“ÁRPÁD AND ABRAHAM WERE FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN”

Author(s): Szilvia Peremiczky / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2004

The earliest Jewish literary works in Hungary were late-medieval religious writings in Hebrew, and literary contributions in the Hungarian language only began to appear toward the middle of the 19th century. The first generation of Hungarian-Jewish writers firmly believed in the viability of a dual Hungarian and Jewish identity and in the prospects of Jewish and Hungarian coexistence, and these two concerns have remained central to Hungarian-Jewish literature ever since. Jewish emancipation was warmly supported by the intellectual and political elite of Hungary, and Jewish Hungarians gained full civil rights in 1867. However, to their bitter disappointment, they were soon facing a rapidly rising tide of anti-Semitism that ultimately led to the Hungarian Holocaust, in which over half a million Jewish Hungarians perished. Some Hungarian-Jewish writers responded to the rising tide of anti-Semitism with a classical dual identity position that censured assimilation involving a denial of Jewish identity, others responded by attempting to deliberately shed their own Jewish identities through conversion to Christianity or by becoming Communists, a handful of others by opting for Zionism, and in one controversial instance, by advocating the adoption of an ethno-national minority identity. After the Holocaust, many among the remnant Jewish Hungarians believed that Communism would help resolve the core existential questions facing them, but the studious silence of the totalitarian regime about the Holocaust merely left these sores festering in an unresolved limbo for decades. Curiously, the regime eventually did permit the publication of Fateless by Kertész, undoubtedly because of its anti-Nazi message, and quite missing the irony that its resolute anti-totalitarianism applied equally to them. During the 75 years between Emancipation and Holocaust, the magnitude of Jewish contributions to Hungary’s literature, journalism, scholarship, culture, science, industry, banking and commercial enterprise had been almost without precedent in the annals of diaspora Jewish communities, and post-Holocaust Jewish Hungarians continue to play a prominent role in the literary, cultural, political, and academic life of contemporary post-Communist Hungary.

“Germans have killed our Jews, so we’re getting rid of them.” The case of Edward Toniakiewicz

Author(s): Barbara Engelking / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2017

The author investigates how corpses of murdered Jews were hidden in towns during the occupation. She examines the case of Edward Toniakiewicz and his murder of three Jews he was hiding in his cellar, and whose bodies he then attempted to dump into a nearby pond. The crime came to light due to his neighbour’s curiosity. The investigation was conducted by the Polish ‘blue’ police, and its documentation was used during Toniakiewicz’s trial after the war. This revealing paper acquaints the reader with various aspects of the fate of Jews hiding on the ‘Aryan side’.

“Io sono a scacchi”. L’identità ebraica nell’opera letteraria e teatrale di Janusz Korczak

Author(s): Giovanna Tomassucci / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 3/2016

This paper focuses on the problem of ethnic coexistence as presented in some of Korczak’s literary and dramatic works, from his earlier humorous short stories to the play The Senate of Madmen. Like many Polish writers, Korczak perceived literature as a space of freedom, but, unlike other Jews writing in Polish, he always stressed his Jewishness and his firm belief in an equal and double identity (Jewish and Polish). In his long literary career Korczak never practiced ethnic agnosticism: on the contrary, he brought the tradition of Ashkenazi humor and Yiddish literary topics (szmonces, schlemiel and nudnik, the shtetl) into Polish culture, converting these symbols of Jewish identity into universal cultural elements.

“It’s not a matter of choice.” Aleksander Smolar interviewed by Konrad Matyjaszek

