„Wykazują najwyższą skłonność do emigracji”: exodus Żydów z Imperium Rosyjskiego. Mikrohistoria wybranych sztetli Podlasia

Author(s): Wojciech Konończuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2020

In 1881–1914, two million Jews emigrated from the Russian Empire, with 78 percent of them settling in the United States of America. The article focuses on the local dimension of the great migration. Two towns in Podlasie (Bielsk and Orle), mostly inhabited by Jews, serve as the case study. An attempt is made to estimate the size of the Jewish migration and to reveal its anatomy, including questions related to getting passports, illegal border crossing, and the attitude of the authorities to the Jewish exodus.

ODPOWIEDZI NA ANKIETĘ - ZBIGNIEW ZAPOROWSKI

Author(s): Zbigniew Zaporowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1/2021

Ad 1. Najbardziej inspirującym wątkiem badań historii najnowszej są dzieje partyzantki antykomunistycznej, tzw. żołnierzy wyklętych/niezłomnych. Niezależnie od innych okoliczności temat ten trafił do młodzieży. Bohaterowie ci stali się ważni i funkcjonują w świadomości społecznej.

Оценочность в медийном тексте — интерпретации переводчика

Author(s): Alicja Pstyga / Language(s): Russian Issue: 169/2020

The paper touches the matter of evaluation in press discourse which is presented from the perspective of Russian press articles translation into Polish language. Axiology in terms of press articles translation — creative, also usually persuasive, in which various means are used as carriers of evaluative connotations describing the matter of statement in negative or positive way — prompts us to consider to what extent the original evaluation is reproduced (or changed). The author proves that the holistic view on original and translated media texts allows to discover also other important elements of press articles structure which presence, emphasis or omission influences axiological valuation.

Recenzje

Author(s): Jakub Polit,Gabriel Szuster,Artur Markowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2021

Review of: Jakub Polit - Julia Lovell, Maoizm. Historia globalna, tłum. Filip Majkowski, Warszawa 2020, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, ss. 607 Gabriel Szuster - Dorota Sula, Szkice z historii Konzentrationslager Gross-Rosen, Wałbrzych 2019, Wydawnictwo Muzeum Gross-Rosen w Rogoźnicy, ss. 203 Bartłomiej Rusin - Борис Александров, Истината. Личният лекар на цар Борис III за смъртта му, София 2020, Изток-Запад, ss. 106 Artur Markowski - Wiktor Djatłow, Jana Guziej, Tatjana Sorokina, Kitajskij pogrom. Błagowieszczenskaja „utopija” 1900 goda w ocenkie sowremiennikow i potomkow, Sankt Petersburg 2020, NC Swiet, ss. 203

INTRODUCTION: ABOUT THE PURPOSE OF THIS VOLUME

Author(s): Albena Taneva / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

The purpose of this volume of PUBLIC POLICY.bg is to draw attention to a topic that is usually considered primarily a matter of history. Thus, Holocaust remembrance is usually debated by historians. The study of this past is often in narrowly specialized academic units of Jewish studies or in Holocaust Studies Centers. Such academic structures exist in many universities around the world. They have long developed an extremely high level of expertise on this historical heritage. Conferences are held, exclusive publications appear in many languages. This autonomous scientific space is being reproduced and developed further. The problem, however, is that it remains relatively encapsulated and isolated within the narrow boundaries of experts on the subject. It can be said that the first problem that caused us to dedicate this issue of the Holocaust Remembrance Policy journal was the need to draw attention to the interdisciplinary nature of these studies and highlight the importance of horizontal links between different scientific fields in them.

THE IMPERATIVE OF HOLOCAUST EDUCATION

Author(s): Daniel Mariaschin / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

When I began my career almost 50 years ago, I emphasized in my speeches that one day there would be no Holocaust survivors to say, “I was there,” or to show their concentration camp tattoos, or to recount their first-hand testimony of being the victims of the worst brutality known to humankind. Sadly, we are almost at that point.

EVALUATING HOLOCAUST EDUCATION: HITTING THE TARGET?

