O. Teodor Sąsała SVD (1888–1940) - sługa słowa Bożego. W setną rocznicę święceń kapłańskich

Author(s): Tymoteusz Morela / Language(s): Polish Issue: _/2014

This year (2014) will see the 100th anniversary of the ordination to priesthood of Father Teodor Sąsała. He was born on November 7, 1888 in Sczepanowitz in Opole, as the son of Andrzej and Joanna, born Gabriel. On April 21, 1903, he entered the Society of the Divine Word, and began his studies at the Catholic secondary school in Neisse. He spent his years of study in St. Gabriel in Mödling in Austria. His Order vows he laid on September 3, 1914. at the mission of the Holy Cross in Neisse, where he received his ordination also on 8 September of the same year. In 1927 he was transferred to the mission house of St. Joseph in Gorna Grupa where he worked as a lecturer in French language from 1929 and acted as the confessor of the friars, dedicated himself to household items and was the assistant of the Provincial. On October 28, 1939, Father Teodor Sąsała was intervened together with other members of the Society of the Divine Word in Gorna Grupa and on February 5, 1940 he was promoted to the concentration camp at Stutthof, later to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. After only five days in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp he fainted during the exercises. Sustained by his friends, he died on 16 April 1940 on the way to the infirmary of the concentration camp

W pogoni za złotem, czyli operacja "TUN"

Author(s): Andrzej Paczkowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 37/2015

The tasks of the Polish Military Mission (PMW) in London, which was established in October 1945, were to represent the government in Warsaw before the British Army, to perform espionage activities, but primarily to induce the Polish Armed Forces residing in Western Europe to go back to their country and to fight the leaders of Polish emigration. During the execution of these tasks, officers of the mission (which was the agenda of the Second Section of the General Staff, or intelligence) made contact with three senior officers — Gen. Stanisław Tatar, Lt. Col. Marian Utnik, and Col. Stanislaw Nowicki — who commanded the cell responsible for liaising with the country (the Sixth Section of the General Staff of the Commander in Chief). They had at their disposal a considerable sum of money, which they did not manage to hand over to the Home Army during the war, and several hundred pounds of gold from the National Defence Fund (FON), transferred from Poland in 1939. The Committee of the Three and the Fund “Drawa” were established to manage these goods. They were all quite favourably disposed to political changes that took place in Poland and planned to return to the country where their families lived. The head of the mission, Col. Józef Kuropieska, used the money to find support for patriotic attitudes among emigrants, as well as to simply seize the funds possessed by the Committee of the Three and transfer them to Poland. After a year and a half of ongoing efforts, in June 1947 the FON’s gold was illegally transported to Warsaw and the cash (over $3 million) was gradually transferred in a similar way. Two officers, Utnik and Nowicki, entered the intelligence structures of the Second Section. In the spring of 1949, the action was completed. At the same time, however, on the wave of accelerated Stalinization of Poland, the three officers were considered foreign organizers of “military conspiracy,” whose aim was to hand over power in Poland to the advocates of “the rightist and nationalist deviation.” They were given the codename “TUN” — an acronym for their names. The officers were induced to go back to their homeland and they were arrested in November 1949. The so-called “TUN court case” was held in August 1951 and was the main lawsuit throughout the hearing of the officer corps. Among the accused were not just the members of TUN but also Kuropieska (and his successor Colonel Maksymilian Chojecki). The commanders of the Second Section were also sentenced to imprisonment. The communist military intelligence and historians who dealt with the trial regarded the imprisonment of so many officers as the greatest achievement of military special services in the Polish communist era.The article is based primarily on numerous preserved documents relating to the Second Section and the operation itself, as well as a series of investigations into “military conspiracy.”