Author(s): Konrad Matyjaszek / Language(s): English / Issue: 7/2018

Konrad Matyjaszek’s interview with Aleksander Smolar focuses on the contemporary Polish intelligentsia, identified as a social group and a social milieu, and on this group’s self-image produced in relation to antisemitism, understood here both as a set of violence-based public activities and practices, and as an excluding prejudice that constitutes a component of the Polish culture. Aleksander Smolar discusses the history of Aneks, the Polish-language émigré socio-cultural journal, whose editor-in-chief he remained during the entire time of its activity (1973–1990). He talks about the political conditions and forms of pressure directed at the Aneks’s editorial board, composed in majority of persons forced to emigrate from Poland during the antisemitic campaign of March 1968, he also mentions the post-1968 shift of the Polish sphere of culture towards the political right and conservatism, and the rapprochement between the left-wing opposition circles and the organizations associated with the Catholic Church that was initiated in the 1970s. He also recounts reactions to the political changes expressed by his father, Grzegorz Smolar, a communist activist and an activist of the Jewish community in Poland. Afterwards, Smolar discusses the context of creation of his 1986 essay Taboo and innocence [Tabu i niewinność] and analyses the reasons for which the majority of the Polish intelligentsia chose not to undertake cultural critique directed against the antisemitic components of the Polish culture.

“Schindlerin Listesi” Soykırım Öyküsünden Sinema-Mimarlık Arakesitinde “Berlin Yahudi Müzesi” Mekansal Çözümlemeleri

Author(s): Havva Alkan Bala / Language(s): Turkish / Issue: Sp. Iss/2019

In this study, the art of architecture and an internal or external humanity occasion analyzed through the Museum of Libenskind and the films in the memory of the art of cinema. In other words, this study aims to cognitively compare the Berlin Jewish Museum as an architectural work piece and Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 1993) as the work pieces of cinema, discuss the way this concept turns into an instrument of narration and expression through the opportunities of architecture and the art of cinema and reveal the similarities and differences. The Jewish Museum is almost a reincarnation of the memories which are denied and was aimed to live down. This vitality only may be provided through the virtue of apologizing of the human beings and the experiences related to human beings from the downtrodden people.

“That load of Jews is finally dead.” Extermination of Jews as presented in 1942 letters of German soldiers

Author(s): Marcin Zaremba / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2017

The Home Army intelligence intercepted letters written by German officers and clerks to their families as well as those sent from Germany to friends and relatives on the front line. On the basis of that correspondence the Polish underground drafted special intelligence reports, which were sent to London. The selection of letters devoted to the Holocaust presented in this article can make it easier to describe and understand the stances and opinions of “ordinary Germans” regarding the “final solution.”

“That’s for harboring Jews!” Post-Liberation Violence against Holocaust Rescuers in Poland, 1944–1948

Author(s): Alicja Podbielska / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2019

This article explores post-war violence against ethnic Poles who had assisted Jews during the Holocaust. Officially praised as representative of the entire nation’s compassionate and generous attitude, they faced ostracism, robbery, and murder by their home communities. Their neighbours envied them the ‘Jewish gold’ they had allegedly received for their assistance,while the right-wing, anti-communist armed underground considered them traitors who had impaired the nationalist ideal of a Poland without Jews. Drawing on early Jewish testimonies,letters sent by helpers to the Jewish Committees, and their testimonies from the1960s, this article examines the consequences of their wartime actions that rescuers faced in the first years after liberation.

“The Jew Is and Always Will Be Our Greatest Enemy!” Anti-Semitism in Slovak Radio Broadcast from the Reich’s Vienna Radio Station

Author(s): Michala Lônčíková / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2019

The international political situation and the Nazi plans for Central Europe culminated in the late 1930s. The organisation of the collaboration with pro-Nazi and separatist Slovak representatives accelerated after the “Anschluss” of Austria in March 1938. From then on, Slovak territory was only separated from Nazi Germany by the Danube River. The proximity of the two major centres – Vienna and Bratislava – enabled the Nazis to affect the political development of Slovak autonomy and influence public opinion to favor the break-up of Czechoslovakia through the use of various propaganda tools. Modern technology further shortened the distance between places that were already physically close to each other. The main aim of this paper is to focus on Slovak radio broadcasts from the Reich‘s Vienna radio station. It was established at the time of the Sudetenland crisis on 15th September 1938 and was organised by Ľudovít Mutňanský and Rudolf Vávra, members of the Foreign Hlinka Guard (FHG). Studying the period of Slovak autonomy is crucial for gaining an understanding of the original purpose for this broadcast – an attempt to influence public opinion in favor of the dissolution process. Taking into consideration the radicalisation of the broadcast pertaining to the racial perception of the Jewish community, contrary to the ideology of the Hlinka‘s Slovak People‘s Party (HSĽS) at that time, special attention is paid to the role of anti-Semitism in the Slovak program.

