Problem tożsamości i poczucia lojalności Żydów pochodzących z zaboru pruskiego na przykładzie Alfreda Cohna (1901–1961)

Author(s): Elżbieta Alabrudzińska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2019

So far a very simplified picture of the transformation of the identity of Jews of West Prussia and Poznan land have functioned in the literature on the subject. The impulse to conduct the research on this issue became the publishing of the memories of Alfred Cohn, a typical German Jew, whose life and dramatic decisions show the complexity of the problem of identity and the sense of loyalty of the Jewish population of the territory of the Prussian partition. Alfred Cohn was close to recognizing himself as a German of the Jewish denomination. In 1920, without a shade of doubt, he decided to maintain loyalty to the German state and leave his family town Bydgoszcz, while in 1945 he decided the opposite. In order to clarify these contradictions, an analysis of the emancipation, acculturation and assimilation processes of the Jewish community of the territories of the Prussian partition of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century was conducted. Subsequently, the results of this analysis were compared with studies on the identity of German Jews living in the Second and Third Reich. At least until the 1880s, the Jews of Greater Poland, and West Prussia considered themselves representatives of a separate nation, despite the already advanced process of assimilating German culture, customs and language, and showing loyalty to the German state. The assimilation reached its greatest intensity at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, leading to a strong integration of Jews with German society and the German state. This aggravated Polish-Jewish antagonism, especially in Greater Poland. After some of the lands of the former Prussian partition came under Polish rule, most Jews remained loyal to the German state, treating it as their homeland, and emigrated in the years 1918–1921 along with the majority of the German population. However, despite such decisions, despite the use of German as their mother tongue, and despite demonstrating German patriotism and the intense desire to blend in with German society, it is necessary to show great caution in the case of attempts to recognize the Jews of the Prussian partition only as a religious minority, although more than once they have defined themselves this way. In the Reich, Jews did not manage to merge with the German environment, either. They created their own Jewish-German cultural system. Their identity can be described as very specific, heterogeneous and shaped by contradictions and dilemmas. In the territories of the Prussian partition, the process of shaping the identity of German Jews was even more complicated as this community had to function also within the Polish society.

Akcje ratunkowe jako kreator współpracy międzynarodowej w Arktyce do 1945 r.

Author(s): Janusz Lizut / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2014

The article discusses selected rescue operations in the Arctic from a historical perspective. It focuses on events that in practical terms initiated international cooperation in this area. Against the background of the development of rescue techniques and equipment, the history of attempts to increase the chances of survival in extreme conditions is outlined. The author also examines how rescue operations influenced popular awareness, stimulating the creation of a favourable climate for institutional cooperation.

(Od)czytywanie losów żydowskich

Author(s): Natalia Aleksiun / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2020

This text introduces a collection of articles which seek to interpret Jewish ego documents and testimonies, broadly defined. Reading these documents facilitates a process of uncovering intimate threads and problematizing Jewish biographies.

Making Love and Make-Belief: Male Sexual Barter in Dov Freiberg’s To Survive Sobibor

Author(s): Raphael Utz / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

After escaping the German mass killing facility in Sobibór on 14 October 1943, Dov Freiberg and Semyon Rozenfeld survived in hiding near Chelm until the arrival of the Red Army in July 1944. In 1945, Freiberg testified before the Central Jewish Historical Commission, and in 1988, he published his much more extensive memoirs To Survive Sobibor. Both texts cover the period of hiding, during which Freiberg, Rozenfeld and the brothers Dawid and Józef Serczuk were taken in by two women. The two sources reveal an episode of male sexual barter, as the male group established rational relationships with the two women in order to stabilize a precarious situation. By comparing both of Freiberg’s texts, it becomes clear that so-called late testimonies are rich and unjustly underrated source-material.

Jan Rychlík. Češi a Slováci ve 20. století (česko-slovenské vztahy 1945-1992). (Tschechen und Slowaken im 20. Jahrhundert). Electronic Press Bratislava, 1998. 554 p.

