We kindly inform you that, as long as the subject affiliation of our 300.000+ articles is in progress, you might get unsufficient or no results on your third level or second level search. In this case, please broaden your search criteria.
The article presents the history of the contact between Aleksandra Kołłontaj and the Wallenberg family. The first meetings between the Russian diplomat and the influential family of Swedish bankers took place in the 1930s during the negotiations concerning the return of the Russian gold kept by the bank owned by the Wallenbergs. Prior to the outbreak of WWII this first female ambassador met members of the Wallenberg family in a sanatorium. Undoubtedly, the encounters of Marcus Wallenberg with Aleksandra Kołłontaj affected the situation of Finland during WWII. Without their common involvement in the case, the history of Finland during the war with the USSR might have been totally different. The backstage information about the relationship between Aleksandra and Raoul Wallenberg is also very interesting. Unfortunately, we are unable to answer many questions and clarify doubts as long as the majority of the Russian archives devoted to the secretary of the Swedish diplomat remain secret.
More...
The Hungarian foreign policy, which was connected to István Bethlen in the late 1920s, strived to expand its geopolitical influence and space of manoeuvre. Bethlen tried to put the Austrian radical Heimwehr movement to the service of Hungarian peace revision efforts. To achieve his goals, he played a mediator role between Mussolini and the leaders of the heterogeneous Heimwehr movement, thus prepared the penetration of fascism into Austria, which at the same time reduced the space of manoeuvre in the Hungarian foreign policy. The focus of this study is on the Hungarian help for the Austrian paramilitary movement between 1927 and 1929. The purpose of this support was to install an Austrian right-wing leadership (even with the help of a violent government coup) that would pursue a more tolerant policy towards Hungary.
More...
Ostrowska examines homosexual barter relations in the Auschwitz-Birkenau-Monowitz camp complex. In Polish collective memory, a pipel – an inmate functionary’s helper – designates a male victim of rape by homosexual prisoners. For years, homosexual relations between all categories of concentration camp inmates have been falsely attributed to men convicted of homosexual acts. After the war, men sentenced under section 175 continued to be criminalised; often they were also viewed as collaborators rather than victims. Victims of sexual violence, meanwhile, often remained anonymous. Ostrowska sheds light on the functioning of post-war phantasms about sexual violence against men. She uses the few surviving testimonies by victims, co-prisoners’ accounts as well as literary sources that are still unavailable in Polish (Yehiel De-Nur).
More...
Researchers agree that the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961 fundamentally transformed the memory of the Shoah and caused its rapid expansion in the West. Muchowski discusses the reception of this event in Poland, a country that the Iron Curtain separated from these memory processes. Examining exemplary reactions to the trial in the first half of the 1960s, Muchowski shows how the trial strengthened or weakened Polish paradigms of remembering the extermination of Europe’s Jews – paradigms already described by other researchers, such as viewing Holocaust victims as a multinational group, the story of the innocent Polish victim and the anti-German discourse.
More...
Examines the work of Leopold Buczkowski (1905–1989), especially his novel Czarny potok [Black Torrent, 1946], Koprowska uses the notion of the birthplace as a descriptor of the relationship between the individual and the community in the framework of a specific cultural and social configuration. Her goal is to determine how Buczkowski’s birthplace impacts the way he captures his experience of the Shoah and the war.
More...
The term “pariah” was used by Max Weber in his Ancient Judaism (published originally in the years 1917–1919) to describe the Jewish nation which, as he maintained, was “separated, formally or de facto, from their social surroundings.” Inspired by Weber’s work, Hannah Arendt was the first to expand this concept to include the Roma people, albeit unwittingly. In the light of Arendt’s essay “The Jew as Pariah: A Hidden Tradition,” the pariah is a “suspect” treated in accordance with the rules of an investigation, examination, or inspection. Constantly watched, spied on, or kept under surveillance, the pariah becomes hypervisible. The Roma pariahs have been immersed in the “ecology of fear” for ages. Never immune to accusations such as theft or fraud, they have always been construed as the criminogenic element of the society. The “suspicion” would all too easily turn into “prevention,” which would frequently take very radical forms. However, it was only in 1987 that the book The Pariah Syndrome: An Account of Gypsy Slavery and Persecution by Ian Hancock cast light directly onto the Roma pariah. The figure of the pariah helps to reveal the essence of the uniqueness of Porajmos – the Roma genocide as a genocide parallel to the Shoah, yet driven by different causes, proceeding along a different course, and burdened with different consequences. One of these consequences was the fact that in the post-war period the extermination of the Roma gradually sank into oblivion and, thereby, into invisibility.
More...
Małka Najmark była po wojnie jedyną Żydówką w miasteczku. Miejsce, do którego wróciła, było tym samym tylko geograficznie. Cała jej rodzina zginęła w Sobiborze. Została sama jedna na świecie, tyle że świata jej życia już nie było.
More...