OBNOVA TRGOVINSKIH VEZA JUGOSLAVIJE I ITALIJE POSLE DRUGOG SVETSKOG RATA

Author(s): Miljan Milkić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2016

Negotiations on the signing of the post-World War II trade agreement between Yugoslavia and Italy were held in an atmosphere of political crisis and deteriorating bilateral relations. Numerous unresolved mutual political issues as well as tense international circumstances influenced the course of the negotiations. The unresolved issue of the status of the city of Trieste and the entire Venezia Giulia created an atmosphere of mistrust and increased tensions. The substantial political and economic support provided by the United States to Italy caused further difficulties for the negotiating position of the Yugoslav government. Political relations between the United States and the Soviet Union became very difficult after the Marshall Plan, which began to be implemented in June 1947. During this period, the Yugoslav-Italian trade agreement was signed. This trade agreement was contingent on solving other issues between Yugoslavia and Italy, particularly those relating to fishing, and this hampered negotiations and intensified its political character. Trade issues were perceived in the context of political relations and economic reasons were not decisive. The trade agreement, carefully prepared during mutual consultations of experts of both countries, was initialed on 17 April 1947 and signed on 28 November 1947 under political pressure. This apparent treaty signing delay was caused by the two governments downplaying political considerations and recognizing the urgent economic needs of market logic. The new trade agreement between Yugoslavia and Italy was finally signed on 4 August 1949.

LOGORAŠI KAŽNJENIČKOGA LOGORA U VELIKOJ PISANICI LIJEČENI U BJELOVARSKOJ BOLNICI (1945. – 1946.)

Author(s): Dubravko Habek / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 13/2015

On the basis of unexplored archive data the paper gave information on the ill and deceased inmates of the Prison Camp in Velika Pisanica, a place in the vicinity of Bjelovar. The research found 84 ill or wounded inmates both male and female and children who were sent for treatment to the District hospital of Bjelovar and were there during summer of 1945. Treatments had different outcomes, e. g. full cure, improved condition, uncured condition or death. On the basis of living conditions in the camps morbidity is connected to diseases such as infectious diseases (typhoid, dysentery, tuberculosis, diphtheria), venereal diseases (endometriosis, syphilis), inflammatory diseases (abscesses, phlegmon), abortions with death because of sepsis and premature births, typical for camp conditions. According to the data we got four camp inmates died in the mentioned period. Three of them were women who died of infections and sepsis and one man who died of heart disease and inanition. Since the accurate number of camp inmates, ill, gone and deceased in the Prison camp of Velika Pisanica during and after the Second World War has not been researched and defined yet this paper is a contribution for further research in defining the living conditions, morbidity and death of the imprisoned in the Prison Camp in Velika Pisanica.

O akcji zbrojnej Zrzeszenia „Wolność i Niezawisłość” w Parczewie z 5 lutego 1946 roku

Author(s): Wiesław Charczuk / Language(s): Polish Issue: 8/2015

Gračanlije u Marševima smrti 1945. godine: iskazi preživjelih

Author(s): Omer Hamzić,Izet Spahić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 30/2010

By the article the recorded testimonies are published of the four residents of Gracanica and its vicinity who survived capture by the Yugoslav army and communist crimes in the immediate post-war period in 1945.

Limitele metodologice ale memorialisticii. Un raport diplomatic despre prezumtivul proiect al Regelui Mihai de plecare în Italia Meridională

Author(s): Veronica Turcuş / Language(s): Romanian Issue: 54/2015

This study refers to the secret project of King Michael's departure, starting in place by the vice president of the Council of Ministers and Foreign Minister of Romania, Mihai Antonescu. The project was developed in the spring of 1944 and involved in the initial phase Renato Bova-Scoppa, Minister of Italy in Bucharest. The Italian Minister tells very little about the project in his memoirs Colloqui con due Dittatori, while in the document here published are more extensive references. The project was eventually abandoned, but it shows which would have been one of the ways that the monarchy would follow if Russia invaded Romania.

