HOLOKAUSTAS LIETUVOJE: ŽVILGSNIS Į VAKARŲ ISTORIOGRAFIJOS DISKURSĄ

Author(s): Stanislovas Stasiulis / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 40/2017

The main aim of this article is to discuss the Holocaust in Lithuania as it appears in the discourse of Western historiography. This aim and the structure of this article have two goals: first, to discuss the Western historiographic perspective on the Holocaust during the period of the Cold War; second, to review the shifts in the historiography after the Cold War and the Fall of the Soviet Union. The first chapter of this article underlines that during the first period, the historiography of the Holocaust was mainly based on the sources of the Trials of the Major War Criminals (the Nuremberg Trials) and the legal proceedings during the subsequent years. This provided the foundation for historians to write studies about the Holocaust. However, these studies focused mainly on the criminal character of the Nazi party, the military and security forces, while the voices of the victims were silenced – at least until the Eichmann Trial; in addition, the question about the collaboration of locals in the Final Solution during the German occupation was also kept out. It should be underlined that this narrative was quite suitable for those Lithuanians who lived in Western Europe or the US, as it mainly stressed the guilt of the Nazi Germans. The Fall of the Soviet Union initiated a significant shift in the research of the Holocaust in Lithuania. The main factor of this shift was the opening of the archives in Eastern Europe, which provided the conditions to carry out research on the Holocaust in Lithuania. These studies made new conclusions about the relations between Lithuanians and Jews, anti Semitism in Lithuania, the anti-Soviet underground and its anti-Semitic attitudes, the first pogroms in German-occupied Lithuania during the first days of the War against the Soviet Union etc. This shift pushed the topic of the Holocaust in Lithuania to the top of the priorities of the agenda of Western historians and, in the broader sense, of the whole research centered around the persecution and eradication of the European Jews.

Między polityką a przemilczeniem – pamięć o Zagładzie na Białorusi 1991-2017

Author(s): Roman Romantsov / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2017

The article presents the analysis of the Holocaust in the memory policy in Belarus in 1991-2017. In the paper there was analyzed the policy of the President and Ministry of Education to the Holocaust. The article describes the activities of non-governmental institutions and museums in the protection of the Holocaust memory. The author characterizes how Holocaust memory is reflected in documentary films and contemporary art.

Unwillingly on the Road: Forced Jewish Migration at the Municipal Level in Slovakia (1939-1945)

Author(s): Michala Lônčíková / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2021

Forced Jewish migration in the Slovak State (1939-1945) during World War II is usually seen from the perspective of the deportations to the Nazi concentration camps. In fact, unwilling migration trajectories of the persecuted Jews, even within the contemporary Slovak territory, were copying gradual development of the anti-Semitic policy and its direct consequences on the everyday Jewish life in the wartime period. Numerous members of the Jewish community had experienced forced – in some cases also multi-layered – displacement both at the municipal and inner-state level even before the first transport left from Slovakia to Auschwitz on 25th March 1942. Main aim of this paper is to analyse the trajectories of the forced Jewish migration at urban level, especially personal and spatial consequences of limiting the Jewish living space caused by the restriction to live in and rent apartments in designated zones such as in the localities re-named after Adolf Hitler and Andrej Hlinka, founder and first leader of the Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party.

Illiberalism and Antisemitism under Post-Communism

Author(s): Michael Shafir / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2021

Illiberalism dates way back to the aftermath of the French Revolution but its post-communist resurrection may be approximately traced to the second decade of the new millennium. After reviewing several attempts to analyze the phenomenon and its causes, the article underlines the oft-neglected Carl Schmitt roots of the friend-enemy boundary common toilliberals such as Viktor Orbán, Jarosław Kaczyński, Benjamin Netanyahu and DonaldTrump. While illiberalism does not necessarily trigger antisemitism, it might foster it. Shared illiberal values may quash differences in attitudes towards antisemitism and official postures on antisemitism are insufficient to be guided by when examining differences between official and popular discourses.