Author(s): Teodorichka Gotovska-Henze / Language(s): German Issue: 3-4/2000

Book review

Bulgarisch-deutsche wissenschaftliche Konferenz “Das 20. Jahrhundert. Versuch einer Bilanz” Sofia, 3-4 März 2000

Author(s): Maria Georgieva / Language(s): German Issue: 3-4/2000

Ojczysta edukacja historyczno-krajoznawcza oraz kulturalna w powieściach Zbigniewa Nienackiego o Panu Samochodziku. Książki drukowane, filmy, nowe media

Author(s): Adrian Uljasz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2020

Zbigniew Nienacki (1929—1994) was a very popular writer in the period of the People’s Republic of Poland. What made him a household name then was a series of novels featuring as the main character Pan Samochodzik (‘Mr. Automobile’). The article discusses — based on the content of the said novels and thorough research of the press and internet sources — the value of those books in terms of historical-tourist and cultural education. Also, their reception among readers and viewership of film adaptations were analysed, along with the novels’ availability and popularity in different forms of digital media. The result of such analysis of the said material supports the preliminary thesis of a considerable educational value of the Pan Samochodzik novels and their wide readership, which goes hand in hand with the sustained popularity of a television series Samochodzik i templariusze.

O historykach i folklorystach z drugiej strony Olzy

Author(s): Michael Morys-Twarowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 15/2020

The reviewed book details the fifty-year-long activity of the Folkloristic Section (Sekcja Folklorystyczna) (later transformed into the Ethnological Section [Sekcja Etnograficzna]) and the Regional History Section of the Polish Cultural-Educational Union (Polski Związek Kulturalno-Oświatowy). It is aimed mainly at persons interested in the region of Zaolzie, yet some of the texts may also be referred to as a supplementary material by researchers undertaking broader subjects, such as the operation of national minorities’ associations in communist states, or “from below” visions of regional history.

Noua configurație teritorială post război și dilema militar-strategică a României

Author(s): Carmen Sorina Rîjnoveanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 5-6/2020

The territorial collapse of the summer of 1940 represents a national tragedy whose impact has profoundly shaped the national collective mindset over generations. How exactly can be explained such an outcome and who is to be blamed for the national humiliation of 1940 are questions that continue to generate opinions, debates, and controversies among military historians and specialists. Despite various explanations or hypothesis that can be formulated, it is obvious that the year 1940 represents a collective bankruptcy and a total failure of the state in ensuring its fundamental mission of providing defence and protection of the territory and its population. However, the responsibility of the military needs to be considered in a broader perspective having in view the complexity of Romania’s post-war territorial-strategic geography and the growing systemic uncertainty. Such an analysis reveals the fact that, given the geopolitical realities emerged starting by mid-’30, the country’s security could not be managed through an exclusive military paradigm.

Nicovala germană și barosul sovietic. Pierderea Basarabiei între iluzii naționale și realități geopolitice

Author(s): Manuel Stănescu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/2020

The reality de jure recognized by the Treaty of Trianon collapsed after only 22 years. The shock of the territorial losses from the summer of 1940 is also for the current generations one of the turning points in the history of the Romanian nation. Out of the need not to repeat the mistakes of the past, specialists and public opinion sought to identify the causes that led to the country’s inability to defend itself in the face of political and military aggression. Were the internal factors determining or the geopolitical dynamics of the old continent, especially relations between Germany and the Soviet Union, would it have been impossible to change through a more coherent domestic policy from the point of view of defence capability? Could a skilful diplomacy have protected Romania from the moment of deep crisis of 1940? A complex problem has complex causes; however, let’s try to sketch the geopolitical context in which events took place that led to the loss of Bessarabia and opened a Pandora’s box that will close only in September, with the loss of southern Dobruja.

1940 – rapturile teritoriale. Soarta refugiaților din teritoriile anexate

Author(s): Cerasela Moldoveanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/2020

It has been 80 years since the dramatic year of 1940, when Romania, by the will of the great powers, was forced to cede a third of its territory. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (August 1939) and then the abusive decisions taken by Germany, the USSR and Italy through the Vienna Diktat (August 30, 1940) and the Treaty of Craiova (September 7, 1940) threw Romania into the chaos of history. Hundreds of thousands of refugees and evacuees from the areas occupied by the new rulers suffered the most. Some of them remained, at any risk, on their homeland, while others preferred the road abroad, to be with their brothers in a nation and faith. The Romanian authorities, through the competent institutions – the General Commissariats for Refugees – tried to alleviate their situation, in the most efficient way, allocating generous funds for their integration in the Romanian society. Unfortunately, for the Romanians left in the ceded territories, the situation was rather desperate and extremely dangerous, especially in the northeast of Transylvania and in Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Some of the refugees from Bessarabia returned home in the summer of 1941, when the Romanian army liberated the historical territories annexed by the USSR, and in Transylvania after 1944.

