"Já jsem nikdy nebyl moc odvážný člověk, ale někdy jsem tu svoji zbabělost překonal"

Bedřich Loewenstein v rozhovoru s Kateřinou Čapkovou

Author(s): Katerina Capková / Language(s): Czech / Issue: 1-2/2018

The conversation between Bedřich Loewenstein and historian Kateřina Čapková, who prepared it for publication, took place in July 2013 in Berlin. In the interview, Loewenstein is talking about his Czech-German-Jewish family roots, recalls his difficult childhood with his mother in the German-occupied Prague, war time emigration of his father and brothers, or studies at the Faculty of Arts and History of the Charles University and the conflict resulting in his expulsion, his work at the Institute of History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and his dismissal in the early 1970s, his employment at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, which he made use of to facilitate transfers of sensitive documents between local dissidents and Czechoslovak exiles. He also touches upon his intellectual inspirations at the time when he was a teenager, or the morally questionable behavior of some of his colleagues among Czech historians.

"La revolution nationale" du maréchal Pétain dans les documents diplomatiques bulgares (le 17 juin 1940 - le 11 novembre 1942)

Author(s): Hristo Milkov / Language(s): French / Issue: 4/1995

"Without One Tree, a Forest Will Stay a Forest" by Dagmara Drzazga As a Religious and Historical Documentary

Author(s): Katarzyna Citko / Language(s): English / Issue: 24/2014

Katarzyna Citkos article is an analysis of Dagmara Drzazga’s film Bez jednego drzewa las lasem zostanie (Without One Tree, a Forest Will Stay a Forest, 2012), an example of a religious and historical documentary. The article describes the film’s depiction of the tragic fate of Jan Macha, a priest who during the Nazi occupation of Poland organized help for victims of German oppression as a co-founder of the Scout organization Konwalia (Lilly). For his work, he was arrested and executed in a prison in Katowice by means of a guillotine that was installed there in 1941. The article also analyses film-making techniques characteristic to documentaries, as well as the specific forms of expression which situate Drzazga’s work in the realm of religious cinema. These documentary techniques include combining photos and archival documentaries, interviews with people who knew Macha, and the opinions of experts, such as historians, clergymen and journalists. Other interesting techniques employed by the director make it possible to describe the film as belonging to religious cinema of the transcendental style, as described by Paul Schrader, which abandons unnecessary suspense in favor of poetic images; focuses on the dynamics and drama of the events rather than an in-depth psychological analysis of characters’ motivations; interweaves first and third person narration, which is carried out by means of both voice over and by people speaking in the film; uses suggestive image editing combined with music which employs the theme of Agnus Dei. All of these features helped Drzazga’s interesting and thought-provoking film win a number of awards at international Catholic film festivals.

(Ne)legitimni revizionizam: pravo i (pseudo)istoriografske revizije na zapadu i istoku

Author(s): Vladimir Petrovic / Language(s): Serbian / Publication Year: 0

The contribution is analyzing the legal aspects of historiographical revisionism, in an attempt to highlight the role of the courts in delineating between legitimate historical reevaluation of the past and the denial of essential historical facts, the latter being referred to as negationsim. The experience of Western countries in combating negationism through criminalisation of various forms of denial of mass crimes or through the civil litigation is juxtaposed to the confused postotalitarian dynamics in Eastern Europe and its anarchic reception in the region of the former Yugoslavia.

(Ni)kakav osvrt? Period 1933-1945. iz ugla jednog notara

Author(s): Oliver Vossius / Language(s): Serbian / Issue: 3-4/2016

Author puts forth view that after 1945. the Third Reich became a topic to be reviewed not merely by historians. In the 1960’s lawyers also begin to analyse their own past. Professor Ilse Staff (born in 1928) is at the forefront of this movement. Her book „Judiciary in the Third Reich: A Documentation“, published in 1964, encouraged numerous German lawyers to face the evils of country’s authoritarian past. In his text, Vossius presents results of years of analysing the abuse of German law during Nazi rule. One of the main topics of his research is the role of notaries in the forced appropriation of property from the Jews. He closes his presentation in the following way: „We probably owe gratituted to total defeat of 1945 and the subsequent regime of occupation zones for being at all able to discuss this topic in Germany today. After the initial hesitation, this still lead to the regaining of conscience. I don’t know if world will necessary become a better place in this manner. Fritz Bauer once said „We cannot make Heaven on Earth, but each one of us is capable of contributing to making it Hell“. In this regard, casting a look backwards seems a better option than to overlook or repress such a problem“.