Disputes between Poland and Germany over historical events have been a characteristic feature of the relations between the two countries in the last thirty years, though they have been present with varying intensity. One of the related issues pertains to the question of war reparations from Germany raised by the Polish government. Poland was one on the countries that incurred the largest tangible and intangible losses due to the German invasion on 1 September 1939, the followed occupation, genocide and destruction caused between 1939 and 1945. The aim of this publication is to indicate the problem related to the war reparations for Poland from Germany with an emphasize and distinction made between two periods of time, namely between 1945 and 1989 as well as between 1990 and 2020. One of the main characteristics of the war reparations for Poland, which were recognized and admitted by the winning countries in the aftermath of the Second World War, was that they were paid to Poland through the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USRR) and not directly by Germany. In 1953, the Polish People’s Republic government renounced the reparations from Germany with the decision coming in force on 1 January 1954. In spite of the above, during the last thirty years, the issue of German reparations for Poland has been again present in Polish political discourse with altering intensity. There are little chances, however, that Poland could receive any further reparation from Germany. It is due to the fact that Germany’s succeeding governments are of the opinion that Poland does not have any legal basis for these kind of claims and that the issue of war reparations for Poland has been already closed.
More...
The Romanian-Polish Convention of defensive alliance, signed a century ago on March 26, 1921, still represents a powerful symbol for the development of the excellent relations between Romania and Poland. The Romanian-Polish Convention of defensive alliance was renewed in 1926 as the Treaty of Guarantee and Conciliation between the Kingdom of Romania and the Republic of Poland, and once more in 1931. Between 1932 and 1936, the bilateral relations deteriorated due to diverging interests, but the treaty was tacitly renewed in 1936. The alliance become obsolete due to the outbreak of the Second World War, but Romania maintained its allegiance and offered its help to Poland. Despite German and Soviet pressure, Romania allowed the transit of the National Bank of Poland’s gold reserve and National Treasurers, in addition to about 100.000 Polish refugees, among them political leaders and 60,000 military personnel who reorganized and continued from exile the fight against Nazism and later Communism.
More...
How could a state and its leadership abandon without resistance millions of its citizens and almost a third of its territory, like Romania did in 1940? It’s a disturbing question and simply blaming the external factors is not sufficient, nor fair to the Romanian society. The events from the summer of 1940 are all the more shocking considering that the regime the King himself and his regime were pushing the pedal of nationalism, promising the citizens of Greater Romania that every swath of land will be defended under any circumstances, at any cost.
More...
The Yugoslav Army in Homeland (Jugoslovenska vojska u Otadžbini - JVuO), also known as Ravnogorski resistance movement, developed its intelligence branch since the early days of its existence in mid-1941. The premature uprising of 1941 and harsh German reprisals caused that the whole resistance in Serbia collapse until the late summer of 1942. In following period, the JVuO intelligence was established under the subordination of the its Komanda Srbije – The Serbian HQs and its Main Intelligence Centre. But the JVuO intelligence branch was not unified. It was not operated from a single center in later years. Soon, there were other commands which developed their own intelligence networks, such as Belgrade HQ, different operational units and HQs. Even, there were individual networks established mostly in Belgrade, directly connected with its supreme commander General Dragoljub Mihailović. Such kind of organization produced the overlapping or duplication of efforts. No matter such shortcomings, Belgrade was certainly the place where this branch operated most successfully in nearly while duration of the War. The intelligence branch itself was created under the difficult daily conditions of the German occupation which reached its peak in turn of 1942/1943. Its development was never straightforward and depended on the level of pressure from the German occupier, the particular situation in the different parts of Serbia and on the quality, ability and self-sacrifice of the people that were members or supporters. Most of the information were transmitted to higher instances or the Supreme Command over the radio network. It enabled the German signal intelligence to monitor and analyze the level of gathered facts and figures. Nevertheless, the gathered information on the order of battle, strength, activities and movements of the German troops reached the Yugoslav Government in exile and Allied HQs. With numerous of intelligence officers and residents falling into the hands of the German occupier, that is certainly the largest contribution of the JVuO intelligence to the Allied cause. After the Partisan and Soviet troops entered the Serbia in September - October 1944, General Mihailović and main body of its forces, abandoned Serbia and retreated into Bosnia, where they were defeated and destroyed in May 1945. Withdrawal from Serbia in autumn 1944, marked a cease of the organized Ravnogorski intelligence. Having some pre-Second World War intelligence experience, being military attaché and working partly in Intelligence Department, General Mihailović never devoted this business to any of his subordinated officers in JVuO Supreme Command. He gathered almost all of the information from the terrain, no matter that Intelligence Department was created in September 1943 and existed until the end of the war. The article is written upon the preserved documents of the JVuO Supreme Command and its numerous dispatches that were communicated between General Mihailović and its subordinated intelligence network.
More...
The article analyzes the armed incidents on the Adriatic Sea that were a consequence of the entry of Italian fishing boats into Yugoslav territorial waters. The author points out the political and security implications of not resolving the issue of fishing between Yugoslavia and Italy. The article was written on the basis of unpublished archival sources from the Military Archives in Belgrade, the Archives of Yugoslavia, the Diplomatic Archives in Belgrade, published normative documents and literature in Serbian, English, Slovenian and French. In a situation where many bilateral issues have not been resolved, the issue of fisheries, which is a matter of economic cooperation, has had significant political and security implications. The issue of granting the right to Italian fishermen to fish in Yugoslav territorial waters was a significant argument for the Yugoslav government during the negotiations in resolving other open issues in relations with Italy. The problem of seizing Italian fishing boats was not resolved even after the signing of the Fisheries Agreement in 1949. Yugoslav and Italian representatives continued to consider this issue in an atmosphere of seeking mutual concessions of political and financial concessions.