Cedarea Dobrogei de Sud (Cadrilaterului)

Author(s): George Ungureanu / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1-2/2020

The tragic summer of 1940 brought, for Romania, not just the loss of Bessarabia and Northern Bucovina in favour of the Soviet Union and of roughly half of Transylvania to Hungary, but also the retrocession of Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria. The Romanian State had obtained this territory in 1913 appealing to geopolitical justifications. The hereby article briefly presents the main points related to the evolution of this region within interwar Romania, the plans of Romanian and Bulgarian decision-makers in the context of 1938-1940, the conditions surrounding its surrender in the summer of 1940 and the concrete aspects concerning this territorial cession. The sources include numerous Romanian, Bulgarian and Western contributions, newer and older, as well as several documents from Romanian national, diplomatic and military archives. An inseparable part of the drama of the Greater Romania, the cession of Quadrilater nevertheless highlights strong individual characteristics. Similarly, the reasons invoked for obtaining this region during the years of the Balkan Wars and its identity and evolution within Romania, were also distinctive.

The Void Communities: Towards a New Approach to the Early Post-war in Poland and Ukraine

Author(s): Anna Wylegała / Language(s): English Issue: 02/2021

The present article offers a new framework for understanding the early East European post-war that introduces and conceptualizes the idea of “Void Communities.” The core of the argument is that the disappearance of various groups of Others—ethnic, religious, and class—was one of the most important consequences of the Second World War for Central and Eastern Europe, and particularly for Poland and Ukraine. The Void left by those who had disappeared could be described on several levels, such as physical absence, social and economical dysfunctionality, transformation of the social structure and stratification, property transfer, decline of moral values and norms, and changes in local culture and traditions. Based on an extensive oral history research (of more than 150 interviews) and in-depth reading of ego documents, the article prioritizes the first-hand perspective of witnesses and centres on those who remained in the post-war Void Communities after their neighbours had been murdered, deported, resettled, or encouraged to leave semi-voluntarily. While the paper primarily focuses on the historical region of Galicia, now divided between Poland and Ukraine, the source material used to analyze the framework for Void Communities includes documents associated with the entire pre-war Polish Second Republic.

“Good” and “Bad” Workers and the Collapse of the Expected Life Course: The Postwar Working Class in Detroit (USA) and Łódź (Poland), 1940s–1980s

Author(s): Agata Zysiak / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2021

Two former industrial giants on opposite sides of the globe—the well-known and extensively studied city of Detroit (USA) and the lesser-known but regionally important city of Łódź (Poland)—developed in historically differing economic and political circumstances but have much in common. In both cases, postwar prosperity brought the working class to the center of the social imaginary, resulting in the emergence of a corporate welfare state on one side of the Atlantic Ocean and a socialist one on the other. Thus, two “workers’ El Dorados” were based on almost opposite lifestyles, values and models of society, and each lasted for no more than one generation. Changes in industrial structures and locations, the inflexibility of the mono-industrial giants, and a general shift to late capitalism and the post-Fordist mode of production affected both cities. Workers’ biographies were experienced through the primacy of work as a means of individual, social, and state reproduction. Factory work offered a device for the allocation of social worth and welfare benefits across time in both contexts. The latter is examined by the construct of a “good worker” and the creation of an imagined, expected life course in the postwar welfare projects, as well as the generational division of workers.

The Baltic phoenix

Author(s): Grzegorz Szymborski / Language(s): English Issue: 03 (46)/2021

Anti-Soviet tendencies on the Baltic coast exploded at the time of Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika. The desire for independence and the struggle for historical truth in the Baltic republics spawned social movements which emphasised the statehoods of the Baltic states, deprived as the result of the USSR’s invasion in 1940. With Soviet military bases already present in the suppressed countries since the autumn of 1939, any resistance against an impending conquest was pointless. The states were obliged to make concessions to the overwhelming protector, leading to their forced inclusion into the Soviet Union. Some states, such as Germany and Sweden, accepted that incorporation. The subjugation was nonetheless disregarded by many countries, including the United States which strongly opposed the invasion, claiming they accept this new situation de facto but not de jure.

TER MINASSIAN, TALINE. EREVAN: LA CONSTRUCTION D’UNE CAPITALE À L’ÉPOQUE SOVIÉTIQUE

Author(s): Alexander Formozov / Language(s): Russian Issue: 1/2010

Review of: Александр Формозов - TER MINASSIAN, TALINE. EREVAN: LA CONSTRUCTION D’UNE CAPITALE À L’ÉPOQUE SOVIÉTIQUE. RENNES: PRESSES UNIVERSITAIRES DE RENNES, 2007. 269 P. ISBN 978-2-7535-0369-4.