“Why did they, who had suffered so much and endured, had to die?” The Jewish victims of armed violence in Podhale (1945–1947)

Author(s): Karolina Panz / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2017

This article discusses the armed anti-Jewish violence and the events connected with it, which occurred in the Polish Tatra Highlands (southern Poland) during1945–1947. The number of Jewish victims exceeded thirty, including children from Jewish orphanages. Among the perpetrators of those acts of terror were partisans from the group commanded by Józef Kuraś ‘Ogień’ – one of the most important symbols of anti-communist resistance. This article is a results of several years of research and is based on highly diverse sources. Its main purpose is to recreate those events, with particular attention given to the victims of those acts of violence.

“Żydzi stali się w Polsce zjawiskiem egzotycznym, niemal wymarłym gatunkiem”. Obraz społeczności żydowskiej w Polsce w latach 70. i 80. XX wieku we wspomnieniach Żydów powracających do Polski

Author(s): Monika Stępień / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 02/2019

Jewish returns to Poland began in the decades prior to the fall of Communism. Described in personal accounts, there are numerous examples of returns in the 1970s and 1980s. The Jews were returning either individually, or as parts of official delegations, e.g. those that returned to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Most of the returnees write about the absence of the murdered Jewish community, resulting in a lack of a natural environment of memory. Only a few describe encounters with the small, nearly invisible Jewish community still living in Poland. For those returnees that do engage the Jewish community, few seem to find commonalities with those who stayed in Poland. The experiences of the returnees and the remnants of Polish Jews still living in the country at the time were so different that it made bonding difficult. Personal accounts of the returnees are lacking the images of the revival of Jewish life in Poland, which began in the late 1970s. The story of Polish Jews in the 1970s and 1980s is mainly a story of invisibility and absence.

„A Naye Yidishe Heym in Nidershlezye“ - Polnische Shoah-Überlebende in Wrocław (1945–1949). Eine Fallstudie

Author(s): Katharina Friedla / Language(s): German / Issue: 1/2014

Heavy fighting around ‚fortress Breslau’ resulted in the German surrender on May 6, 1945 and almost completely destroyed the city. The following three years saw the ‚relocation’ of the city’s entire German population to the West. It was the beginning of the city’s great transfer period, which inevitably caused the losses of homes and identity crises: it included the ‚resettlement‘ of the German inhabitants, the settlement of Poles, the forced resettlement of the Ukrainian population, the expulsion of the returned members of the German-Jewish community as well as the directed settlement of Polish Shoah survivors. Breslau became Wrocław: the city was rid of German traces, utterly Polonized and, together with the entire area of Lower Silesia, celebrated as a „recovered territory“. The Polish settlers who surged into the city immediately after the end of the war, including Polish Jewish survivors, were supposed to find a new home there. This proved to be too great a challenge under the circumstances of the immediate post-war era: Wrocław was immersed in chaos and destruction, the presence of its German inhabitants was still apparent throughout the city (at least until 1948), the reorganization of the Polish state structures as well as the political consolidation of power was only just underway. Moreover, other factors also contributed to the demolition of initial prospects that Jewish life would be established in post-war Poland. This contribution aimed to analyse and illuminate these factors at hand of the example of Wrocław.