More...
The paper presents an archived item on the organization of cultural and entertainment life of Yugoslav officers captured during World War II at the Oflag VI C camp in Osnabrück. As anintroduction to the document, an overview was given of the Osnabrück camp and lives of its detained Yugoslav officers, predominantly Serbs and several hundred Jews, as well as of ideological-political divisions that subdued them. A Yugoslav officers’ camp was located in Osnabrück from April 1941 to the end of the war. The number of prisoners varied, but most often amounted from 4,000 to 6,000. The conditions of accommodation and supply were generally averageor poor. Besides, 117 officers and a few soldiers were killed during the British bombing on December 6, 1944. As there was a large number of educated people in the camp, and since captured officers did not have to work, a rich, cultural, artistic and educational life was developed during their captivity. Yugoslav officers were ideologically divided, so they usually had twoor more organizations and associations for the same type of activity (communist, civil-royalist, sometimesneutral, etc.), which showed great mutual intolerance. The paper finally shows a note with the attached letter to the Camp authorities for approval of the Statute proposal of the „Rodna Gruda Camp Theater” (composed by a drama section, an orchestraand a choir), established in August 1943, writtenby a civic-minded Community for cultural and physical training.
More...
Presenting the facts concerning those military force units which played the key role in events that took place in territories where reprisals against Serb civilians were committed during the fall of 1941, provides the clearer insight into structure of the battalions that participated in them. Data refer to 717th Infantry Division, battalions I-III/749. and I-III/797, i.e. their troops which participated in battles fought during September, October and November of the same year. Human losses as well as the basic positions and movements of German battalions in those months, war period especially difficult for the population of the wider Central and Western Serbia – Krupanj, Loznica, Draginac, Sabac, Kraljevo, Kragujevac and nearby villages where massive war crimes were committed by different profiles and purposes military units, are to be shown here. Brutality is reinforced by General Franz Beme's directives with the 100:1 quota implemented, unlike General Maximilian Reichsfriaier von Weiss' command of April 1941, which was operationally impracticable in terms of arresting hostages before the incident. These battalions' fallen soldiers are used for carrying out retaliation according to set quotas. This work is one part of the sequel in investigating details about perpetrators of the crime - German battalions participating battles around Kragujevac and Kraljevo and other territories and areas where they were stationed or moved to, during the fall of 1941.
More...
The review of: Potwór pamięci (The Memory Monster). By: Yishai Sarid. Published in Polish by the Jan Nowak-Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław, Poland, 2021.
More...
The article analyzes the situation in Iran before and during the Second World War, when the warring parties represented by England, Germany and the USSR tried to bring the Iranian intelligentsia to their side. The author shows that on the eve of the war, German propagandists achieved the greatest success in this field. The main issues that could become the basis for the rapprochement of Nazi Germany and the Shah’s Iran are shown: the propaganda of the «Aryan brotherhood» and the positioning of the Third Reich as a defender of Muslims. The channels of influence of Nazism on the Iranian intelligentsia are revealed. The main scientific result: the evolution of the national consciousness of the Iranian intelligentsia is shown, and the main reasons for the final collapse of the German ideological expansion into Iran are determined.
More...
On 3 September 1964, during the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, Helen Goldman accused SS camp doctor Franz Lucas of selecting her mother and siblings for the gas chamber when the family arrived at Birkenau in May 1944. Although she could identify Lucas, the court considered her information under cross-examination too inconsistent to build a case against Lucas. To appreciate Goldman’s authority, we must remove her from the humiliation of the West German legal gaze and inquire instead how she is seen through the lens of witness hospitality (directly by Emmi Bonhoe er) and psychiatric assessment (indirectly by Dr Walter von Baeyer).
More...
This article deals with the question of how the (grand)children of local Nazi collaborators in Lithuania have dealt with their family histories and with their (grand)parents’ crimes. On the basis of archival materials and interviews, it illuminates how Holocaust perpetrators were convicted, how families were affected by these convictions, and how their lives evolved afterwards, how families coped with uncertainties or family secrets and developed mechanisms of denial or family mythologies. Furthermore, the article illuminates developments after 1990 – the revision of Soviet sentences, processes of rehabilitation and derehabilitation, the opening of archives, and the clash between imagined and documented realities.
More...
Review: Akteur im Stillen. Enno Meyer und die Aussöhnung mit Polen und Juden. Hrsg. von Burkhard Olschowsky. (Schriften des Bundesinstituts für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa, Bd. 73.) De Gruyter Oldenbourg. München 2019. 206 S., Ill. ISBN 978-3-11-059718-9. (€ 49,95.) (Christoph Schutte)
More...