Author(s): Richelle Budd Caplan / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

According to recent studies of the Claims Conference, millennials in various countries believe that the Holocaust is an important subject that should be taught in schools. This topic is often included in national or state curricula, but educators do not necessarily receive accredited professional development opportunities about how to approach teaching this subject matter in their respective classrooms. Moreover, many Holocaust-related institutions around the world offer workshops and seminars geared for teachers, however, their programming is not always externally evaluated. This article will explore the results of a number of external studies of Yad Vashem's teacher-training efforts on an international scale, reflecting on aims and outcomes. Based on this data, there appears to be an added value to professional development training. However, additional research should be undertaken as these findings could support decisions made by policy makers.

PERCEPTIONS OF THE RESCUE OF THE JEWS AND THE HOLOCAUST IN BULGARIA TODAY

Author(s): Lea Cohen / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Over the last 20 years the perception of the Holocaust in Bulgarian society, including by various historians, is perhaps one of the most complex subjects in the national public space, and even beyond. The lack of consensus regarding the assessment and perception, as well as in the presentation and interpretation of historical facts, i.e. of the stories about what happened and what did NOT happen, prevents a structured history of the events from 1940 to 1944 in the Kingdom of Bulgaria. In various versions, that are often diametrically opposed, the persecution of Jews is presented using a hybrid mixture of facts from Bulgarian history of the same period (political, military, economic relations with Germany and Italy, the partisan resistance movement and relations with Soviet Russia, the specifics of political parties and political life in Bulgaria, actions of the Royal Palace and the Parliament), which either have nothing to do with the so-called ‘Jewish question’ or are only indirectly related to it. False theories of the ‘salvation of the Jews’ continue to be fabricated from this hybrid mixture of facts into an amalgam, which has many followers who believe these historical legends and myths over the past two decades. In this article I will look at some of these recent theories and discuss the reasons for their spread and, possible motives for the persistent desire within certain circles to impose on society these “alternate” interpretations of the salvation of the Jews.

THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY FOR THE HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE: THE BULGARIAN CASE

Author(s): Albena Taneva / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

THE ROLE OF INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY FOR THE HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE: THE BULGARIAN CASEThe article examines the concept of memory policies in different perspectives. A central category of analysis is Holocaust remembrance policies and the role of the institutional approach for achieving sustainable results and developing values in the social environment. The reasons for the deficits in the memory of the Holocaust, the periodization in the stories about the Holocaust in Bulgaria and the importance of the factors of the political environment for the dynamics in the interpretations of the past are analyzed. The importance of reflection on the historical past, and in particular that of the Holocaust is considered in regard to the social and generational transfer of memory and attitudes.

HOLOCAUST MEMORY IN MODERN RUSSIA

Author(s): Ilya Altman / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

The main tendencies and features of the Holocaust memory policy in modern Russia are analysed in this article. Positive and negative factors in preserving the memory of the Holocaust are extracted that lie in the context of the memory of the Nazi occupation on USSR territory.

THE FATE OF THE BULGARIAN JEWS DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Author(s): Rumyana Marinova-Christidi / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

The basic aim of the present article is to provide a historical overview of the Bulgarian state policy towards Jews in the country during the Second World War. The paper analyzes the variety of factors that played role in this specific case - such as the positive historical legacy of Bulgarian-Jewish relations that contributed to the salvation of Bulgarian Jews but also the negative factors that led to the deportation of the Jews from the occupied and controlled by Bulgaria territories.

LOOTED JUDAICA AND EUROPEAN CULTURAL HISTORICAL HERITAGE

Author(s): Mina Tasseva Bencheva / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

During the Holocaust, the physical persecution of the Jews in Europe was conducted along with a series of policies aimed at the appropriation of Jewish religious art as well as objects related to the Jewish cultural heritage. These objects are known as Judaica and their systematic appropriation by the Nazi regime, in Germany and throughout Europe, is referred to as “the looting of Judaica”. The paper examines the relation between these objects and the European cultural historical heritage while discussing potential paths of interdisciplinary study of the looted Judaica.