Aplikace konfiskačního zemědělského dekretu prezidenta republiky na příkladu konfiskace velkostatku Velhartice

Author(s): Nina Zemanová / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2016

The following study deals with the practical application of confiscatory agricultural Decree No. 12/1945. It deals in particular with the confiscation of aristocrat Josef Windischgrätz’ manor farm estate Velhartice. Several factors combined to work against his attempts to recover the estate – firstly, his natural use of the German language, which figured as the major reason for his inclusion in the mass deportation of Germans. Furthemore he had extensive contacts with other German-speaking noblemen (sometimes even NSDAP party members), he was also related to the family of the infamous general Alfred Windischgrätz and worked for a German company in Hamburg. Using the direct method of archive document research, mostly documents of an administrative character, this study reconstructs the entire process of confiscation, beginning with the issue of the confiscatory ordinance, continuing with the appeals to the district National Committee and the provincial National Committee, concluding with the negative verdict of the Supreme Administrative Court in Prague and his subsequent forced expulsion from Czechoslovakia. All this in a historical context – primarily in the context of a Czechoslovakia which was heading from one form of totalitarianism to another.

Programy psané do šuplíku? Promýšlení reformy československých vysokých škol za druhé světové války

Author(s): Jakub Jareš / Language(s): Czech Issue: 1/2016

During the Second World War, a number of programme documents which included or were exclusively focused on proposals regarding a reform of the Czechoslovak system of higher education were written both in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and in exile. This contribution treats the most relevant of them: describing each in turn and then comparing them. In particular, the author analyses the programmes produced by the London government, programme points of the Social Democratic Party in exile, programme of the home resistance group Za svobodu (For Freedom), outlines of reform proposals elaborated by students both in the Protectorate and in exile, and last but not least proposals authored by Professors Miloslav Valouch and Zdeněk Nejedlý. The aim of this contribution is to demonstrate that even during the WWII, ideas and notions which were discussed later, in 1945–1948, were gradually taking shape, and some elements of these proposals even found their way into a later Communist reform of higher education.

Potenciranje poznatoga i ponavljanje neistina: U povodu knjige John CORNWELL, Hitler's Pope. The Secrete History of Pius XII, Viking, London, 1999., 430 str.

Author(s): Jure Krišto / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2000

While the author is impressed by Cornwell's style and presentation, he is appaled by the lack of seriousness exhibited by author who writes about an important subject (not broached for the first time, by any means) and by demonstrated inability to supress his preconceived notions and even prejudices. Cornwell relies heavily on Owen Chadwick, which assures that he mentions most important facts about the involvement of the Cardinal and Pope Pius XII (whom Cornwell systematicaly entities by his family name, Pacelli) in contemporary politics, but he bends and ignores Chadwick's research when he makes his judgment about the Pope. Cornwell's treatment of Catholic Church in the Independent State of Croatia (he gives it an entrie chapter) is a traversy of research and objective writing. His main source, if not the only, for the presentation of the Church in Croatia during the World War II ip 35 years old book by Carlo Falconi. Cornwell perhaps did not know , but he could have and must have been informed, that Falconi wrote his piece on the basis of the propagandistic material given to him by the Yugoslav secrete service and propagandists, which served the put•pose of anti-Chatolic propaganda in Yugoslavia. A well intended reader could excuse Cornwell (he does not read Croatian and could not know what some authors wrote about Falconi's sources at the time his book appeared), if he did not point those "Croatian materials" as essential not only for the condemnation of Croatian Catholic episcopate, but for Pius XII as well.

Versenyfutás Erdélyért

Author(s): Ignác Romsics / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 09/2024