On Defining the Participatory Museum: The Case of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk

Author(s): Ewa Manikowska,Andrzej Jakubowski / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

This article seeks to contribute to the current debate on the new definition of the “museum” – a debate which led to turmoil at the 2019 ICOM General Assembly in Kyoto. With reference to the case study of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk (MSWW), it analyses the new and very successful genre of the narrative museum, a genre which arguably fulfils the core elements of the definition currently being discussed by ICOM. In this regard, it brings into focus the paramount importance of community involvement in creating and managing narrative museums – an aspect that has been virtually absent in the academic and media debates over the nature of the MSWW and its programme. By pointing out the fragility of the foundations for such participation, based solely on trust between communities, the museum, and state authorities, this article calls for and provides guidance for an academic and institutional redefinition of the narrative museum and the institution of a museum in general.

Synagogue Decorations in Present-Day Ukraine: Practice in Preservation of Cultural and Artistic Heritage

Author(s): Eugeny Kotlyar,Lyudmyla Sokolyuk,Tetiana Pavlova / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2020

There are approximately ten historical synagogue buildings left in Ukraine today which continue, to varying extents, to preserve their original wall paintings and decoration. A number of these were only recently discovered. The attempts underway, beginning in the early 2000s, to preserve as well as uncover old paintings often produce the opposite effect, destroying authentic works. The cultural significance of these historical landmarks requires that they be included in a single international register, along with supervision and an agreed upon preservation program designed individually for each. Synagogue wall paintings will inevitably perish unless ways of transferring this heritage are sought that will move these works to a different and more reliable “medium of cultural memory”. Different, innovative approaches to museum preservation and ways of presenting these works to public view are called for. Among the tried and tested options are: reconstructing old synagogue interiors which contain wall or ceiling paintings; using motifs taken from the original paintings in new works being produced for the Jewish community; and work on exhibition projects, catalogues and two-dimensional reconstruction models.

Military museums in Poland – between the past and the future

Author(s): Dagmara Chylińska,Łukasz Musiaka / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2020

Museums are a constantly developing segment of cultural tourism. Poland is in line with current trends in museums, expanding its offer and adapting it to the requirements of the world of contemporary image culture and multisensory experiences, which is increasingly dominated by technology. The authors of the paper undertook to recognise the specificity of military museums, by conducting a survey of approximately a third of all such institutions in Poland. Due to the subject-matter of their exhibitions, military museums create a broad field of research both in terms of aesthetics and museum practice, as well as the issues of shaping and maintaining collective memory and the identity of the nation. They form a special mirror in which the country’s ideas and aspirations are reflected more often than any real characteristics. In reference to contemporary trends in museums, the article aims to place Polish military museums between locality and universality, education and entertainment, stability and dynamism, knowledge and experience. The results obtained allowed the authors to distinguish three groups of military museums in Poland, as well as indicate conditions conducive to the further development of such attractions in the country.

Towards Inclusive Mnemonic Communities: Re-Visiting Violent Pasts through the Lens of Artistic Memory in Eastern Europe

Author(s): Maria-Alina Asavei / Language(s): English Issue: 58/2021

Remembering a Contentious Past: Resistance and Collaboration in the Former Soviet Union

Author(s): Félix Krawatzek / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2022

The Western outskirts of the former Soviet Union suffered huge levels of destruction during World War II. It is for this reason that the memories of the war in countries such as Belarus and the Baltics have centered on the local opposition to the Nazi occupiers in an attempt to bring societies together after the war. This article compares how Latvia and Belarus have represented their involvement in World War II over time and undertakes an analysis of how young people today perceive of this aspect of their country’s history. Of particular interest is the extent to which young people are prepared to admit the existence of collaboration and whether a persona of moral authority is able to shift how young people assess the need for critical engagement with history. To that end, the study relies on an original survey generated in early 2019, which also enquired into questions related to historical memory. I argue that young Belarusians are, on average, more prepared to acknowledge collaboration than young people in Latvia and that the involvement of a moral authority shifts assessments of history in a decisive way in Belarus only. The results for Latvia stress in particular the persistent divide relating to the country’s two linguistic communities.