ANTISEMITISM AS AN INADMISSIBLE SOCIAL PHENOMENON

Author(s): Nikolai Mihailov / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

Antisemitism is a dangerous and destructive ideology based on incitement to hatred of the Jewish people and is associated with their persecution, discrimination, and in the variation of Nazi antisemitism - with their physical destruction and extermination. Despite the destructive and absurd ideas of this stereotype of national and racial hatred, it is very persistent and people still sometimes experience its consequences. Apart from rumors, conspiracy theories and outdated and denied notions of "world Jewry", these ideas, which are detrimental to humanism and freedom, are sometimes disseminated in the form of "science" or "journalism", "opinion", very often using the power of contemporary media. The word antisemitism always means hatred against Jews in the context of modernity. An important element of contemporary antisemitism is the identification of Jews with finance, urbanization, and especially capitalism. Different "scientific" explanations about “interiorness” of the Jews have had a strong influence on German society since the first decades of the 20th century, an influence that underlies the ideology that led to the brutal policy of the "final decision". The danger of spreading such misanthropic ideas in the form of some kind of "education" and under the guise of "scientifically-based" antisemitism has not passed today. That is why the emphasis on education of students, doctoral students, etc. is extremely important: they should learn not only about the tragic events of the Holocaust, but also to build a critical view of all those preconditions - historical, social, cultural, intellectual – that led to the emergence of racial theories, "explaining" social processes and leading to catastrophic and horrific cruelty events.

ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF THE COMMISSARIAT FOR JEWISH AFFAIRS

Author(s): Ivanka Gezenko / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2021

An old Jewish piece of wisdom runs: Not a single sheet of a book or document should remain unread and lost for the generations. This article presents the role of the institution of the Commissariat for Jewish Affairs in Bulgaria in its role of executing the policy of persecution of Jews. It tries to take a look and reconsider the past. To this day, however, there are unknown (or less familiar) documents patiently waiting their time to throw light on the facts revealing what happened. Once again, we have to face the ‘platitude of evil’, which was set as a whole and separately long before. The analysis is done in the context of more general picture of anti-Semitic laws in the Balkans and more generally in the European countries.

Recuperarea memoriei culturale a unei comunități pierdute. Proza lui I. Peltz

Author(s): Maria Pașcalău / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2021

During the interwar period, the Jewish population of Bucharest lived in the so-called “Jewish Neighbourhood”. With the establishment of the communist regime, the very existence of the Jewish community living in Bucharest was threatened and it almost disappeared because of the urban reconfiguration and of the political decisions which determined the Jewish population to gradually leave the country. Although the physical evidence of this community was destroyed, its cultural memory is still preserved in various forms with literature being one of these. Born in the Jewish Neighbourhood and through his detailed descriptions of his life in the Bucharest ghetto, I. Peltz managed to transform his prose into an instrument for preserving the memory of this community which got lost as time passed by. The present paper aims to identify in three of I. Peltz’s novels, Calea Văcărești (1933), Foc în Hanul cu tei (1934) și Israel însângerat (1946), those elements which shape the cultural profile of the Jewish community living in Bucharest before and during the interwar period. In addition, it investigates to what extent the cultural memory of a minority community manages to become an integral part of the national cultural memory by following the way in which I. Peltz’s literature succeed to enter and position itself within the Romanian literary canon. The purpose of this article is to draw the attention on the cultural and political practices used to control the process of formation of the national cultural memory. It is important to point out that these practices had almost entirely promoted the cultural identity belonging to the majority.