After the Second Vienna Award of 1940, which divided Transylvania into a Hungarian and a Romanian part, a contest started between the two countries for gaining control of the whole region. In order to reach this goal, both countries joined the alliance system of Nazi Germany and in June 1941 entered the war against the Soviet Union. After the battle of Stalingrad, the strategies of the competitors started to change. The two rivals realized that Germany would lose the war, and therefore the peace, including the settlement of territorial disputes and border changes, would be shaped by the Allies. Although they continued to fight on the side of Germany, they prepared for the victory of the Allies. In this new phase of the race, Romania proved to be more successful. In August 1944, she turned the tables on the Wehrmacht while Hungary continued to fight Germany’s side. Despite the successful Romanian volte-face, the future of Northern Transylvania which had belonged to Hungary since 1940, was still undecided. The armistice agreement with Romania signed on September 12, 1944 stipulated that “Transylvania or greater part thereof should be returned to Romania, subject to confirmation at the peace settlement”. The dispute was settled in 1945-1946 by the victorious Allied Powers. The United States and – less firmly – Great Britain and France favored “an adjustment of the Hungarian-Rumanian frontier in Transylvania along ethnic lines which would transfer a small strip from Arad to Szatmár/Satu Mare to Hungary”. The Soviet Union, however, stubbornly opposed any modification of the post-1920 borders, including even symbolic changes. This meant that the final decision taken by the Paris Peace Conference in Fall of 1946 accomplished the restoration of the pre-war frontiers. The race was won by Romania.

A tordai csata egy kevéssé ismert epizódja: Az 1. hegyi tábori pótdandár harcai a Gyalui-havasokban

Author(s): Péter Illésfalvi / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 09/2024

The 1st Mountain Field Reserve Brigade, established by the Royal Hungarian 1st Mountain Brigade based in Beszterce/Bistrița at the end of August 1944, participated in the so-called Battle of Torda/Turda between September 13 and October 8, 1944. This forgotten unit covered the right flank of the 25th Infantry Division and the 2nd Armored Division, which were fighting in the main direction, in the Gyalui/Gilăului Mountains. The brigade, poorly equipped and lacking vehicles, fought both regular and irregular Romanian units, as well as Soviet rifle troops, on extremely difficult terrain. By mid-October 1944, the brigade was almost completely decimated in the unequal struggle, but the steadfastness of its soldiers contributed to preventing the attackers from encircling the Hungarian 2nd Army’s forces fighting at Torda/Turda from the west.

A székelyföldi hadműveletek 1944-ben

Author(s): István Ravasz / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 09/2024

The author meticulously tracks the series of military historical events that occurred in Szeklerland from the last decade of August 1944 to the first decade of September 1944 with almost neopositivist objectivity. The study presents the Hungarian troops stationed in the region at that time, including the Szekler Border Defense Forces and the Szekler Border Guard, the battlefields in the Eastern Carpathians, and the remnants of German troops retreating to the Hungarian border. Given the length constraints of an article in a journal, which do not allow for an expansion of the topic to all of Transylvania, readers can refer to the author’s book, Erdély ismét hadszíntér – 1944 (Budapest, 2002), published by Petit Real Könyvkiadó as part of their Militaria series, for detailed information on the rapidly evolving political events and decision-making processes following the Romanian switch of allegiance, the reorganization of the Hungarian 2nd Army, its southern Transylvanian offensive, subsequent withdrawal, the one-month-long Battle of Torda/Turda, and the battles in the Marosvásárhely/Târgu Mureş-Szászrégen/Reghin region, as well as the causative connections leading to the forced evacuation of Szeklerland and, eventually, all of Transylvania.

„Kár volt ezt csinálni, mert a románok majd a helyi magyarokon fogják ezt megbosszulni”. Etnikai konfliktusok Nagysármáson 1944 őszén

Author(s): Szabolcs Kovács / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 09/2024

On 23 August 1944, Romania changed sides in the Second World War, abandoning the German alliance and declaring war on the German Reich. The Hungarian political leadership subsequently joined in a plan for an offensive against Southern Transylvania, aimed at closing the southern Carpathian passes to the advancing Soviet troops. The operation was carried out in several waves, the first being a joint German-Hungarian offensive launched on 5 September in what was, in fact, the territory of Southern Transylvania. In my study, I examine how the advance of the front line affected the power dynamics in the ethnically mixed settlement of Nagysármás/Sărmaşu. According to my preliminary hypothesis, the power relations between the two ethnic groups in the village, which was almost equally populated by Romanians and Hungarians, shifted depending on which administration (Romanian or Hungarian) was in control. However, the Jewish population in Nagysármás/Sărmaşu faced continuous discrimination, and the events during the Hungarian occupation led to a tragedy. The mutual grievances endured poisoned Romanian-Hungarian inter-ethnic relations for decades.