(Nie)pamięć zbiorowa Polaków jako skuteczna regulacja emocji

Author(s): Michal Bilewicz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 6/2016

Bilewicz applies notions borrowed from the psychology of emotions to understand collective (im)memory in Poland, with a particular focus on defensive reactions to new historical data on Poles’ negative behaviour. Based on James Gross’ concept of emotion regulation, Bilewicz elaborates a model of downregulating collective moral emotions (such as guilt and shame). He then applies this model to the debate on the Jedwabne pogrom. He also outlines systematic social psychological studies that support his proposed emotion downregulation model. The article concludes with a discussion of alternative ways of presenting negative history – ways that overcome those defensive emotion regulatory processes.

(Не)видљива места сећања

Author(s): Olga Manojlovic Pintar / Language(s): Serbian / Publication Year: 0

The paper analyses how personalization of tragedy of the participants of WWII was used to strengthen Yugoslav-Soviet ties in the first days after the liberation of Yugoslavia. The text also analyzes the processes of rapprochement and of establishing closer ties between the two countries during 1960s when new forms of political and cultural cooperation were based on renewed remembrance of the courage of the participants in the war. Special attention was devoted to interpretations of WWII in contemporary historiography which unearthed new data and opened new perspectives. Turning to experiences of individuals was suggested as a possibility of drawing conclusions without ideological revisions of the whole history of 20th century.

,,Urodził się na swoje własne i całego świata nieszczęście" – biografia Adolfa Hitlera, która wpłynęła na losy ludzkości

Author(s): Katarzyna Sygulska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 6/2016

The article presents the biography of Adolf Hitler with an interpretation. The author describes his life from birth to joining the Nazi party: life in the family home, after leaving home education and relationships with other people. The Development describes the critical events in Hitler's life - the death of his father and mother, inaccessibility to study the outbreak of the First World War and becoming a soldier, and participation in a Nazi meeting and joining the DAP. The author also presents impact of Hitler on German history and the world's story. She says that dealing with the topic of Nazism is important. The conclusions derived from history can help create a better reality.

15 March 1939 and the occupation of Prague Castle

Author(s): Pavel Zeman / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 0

The occupation of the Czech lands in March 1939 and Adolf Hitler’s stay in Prague on 15 and 16 March 1939 have been described in both specialist and memoir literature. Yet new archival materials relating to these events are still emerging. These include the report on the occupation of Prague Castle from May 1939 by JUDr. Karel Strnad, an official of the President’s Office, and two German documents: on President Emil Hácha’s return from Berlin on 15 March 1939 and on Adolf Hitler’s stay at Prague Castle.

1945. Kpaj или нови почетак?

Author(s): / Language(s): English,Croatian,Serbian / Publication Year: 2016

Свет je 2015. прославио 70. годишњицу од завршетка Другог светског рата. Ha иницијативу др Драгана Алексића Институт за новију историју Србије je решио да се придружи обележавању овог значајног датума издавањем једног зборника научних радова који не би био само пригодног карактера, него би представљао и научни допринос јубилеју. Мени je припала част да будем уредник тог зборника, a моја идеја о томе како би он требало да изгледа вртела се око године 1945. као преломнице: времена када се завршавао рат и када je почињало ново раздобље. Завршетак Другог светског рата je, у још много већој мери него завршетак Првог, означавао и крај једног старог, предратног света. После Првог светског рата нестала су три царства, настао je низ нових држава, демократија и право народа на самоопредељење постали су општеприхваћени... Крај Првог светског рата, посејао je, међутим, и семе следећег светског покоља. Он je био неупоредиво већи него претходни или било који други ратни сукоб у историји, a његов крај je створио свет какав људи који су живели 1914. никако не би препознали. Европа je била опустошена, фактички подељена између две победничке суперсиле, док су старе европске силе биле губитници или само формални победници: убрзо после Другог светског рата, a добрим делом захваљујући њему, колонијална царства Велике Британије и Француске почеће да се убрзано мрве, изродивши углавном tokom две прве послератне деценије свет какав данас познајемо. [...]