Literatura și recuperarea memoriei pierdute. Despre romanele postmemoriale ale lui Cătălin Mihuleac

Author(s): Dumitru Tucan / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 1/2021

The memory of the Holocaust in Romania (i.e. the participation of the Romanian authorities in the atrocious crime of the Holocaust) was distorted and occulted in the Romanian public consciousness after the end of the Second World War. It was only in the last two decades, more precisely after the public debates initiated by the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, chaired by Elie Wiesel, and especially after the publication of the Final Report (2004), that the Romanian authorities’ accountability for the Holocaust timidly penetrated the public discourse. However, this memorial recovery has had only a minor impact, limited to only a few academic discursive communities. As a marginal part of the memory generated by the ruptures of recent history, the traumatic memory of the Holocaust in Romania remains to be recovered in the Romanian public discourse. One of the writers fully dedicated to this recovery process is Cătălin Mihuleac, who in two recent novels, America over the pogrom (2014) and Deborah (2019), fictionally reconstructs two major traumatic events of the Holocaust in Romania: the Iași Pogrom (1941) and the deportation of the Romanian Jews in Transnistria. Using as a theoretical framework the notions of postmemory (Hirsch 2012) and prosthetic memory (Landsberg 2004), this paper analyzes these two novels, trying to show their importance as an act of a recent “memorial atonement” in the Romanian culture.

„Żydokomuna” w aparacie władzy „Polski Ludowej”. Mit czy rzeczywistość?

Author(s): Mirosław Szumiło / Language(s): Polish Issue: 2/2018

The quantitative and qualitative participation of communist Jews in the power apparatus of “People’s Poland” was exceptionally large, and in some segments (the central party apparatus, secret police, propaganda) even dominating. Jewish minority enjoyed autonomy and relative privileges in Poland. It was in fact a mapping of the situation from the Soviet Union of the twenties. The purpose of this article is to summarise the results of research on the involvement of Jews in the apparatus of communist authorities in Poland so far, based on scientific and source publications, and partly the author’s own research in this area. The article reminds us of the myth of “Judeo-Communism” (żydokomuna) in the power apparatus of “People’s Poland”, where it came from and what was its influence on anti-Semitic attitudes in Polish society. Next, the number and influence of Jews in the structures of the communist authorities in the Stalinist period and in the times of Gomułka is characterised with particular emphasis on the security apparatus. It also looks into the reasons for such involvement of Jewish on the communist side and their promotion in the power apparatus, and the problem of their national identity. The article is an attempt to verify the myth, i.e. to determine how much it coincided with reality.

Book review

Author(s): Liat Steir-Livny / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2022

СОЦІОКУЛЬТУРНИЙ ФЕНОМЕН РОСІЙСЬКО-ЄВРЕЙСЬКОЇ ІНТЕЛІГЕНЦІЇ

Author(s): Oleхandr Bezarov / Language(s): Ukrainian Issue: 4/2021

The aim of the study. The article describes peculiarities of the formation processes of the Russian-Jewish intellectuals in the second half of the XIX - early XX centuries identifies socio-psychological factors of these processes. Research methods: identity theory is used to analyze the contradictory way of assimilation and emancipation of Jews in the Russian Empire; substantiation of the phenomenon of revolution, opposition and political activity of representatives of the Russian-Jewish intellectuals; the origins of the revolutionary movement in the Russian Empire, as well as the place and role of Jews in the modernization of late imperial Russia. Scientific novelty. For the first time, it was used the theory of identity in the study of the social and cultural phenomenon of the Russian-Jewish intellectuals, highlighting the factors that influenced the peculiarities of its formation and development in the second half of the XIX–early XX century. in the Russian Empire and hypothesized a crisis of identity of the Russian-Jewish intelligentsia, one of the consequences of which was the revolution of radical Russian-Jewish intellectuals. Conclusions. It has been proved, that the development of the revolutionary nature of some of the Russian-Jewish intelligent people (“assimilants”) was influenced by the social and cultural values of Gaskali, the peculiarities of the social consciousness of the Russian intelligentsia, anti-Semitism, and the situation of non-authentic Jews.

Piotr M.A. Cywiński, Auschwitz. Monografia Człowieka

Author(s): Piotr Filipkowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 17/2021

Review of: Piotr Filipkowski - Piotr M.A. Cywiński, Auschwitz. Monografia Człowieka; Oświęcim: Państwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau, 2021, 584 s.