Frontátvonulás és az újabb „román világ” kezdetei Szépvízen (1944–1945)

Author(s): János Főcze / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 09/2024

Szépvíz/Frumoasa is located in the eastern part of Transylvania, in the historical region of Széklerland – nowadays central Romania. In September 1944, the inhabitants of this settlement had to endure the passing of the front with the retreat of the German and Hungarian armies and the advance of the Soviet and Romanian armies. Following a notable intermezzo under Soviet military administration, the rule of the Romanian Kingdom was (re)instated. This study explores the history of this period from a micro-historical perspective, covering the multiple transitions at the local level from September 1944 to 1945, based on archival sources, available literature, and oral history interviews.

Félárnyékban rekedt tragédiánk. Erdélyi magyar civilek szovjet fogságba hurcolása 1944-ben

Author(s): János Kristóf Murádin / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 09/2024

The study addresses the capture of Hungarian civilians by Soviet troops in Northern Transylvania during September-November 1944. Approximately 20,000 Hungarian men and boys were forcibly taken. The ages of those captured ranged from 14 to 70 years. They were deported to several forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The duration of captivity was typically four years, but in some cases, it extended to 8-9 years. The prisoners were compelled to work under harsh conditions in various mines or logging operations. During the summer, they participated in agricultural work on nearby Soviet kolkhozes. Due to the severe working conditions, acute food shortages, and lack of medical care, the prisoners became extremely debilitated. One-third of them died in captivity. This aspect of our contemporary history was a taboo subject during the Communist era. Only the 1989 Revolution brought about significant change in this regard. This study aims to provide an overview of this tragic event, based on the author’s two decades of research. The source material for the study includes archival data, specialist books, studies, memoirs, data and articles published in contemporary press, as well as interviews with survivors, most of which were conducted by the author.

Jegyzőkönyv a Maniu-gárda1944. szeptember 26-i szárazajtai gyilkosságáról

Author(s): / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 09/2024

Migration as Mission: Alojz-Alexis Strýček SJ in Belgium (1938–1945)

Author(s): Wim Coudenys / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2023

This article presents a case study of Alojz-Alexis Strýček SJ, a Slovak Jesuit in Belgium during World War II, to examine the complexities of migration, identity, and religious mission within turbulent historical contexts. Strýček’s experiences challenge conventional categorizations in migration studies, demonstrating how individual narratives can intersect with and transcend national and religious boundaries. The study employs social network analysis and philological-historical methods, offering insights into the dynamic roles migrants play in the circulation of knowledge and in shaping transnational connections. Strýček’s case highlights the importance of considering non-national factors, such as religious affiliations, in understanding migration patterns and migrant identities. This research contributes to the emerging field of “migrant knowledge,” which focuses on the role of migrants in global knowledge exchange and the redefinition of identities in times of crisis, thereby enriching our understanding of the multifaceted nature of migration.

A szovjet fogság emlékezete

Author(s): Tamás Stark / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 11/2024

The issue of approximately 700,000 Hungarian POWs who spent many years in Soviet forced labor camps was an absolute taboo under Communism. It gained public attention only in the aftermath of its collapse. Dozens of memoirs were published, alongside a few reports and documentary films. Additionally, organizations were established to preserve the memory of the former prisoners. However, early representations received little attention in the 1990s and 2000s, even in historical writing. The government declared 2016 and 2017 as Gulag Memorial Years, which provided new impetus for research in this field. New sources were made available through recollections. Regarding historical policy, the government incorporated the prisoners’ stories into its anti-Western memory narrative, claiming that the USA was responsible for the tragic fate of the prisoners. However, these suggestions have not yet infiltrated academic historical discourse.

Prekursorka „małego sabotażu”

Author(s): Stefan Zabierowski / Language(s): Polish Issue: 3/2024