ULOGA HISTORIJE I MUZEOLOGIJE U OBRAZOVANJU MLADIH

Author(s): Smajo Halilović / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 6/2008

We are not responsible for our past, but future history... Bosnians should not be afraid of thinking about their future, as well as they should not be obsessed with the past. World history has been written by principles of competition and doctrine of supremacy and dominancy. They would hardly find nation that would be willing to express personal history by principles of universal brotherhood, true equality and nobility of all man and women. That kind of history interpretation requires courage and understanding, characteristics of true adult and civilized people, which human race has not seen yet. Analysing history from perspective of strong and sacrificing peace powers would allow us to develop understanding of motives that stand behind aggresion and genocide, and as the most important, creating peace. The thing that detaches human race is nature and quality of our consciousness: our ability to know that we love, freedom of choice, and that we know we have choice. This three human characteristics-knowledge, love and willingness-enable human beings to overgo the borders that nature has put in front of human beings.

KATRINA SHAWVER, HENRY: A POLISH SWIMMER’S TRUE STORY OF FRIENDSHIP FROM AUSCHWITZ TO AMERICA

Author(s): Marcin Nabożny / Language(s): English Issue: 27/2020

Review of: Katrina Shawver, „Henry: a polish swimmer’s true story of friendship from auschwitz to america“, Ribbon falls press, Phoenix, Arizona 2017, pp. 328, ISBN 978-1-7345729-7-1

Francuzi w hierarchii więźniarskiej Auschwitz‑Birkenau. GIS w badaniach historycznych – wprowadzenie do badań

Author(s): Paulina Chrząszcz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 16/2020

The aim of this article is to identify a research problem concerning the French prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and to discuss preliminary results of a PhD project conducted at the Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences. As planned, the implementation of the project will involve the use of methods offered by widely understood information technologies, such as the Geographic Information System (GIS) and the structural language of SQL queries. Drawing on the actor-network theory, the author focuses her considerations on the French deportees, who were one of the more numerous groups of Auschwitz-Birkenau prisoners. The article outlines a potential research field and presents preliminary results of a study on the Auschwitz II-Birkenau women’s camp. Thanks to the use of information technologies, such as GIS tools, it was possible to map the space of sectors BIa and BIb of Auschwitz II-Birkenau with its particular parts, including barracks, baths, kitchens, latrines, etc. Using raster georeferencing, an image of the camp as it is today was superimposed on an aerial photograph of the sub-camp taken by the Allies in 1944.

Zoltán Tibori Szabó, Frontiera dintre viaţă şi moarte. Refugiul şi salvarea evreilor la graniţa româno-maghiară (1940-1944)

Author(s): Dragomir Ramona / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 6/2007

Review of: Zoltán Tibori Szabó, Frontiera dintre viaţă şi moarte. Refugiul şi salvarea evreilor la graniţa româno-maghiară (1940-1944), Bucureşti, Editura Compania, 2005, 318 p.

Under a Non-Existent Commemorative Plaque

Author(s): Elżbieta Janicka / Language(s): English Issue: 10/2021

The ghetto bench (1937) is emblematic of the process by which anti-Semitism was legalized andinstitutionalized in the interwar Republic of Poland (1918–1939). This text focuses on the failure to include this knowledge in the mainstream narrative, a problem which continues to this day. The lack of an integrated history results from a lack of condemnation, and from the fact that the dominant majority has not broken away from the framework of assumptions of concealed processes and events. After 1989, these assumptions have been additionally celebrated in the cult of interwar Polish statehood. The collision of the Polish dominant culture with the liberal-democratic formal-legal framework produced the collapse of liberal democracy in Poland (2015). This text thus questions the location of the ghetto bench and its cultural representations in the field of memory studies. By pointing to the current stakes of the discourse on Polish anti-Semitism, the author calls for a revision of socio-cultural norms which means socio-cultural change.

GŁOSY Z „OSTATNIEGO KRĘGU”. KORESPONDENCJA Z KONZENTRATIONSLAGER AUSCHWITZ JÓZEFA KRETA I ZOFII HOSZOWSKIEJ-KRETOWEJ, OPRAC. KRYSTYNA HESKA-KWAŚNIEWICZ, LUCYNA SADZIKOWSKA

Author(s): Barbara Stelingowska / Language(s): Polish Issue: 116/2021

Review of: Głosy z „Ostatniego kręgu”. Korespondencja z Konzentrationslager Auschwitz Józefa Kreta i Zofii Hoszowskiej-Kretowej, oprac. Krystyna Heska-Kwaśniewicz, Lucyna Sadzikowska, Katowice 2020, ss. 203, ISBN 978-83-66055-16-2