„ASY CZYSTEJ RASY”, CZYLI SAMUELA JAKUBA IMBERA SPOJRZENIE NA RELACJE POLSKO-ŻYDOWSKIE

Author(s): Magdalena Ruta / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 42/2018

Samuel Jakub (Shmuel Yankev) Imber (1889–1942), a Yiddish and Polish poet and critic, can be regarded as the spiritual father of modern Yiddish poetry in Galicia. He wrote also for Polish-Jewish press, trying to improve the image of Jews in the eyes of their Polish fellow citizens. This matter was a major concern already in his long poem Esterke (1911), one of the high points of Imber’s oeuvre in which he called for a harmonious coexistence of Jews and Poles. In the 1930s, when antisemitism was on the rise in Poland, Imber published two collections of articles in Polish: Asy czystej rasy [The Purebred Aces; 1934] and Kąkol na roli [The Weed in the Fields; 1938], in which he sought to counteract the ways in which Jews had been portrayed by the Polish nationalist press. The article discusses the significance of the poem Esterke and of selected texts from both collections of articles.

„Bitte vergeßt nicht, alle Briefe gut aufzuheben“

Shared Agency in einem Briefwechsel österreichisch-jüdischer Schüler in der Emigration

Author(s): Jacqueline Vansant / Language(s): German / Issue: 1/2019

After the National Socialists came to power in March 1938 a group of 15 and 16 year-old classmates of Jewish heritage met for the last time and promised to keep in contact with one another as a group. The boys’ original promise resulted in a group correspondence, or “round letter” as they called it, which stretched over more than a decade and crisscrossed three continents. Drawing on the essay „What is Agency“ by Mustafa Emirbayer and Ann Mische, Vansant examines the correspondence as an expression of shared agency. It provided the youth with a means to act at a time when their options were severely restricted and it allowed them to resist the efforts of the new regime to destroy their community. Indeed, the establishment, the survival, and the archiving of the group correspondence or “round robin” are all expressions of the boys’ agency. In this essay, the letters are a window into the drama of the period and they serve as witness to the boys’ inventiveness as well as their familiarity with a lost letter-writing culture. The correspondence, which consists of 106 round letters for a total of 675 individual letters, has been housed in the Archive of the History of Austrian Sociology in Graz, Austria since 1994.

„Czarna, ogromna chmura wisi nad nami i na pewno spadnie…” Żydzi w miastach i miasteczkach Generalnego Gubernatorstwa wobec wiadomości o akcji „Reinhardt”

Author(s): Maria Ferenc Piotrowska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 13/2017

This article regards the existential experience of Holocaust victims and the psychological and cognitive mechanisms in confrontation with the first news about the functioning of the death camps. It analyzes the testimonies of Jews from over 40 towns and small towns in the General Government regarding the gradual influx of news about the Holocaust and the consequent reactions. Initially, the hearsay came mostly from afar, and then from increasingly close localities. The Poles were the source of that (imprecise) information about the lot of the deported Jews, while in certain localities appeared escapees from the death centers who gave accounts of what they had witnessed. That hearsay and those testimonies met with different reactions – from despair, through denial, suppression, and resignation, to attempts to save one’s life. This article devotes special attention to a reflection on the possibility of death of oneself and one’s family as well as the phenomenon of denial and pushing the news about the Holocaust away from oneself.

„Czym wytłumaczy Pan…?” Inteligencja żydowska o polonizacji i asymilacji w getcie warszawskim

Author(s): Justyna Majewska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 11/2015

In the 􀏐irst half of 1942 pollsters of Oneg Shabbat’s underground archive of the Warsaw ghetto conducted interviews with eight Jewish intellectuals on the inf􀏐luence of the ghetto reality on the Jews’ social life and identity. Among the many topics discussed in those questionnaires, the author focuses on the respondents’ opinions on acculturation, which she presents in three contexts: the respondents’ personal experiences, their political views (almost all of them were Doikeit ideology supporters), and the pre-war discussion on the role of the Yiddish language and culture in formation of Jewish national identity. The respondents gave the acculturation in the ghetto a new dimension. Even though before the war Polonisation was not perceived as a de􀏐initely negative phenomenon, in the ghetto it began to be interpreted as a conscious decision to reject Jewish identity. Acculturation, which according to the respondents was not imposed by the Germans, became the main form of pathology in the Jewish intelligentsia milieus. In their critical interpretation of the ghetto reality the respondents perceived those processes as a danger to their nation’s identity comparable to the destructive activity of the Germans.

