt the Jewish question as “a powerful wedge cleaving [his own] worldview”. However, like many other Polish-Jewish writers he masked its enduring presence in his own psyche, constructing his public persona through a process of self-fashioning. This paper tries to follow the traces of this “wedge” in Tuwim’s works: from poems supposedly having nothing to do with the “Jewish question”, to encrypted allusions to the great Yiddish writers, from his relentless questioning of all forms of intolerance and nationalist rhetoric, to his conviction that a new poetic language could “reform the world” and become a homeland for all readers regardless of their nationality.

„Lost everyday life" – problems using materials diaries in research on occupational everyday life, based on the example of Krakow – observations on the margins of the study

Author(s): Anna Czocher / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2014

Materials about the nature of personal relationships are an important source of information about everyday life. This article bring information on daily life and attention is focused on the city of Krakow. In addition leading themes, personal relationships contain a lot of information about the difficulties with the supply and quality of housing, the attitude towards the changes taking place in the city, functioning within the official public life and privacy. The purpose of this article is not to criticize source materials such as memoirs, or reflections on the formation and functioning of the memory of the war and occupation.

„Ma ono na twarzy grymas dojrzałego i gorycz pokrzywdzonego […] – nie ma dzieciństwa”. Przemiany ról dzieci w rodzinie w getcie warszawskim

Author(s): Maria Ferenc Piotrowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2015

The author analyses fragments of testimonies about the Warsaw ghetto regarding children’s family relations. The article describes the demographic transformations that changed the social structure, which forced the families into functional adjustments. The most important change was the forcing of groups, which had not worked, that is children, to earn money. The article presents the consequences of those transformations for family relations and analyses the experience of childhood and parenthood in the ghetto.

„Meine Familie hatte es gut in Auschwitz“ - Das Leben der Lager-SS in Auschwitz-Birkenau nach Dienstschluss

Author(s): Anna-Raphaela Schmitz / Language(s): German Issue: 2/2018

For SS personnel, the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp was a workplace and residence. This article focuses on the lives of the male perpetrators after official hours and explores what influence this had on their work within the camp complex and vice versa. Family structures as well as comradeship among perpetrators were meant to help maintain a subjectively experienced sense of ‘normality’. Retrospectively, it seems difficult to imagine that the SS families managed to have a ‘normal’ life in close proximity to the concentration camp. They benefited from the amenities of the infrastructure that developed around the camp complex. They often took advantage of the practice of robbery and appropriation of the prisoners’ goods. Since work life and private life in Auschwitz-Birkenau were intertwined in this way, the Holocaust and the mass crimes should also be examined from this perspective.