KRONIKA

Author(s): Sigita Žemaitytė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 62/2014

Pastarasis laikas nužymėtas siekiu įamžinti ir kitaip įprasminti miestui ir šaliai reikšmingas vietas, asmenis, laikotarpius. Vytauto Didžiojo universiteto humanitarai inicijuoja vis daugiau projektų (ar talkininkavimo juose) ir sumanymų novatoriškai papasakoti Kauno miesto istorinių objektų bei architektūros savitumo istoriją. Kaunas, kuriam laikui nepelnytai nustumtas į pašalę ir pažymėtas provincialumo žyme, pamažu atgauna savo kaip pirmosios Lietuvos Respublikos sostinės ir lietuviško moderno lopšio veidą.

Служебное положение медицинской интеллигенции Иваново-Вознесенска на рубеже XIX—XX в.

Author(s): Kirill Evgenievich Baldin / Language(s): Russian Issue: 1/2021

In the context of the pandemic, that has engulfed the worldpresently, scientists’ interest in the history of medicine in different historical periods is growing. The role of doctors in the life of society at different times and in different countries, in particular in pre-revolutionary Russia, becomes very relevant topic now. The purpose of the article is to identify and summarize the main features of the official position of the medical intelligentsia in Ivanovo- Voznesensk — large industrial city in Russia at the turn of the 19th — 20th century. The purpose is realized through the following tasks: to determine the special education, received by the medical intelligentsia; to analyze the algorithm of assignment of ranks to doctors in pre-revolutionary Russia; to characterize the features of the service of medical intelligentsia in wartime; to study the reward system for doctors. The author used special methods of historical research — historical-systemic and historical-comparative methods. Doctors depended on the state machine, being partially embedded in it. The extent of this dependency was different. Doctors of the state department depended entirely on it, while the situation of city and Zemstvo doctors looked freer, local governments usually was sympathetic to the needs of health care and most often did not skimp on the payment of doctors. Factory doctors felt not so free, because they depended on the whims of private entrepreneurs. It should be taken into account, that doctors often worked at several jobs, for example in the city hospital, in the factory reception and in school at the same time. During the wars, all doctors, regardless of their official position, considered themselves mobilized and honestly performed patriotic duty.

Эволюция образа трудовой деятельности населения в газете «Правда» (1946–1953 годы)

Author(s): M. A. Klinova / Language(s): Russian Issue: 31/2020

This article deals with the reconstruction of the content and specificity of the image of standard labor activity in the USSR as constructed in the newspaper Pravda from 1946 to 1953. The use of quantitative and qualitative methods (content analysis and discourse analysis) reveals explicit and implicit dynamics of this formal image of labor. The first and fifteenth editions from each month were sampled for a total of 192 issues. The analysis concludes that “correct” employment strategy of the population, as it was developing in the USSR in the 1930s and was preserved during the 1940s, included selfless and joyful labor for the good of the Motherland. The welfare of private citizens was shaped by its close dependence on the country’s welfare, which was paramount in relation to personal benefits. Changes in the political situation and trajectory of policies in 1953 led to shifts in labor policy, including a decrease labor complexity, heroism, and labor of joy experienced in the labor process. One result of (but not motive for) the normalization of labor was a rise in personal incomes, and income was not determined by the capabilities of the state or the worker’s overall labor contribution. Concern for improving the welfare of the population was increasingly interpreted as the country’s primary task.

Исламский и тюркский факторы в нацистской пропаганде на оккупированной территории России (1941–1944 годы)

Author(s): Boris Nikolaevich Kovalev,Kiril Feferman / Language(s): Russian Issue: 31/2020

The article deals with several topics raised in Nazi Germany’s propaganda about Islamic and Turkic issues directed at the population of occupied northwest territories in 1941–1944. The article analyzes newspapers published by the occupation administration in this region, as well as the published secondary sources. On the face of it, these topics were of little interest to local readers, yet they occupied a sizable place among topics handled by the media run by the occupation regime. A special emphasis was laid on familiarizing readers with conditions of Islam in the Crimea, the only Soviet area with a sizable Muslim population that was occupied by Germany. The region was showcased by Nazi Islamic-themed propaganda. In addition, propaganda also dealt with “unbearable” conditions of Muslims in the Soviet hinterland (Central Asia), and pan-Islamic issues, such as the activities of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hadj Amin al-Husseini. One idea ran through all these themes: the natural support of Islam and Muslims for Nazi Germany, and the equally natural antagonism between Islam/Muslims and the Soviet state. German propaganda also put a premium on the Turkic factor by emphasizing the role played by Turkey, a country spiritually close both to Germany and Soviet Muslims of Turkic descent.