„Dlaczego oni, którzy tyle przecierpieli i przetrzymali, musieli zginąć”. Żydowskie of􀏐iary zbrojnej przemocy na Podhalu w latach 1945–1947

Author(s): Karolina Panz / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 11/2015

This article discusses the armed anti-Jewish violence and the events connected with it, which occurred in the Polish Tatra Highlands (southern Poland) during 1945–1947. The number of Jewish victims exceeded 30, including children from Jewish orphanages. Among the perpetrators of those acts of terror were partisans from the group commanded by Józef Kuraś ‘Ogień’, which is one of the most important symbols of the anti-communist resistance. This article is based on results of a few years’ research and highly diverse sources and its main purpose is to recreate those events, with particular attention given to the victims of those acts of violence.

„Duch mlčí, len surové mäso vyvádza“. Protižidovské stereotypy v ideológii Svetozára Hurbana-Vajanského

Author(s): Miloslav Szabó / Language(s): Slovak / Issue: 2/2012

The study deals with the emotional history of Slovak antisemitism in the late 19th century. Inspired by the theory of Sander L. Gilman, it examines the role of the stereotypes of "race", sexuality and disease in the political thought of Svetozár Hurban-Vajanský who was the most influential Slovak ideologue in the 1880s and 1890s. The detailed analysis shows the impact of "race", sexuality and disease on Vajanský's perception of the nation-building processes in East Central Europe and their failure, respectivelly. The anti-Jewish stereotypes are seen as an integral part of the so called "naturalization-codes" (Bernhard Giesen) which helped the nationalist intellectuals to distinguish between their own national communities and the "others" in terms of "race" and gender. The search for the roots of the racialist antisemitism of the first half of the 20th century will thus reveal a particular ideological mixture of tradition and modernity, of Christianity and science – similar to the contemporary allegations of "ritual murder" or the visual anti-Jewish bias.

„Dziwna awersja”. O wystawach Schulza

Author(s): Urszula Makowska / Language(s): Polish / Issue: 13/2019

The paper sums up and corrects information on the exhibitions in which Schulz took part as well as reconstructs the circumstances under which they were organized. Today we know about ten such exhibitions ordered in series separated by several year-long breaks: 1920-1923, 1930, 1935. His participation in the last show, organized in 1940 by a Soviet institution, cannot be considered fully voluntary. Of the prewar exhibitions only those in Lvov – in 1922 and 1930 at the Society of the Friends of Fine Arts [Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Sztuk Pięknych] and in 1935 on the premises of Union of Polish Artists [Związek Zawodowy Polskich Artystów Plastyków] were noticed by the press, mainly local newspapers. Apparently Schulz, who understood the significance of exhibitions in building one’s artistic biography, did not care much about them. He needed constant support in the selection and evaluation of his works since he was not sure of their value. Probably in the beginning he could count in that respect on his close friends from Drogobych and then those from Lvov. In fact, however, he lived outside the artistic circles and sporadic contacts with other artists did not provide him with necessary inspiration or encouragement to present his works in public. The available records imply that only in 1938, perhaps reinforced by his position in the world of literature, Schulz was ready to plan exhibitions, but not in Lvov and not even in Poland. Exhibitions allowed him also to reach out to other people. They gave him a chance to find an understanding spectator, but also required disclosing oneself. Regardless of their subject matter, drawings are records of the artist’s gestures, i.e. his corporeality. Presenting them in public must have been for Schulz a temptation to tear off his disguise, but it also provoked fear to do so. It was only the graphic art that guaranteed a safe distance between the artist and spectator thanks to the technological processes that separated a single print from the artist’s body. One must remember that most Schulz’s exhibits were the cliché-verres, while practicing other kinds of graphic techniques was his unfulfilled dream. Thus, the sequences of Schulz’s presentations at exhibitions, separated by years of absence, are related to the episodes of his biography, reflecting his attitude toward self-presentation that oscillated between desire and aversion.

„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.