60 godina od završetka Drugog svjetskog rata: kako se sjećati 1945. godine

Author(s): / Language(s): Bosnian / Publication Year: 2006

Ovaj Zbornik radova je rezultat konferencije koju je Institut za istoriju u Sarajevu organizirao 12. i 13. maja 2005. povodom 60 godina od završetka Drugogsvjetskog rata. Smatrali smo da je šezdeset godina od završetka Drugog svjetskog rata prilika da se o tome događaju povede naučna rasprava iz perspektive onoga što je slijedilo u kasnijem povijesnom razdoblju.

75. rocznica akcji „Reinhardt”

Author(s): Dariusz Libionka,Jacek Leociak / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 13/2017

W nocy z 16 na 17 marca 1942 r. o godzinie 22.00 getto w Lublinie zostało otoczone przez SS i formacje pomocnicze1. Na zaciemnionych ulicach włączono oświetlenie. Przedstawiciele Policji Bezpieczeństwa zakomunikowali zebranym pospiesznie członkom Judenratu decyzję o przesiedleniu większości mieszkańców, wyjąwszy posiadaczy wydanych tydzień wcześniej kart pracy. Mieli oni zostać przeniesieni do wydzielonej części getta. Pozostali mieli podlegać deportacji. Wszelkie próby uchylania się od wywózki miały być karane śmiercią. Z miejsca przystąpiono do realizacji tego planu. Oprawcy wdzierali się do mieszkań, wypędzając zdezorientowanych Żydów na ulice. Zastrzelono kilkadziesiąt osób, a 1500 zapędzono na rampę kolejową.

99. SS-Standarte. Vznik, organizace a činnost znojemského pluku Allgemeine-SS1

Author(s): Jan Zumr / Language(s): Czech / Issue: 27/2015

The study analyses the creation, organisation and activities of the 99th SS-Standarte, one of 126 regiments of the Allgemeine-SS established on the territory of Southern Moravia and the north-eastern part of Lower Austria following the occupation of the borderlands. A general introduction to the Allgemeine-SS is followed by an outline of the incorporation of those parts of Southern Moravia into Lower Austria and a brief characterisation of the SS in Austria. The author analyses the composition of the 99th SS-Standarte, the location of individual units and the command structure, introducing the most important officers. He also describes service in the Allgemeine-SS and the Znojmo regiment, which predominantly involved doing sports, ideological training and participation in Nazi celebrations. With the outbreak of war most members of the 99th SS-Standarte were transferred to the Wehrmacht and armed SS units. The remaining men had two main tasks: the recruitment of young men to the Waffen-SS and looking after conscripts’ families. The study concludes with an exploration of Czechoslovak (and Austrian) judiciary’s post-war efforts to punish members of the Znojmo Allgemeine-SS regiment.

A befejezetlen küldetés

Jan Skarskiról

Author(s): András Pályi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 2/2017

A Case of Successful Transitional Justice

Fritz Bauer and his Late Recognition in the Federal Republic of Germany

Author(s): Jakub Gortat / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2017

Germany is an example of a country which has been implementing transitional justice for decades and is still active in this field. What is more, contemporary Germans have recently come to terms with their not-so-distant past and their negligence in this area by showing the falsehood, backwardness, and injustice as negative foundations of the young Federal Republic. This article evokes the person of Fritz Bauer, the prosecutor in the state of Hessen. His struggle for human dignity and the memory of his achievements after his death exemplify an accomplished case of transitional justice and the memory of it. During his lifetime he contributed to bringing to trial numerous Nazi criminals, even at the cost of habitual threats and disregard. Forgotten for a few decades, Bauer and his legacy have been recently rediscovered and studied. Eventually, Bauer became a movie character and was finally brought back to the collective memory of Germans. The belated, but a well-deserved wave of popularity of Fritz Bauer in the German culture memory proves that reflections on the transitional justice are still topical and important.