Das ,Unheimlicheʻ in JAROSŁAW MAREK RYMKIEWICZʼ Umschlagplatz und IGOR OSTACHOWICZʼ Noc żywych Żydów [Nacht der lebenden Juden]

Author(s): Alexander Höllwerth / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2021

In the novels Umschlagplatz by JAROSŁAW MAREK RYMKIEWICZ and Noc żywych Żydów [The Night of Living Jews] by IGOR OSTACHOWICZ, the “uncanny” is less a result of a romantic fascination with ghosts than an emblem of deep collective trauma. This trauma arises from a guilt complex which is difficult to objectify. As a result of this trauma, the notion Améry calls “homeland” and Flusser defines as “a place to live”, appears fragile and questionable. Only dealing with the crimes underlying this trauma and guilt may pave the way out of the dynamic of the “uncanny”.

Doseljavanje, razvoj, stradanje i nestajanje Židova i najbogatije židovske obitelji iz Daruvara – Obitelj Gross u žrvnju dvaju totalitarizama

Author(s): Stipo Pilić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2016

This paper is based on sources and works which speak of the arrival, the life, and the work of the Jewish family Gross in Daruvar. They arrived in the second half of the 19th century as the family of the first Jewish rabbi in Daruvar. The first part analyses the arrival of Jews in Daruvar and the development of their community up to World War II. The second part speaks of the arrival of rabbi Isaac Gross to Daruvar with his family, the life of the family, and its development up to World War II, with a special accent on the family of Solomon Gross. That family will, in a short period from the beginning up to the middle of the 20th century, become the richest family and the proverbial masters of Daruvar. The third part discusses and analyses the downfall of the Jews of Daruvar and the Gross family during World War II. The Jewish population of Daruvar went down by almost 80% and more than half the Gross family members died in that war. The fourth part consists of documents speaking of the continuation of Jewish troubles in the new communist totalitarianism, not only by way of confiscation of land, but also by verdicts over living and deceased Gross family members. The fifth action analyses those documents and the way Jews died after World War II. In the end, the conclusion is that the two totalitarian systems, the Nazi and communist one, each in its own way influenced the fact that there are almost no Jewish people in Daruvar today. The members of the Gross family are completely extinct.

The „Spectral Turn“. Jewish Ghosts in the Polish Post-Holocaust Imaginaire

Author(s): Cordula Kentler / Language(s): German Issue: 1/2022

Review of: “The „Spectral Turn“. Jewish Ghosts in the Polish Post-Holocaust Imaginaire”, Hrsg. von Zuzanna Dziuban,(Erinnerungskulturen / Memory Cultures, Bd. 6.) transcript. Bielefeld 2019. 265 S. ISBN 978-3-8376-3629-1.

Więźniowie deportowani z Francji do obozu Auschwitz-Birkenau. Charakterystyka 71 transportu

Author(s): Paulina Chrząszcz / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2022

The article presents preliminary research results on the 71st transport with the deportees from France to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Statistical analysis was conducted on a sample of 1502 people. The paper analyses the criterion of age of deportees and the survival rate of women and men. For the research consistency, the situation in Auschwitz-Birkenau at that time and the attitude of the camp authorities towards prisoners in 1944 were outlined. The article also contains biographies of two deportees who managed to survive.

Recepce básní s tematikou šoa žáky druhého stupně základní školy

Author(s): Milan Mašát,Jana Sladová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 2/2021

In this article we present results concerning reception and interpretation of the selected poems written by children interned in the Terezín concentration camp. The main aim of the research was to verify the selected sample texts intended for a prospective monothematic collection depicting Shoah and designated for all grades of the lower-secondary stage. The impulse for the compilation of the Shoah-anthology was primarily the dismal state in integration of the texts on the Shoah from the contemporary intentional literature into the Czech reading-books. The research was conducted through a non-standardized questionnaire; a specific research tool was compiled for each grade of the lower-secondary stage. Exact formulation of the questions and tasks for working with the selected poems was determined by the current knowledge in the field of the didactics of literature. The results of the research piloting show that the pupils are not ready, in the majority of cases, to work in terms of the current pedagogical knowledge of literary education; they are limited in their reception of Shoah-poems by the absence of factual knowledge related to the Second World War.