A holokauszt a világ emlékezetének gyújtópontjában

Author(s): Aleida Assmann / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 4/2015

A körgyógynapszámos

Author(s): Pál Kádár / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 0

A magyar zsidóság és a fasizmus a marcia su Romától 1938-ig

Author(s): Gábor Andreides / Language(s): Hungarian / Publication Year: 0

A német nemzetiségi és faji politika Magyarországon a II. világháború idején

Author(s): Tibor Dömötörfi / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 01/2016

The chief aim of the foreign minority policies of nazi Germany was to secure the acknowledgement of „völkisch” German minorities as an officially organised ethnic group (Volksgruppe) with autonomy rights. But during World War II the integrative ethnic policy with regard to the Germans was gradually pushed to the background by an exclusion policy which the nazi regime applied to the „inferior” peoples and races, and took the form of prosecution and extermination on the basis of ethnicity and religion. Despite the discriminative „Jewish Laws” (1938, 1939), the Hungarian Jewry lived relatively undisturbed under the regime of governor Miklós Horthy. Dramatic change came in this regard with the German occupation of the country (19 March 1944). Then started the stigmatization, ghettoization and deportation of the Jews – predominantly to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The exact number of martyrs is still hotly debated. According to the most authoritative scholarly opinions, the number of deported Jewish victims can be put to between 440 and 550 thousand. Yet in political parlance and public history the round and symbolic figure of 600 thousand has become rooted. Another debated issue is whether the prosecution by the nazis of the Sintis and Roma was done on racial grounds, or they were treated as so-called anti-social elements. The number of Gypsies deported to extermination camps from Hungary can be put to a couple of thousand. From the late 1930s the claim of instrumentalizing the German minorities in the service of the aggressive foreign political aims of the Third Reich became increasingly evident. In Hungary this role was assumed by the so-called Volksbund (People’s Association of Germans in Hungary). From the start of World War II, a new element in the policies of nazi Germany towards the foreign Germans appeared, which can be termed as the idea of „return” to the Empire („Heim ins Reich”). In order to accomplish the re-settlement plans, the Germans concluded interstate treaties with almost all countries in Europe where German minorities lived. (The agreement with Hungary was signed on 29 May 1940, but it was never put into effect.) In the eastern regions occupied during the war an overt and brutal Germanizing policy was implemented, based on the Generalplan Ost, which had been elaborated in offices of the SS specially assigned to this task. In the foreign policies of the Federal Republic of Germany, especially under the aegis of the Brandtian Ostpolitik, considerable emphasis was put on relations with the states belonging to the former German settlement area, such as Hungary, and on strengthening the bridge-function of those German minorities which had remained there after refuge and deportation in the war.

A nemzeti-legionárius állam ideológus újságírói: a fi lozófus és az antifi lozófus, a történész és a szociológus

Author(s): Ambrus Miskolczy / Language(s): Hungarian / Issue: 02/2014

One of the characteristic traits of Romanian fascism is rooted in the fact that it came to power after the majority of its political élite had been ordered to be killed, without even lipservice to legal formalities, by king Charles II. Having forced the removal of the king, general Antonescu needed mass support, and consequently ceded part of the power to the Iron Guard, alias the Legion of Saint Michael the Archangel. As this measure led to political chaos, the general suppressed the Legion and persecuted its members with all possible means. During the five months of legionary domination, the young literate elite faced the task of defining what exactly the legionary revolution meant. The philosopher Constantin Noica mainly legalized vengeance with his pseudo-theological articles. Cioran, the anti-philosopher, adopted a peculiar tactics by glorifying on the one hand Codreanu, the assassinated leader of the Iron Guard, thereby relativising the greatness of his successor Horia Sima, and writing about Transylvania as Romania’s Prussia on the other hand, thereby strengthening the legitimacy of Sima, himself a Transylvanian. While the legionarism of the historian Petre P. Panaitescu is generally explained by his ambitions, he was in fact guided in his production of stereotyped fascist journalism by his conviction that the contemporary state of Romania’s development was best matched by fascist modernization. Traian Herseni, a great promise of Romanian sociology, began to promulgate primitive racial theory. Paradoxically, all four intellectuals were capable of drawing a more positive program in the 1930s, when the Iron Guard was still excluded from power, than in the period of its political dominance. Yet through their cult of vengeance, leadership and race, all four paved the way before the communists and their cult of class struggle, of the Party and its leader and of the working classes in general. Cioran was alone in reneging on his fascist record, the other three intellectuals gradually found their place in the anti-intellectual intellectual framework of the national communist system.