Der christlich-jüdische Dialog im polnischen Kontext

Author(s): Robert Biel / Language(s): German Issue: 2/2014

For centuries Poland was a country where Jews willingly settled. In the first years of XX century, Jews made up a large percentage of Poland’s inhabitants. But when the Second World War broke out the extermination of Jews threw a shadow upon the relations between Jews and Christians in Poland. Communism by no means favored a mutual reconciliation. In free Poland, it is however necessary to make the most of this common historical heritage as a foundation for a Christian – Jewish dialogue which opens up new perspectives.

Židovstvo u Europi

Author(s): Michael Brenner / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 34-35/2004

Već dvije tisuće godina Europa udara pečat židovskoj povijesti kao što su i Židovi pridonijeli tomu da je Europa nastala. Pritom se ne da samo u brojevima pokazati uloga koju su Židovi odigrali u najrazličitijim područjima. Gledano u cjelini, oni su uvijek bili manjina, a ipak su u pretežno kršćanskim, ali ponekad i muslimansko određenim društvima, odigrali jasno definirane teološke i društvene zadatke. Kao jedina nekršćanska manjina bili su u kršćanstvu stalno pod posebnom prismotrom, potisnuti na rub društva, često progonjeni i protjerivani, ali nikada posve iz Europe protjerani.

La volontà di vivere e la responsabilità dell’uomo nel pensiero di Etty Hillesum e di Viktor Frankl

Author(s): Inga Mizdrak / Language(s): Italian Issue: 1/2017

The quest for and the discovery of the meaning of life, so basic to human existence, play a fundamental role in the process of self‑ discovery, that is, in the examination of our own identity, subjectivity and the “self ”. Underlying this quest are not merely vague approximations to what man is, but clear fundamental dimensions of humanity: freedom and responsibility.Etty Hillesum and Victor Frankl, take different perspectives on the meaning of life of a person who experiences himself, the world, others and God in the face of war and extreme circumstances (Etty perished in Auschwitz, Frankl survived the concentration camps). However, they both point to the universal trait of the utmost engagement of the will and the assumption of responsibility for one’s life, despite the inevitability of death and the prevalent “cultural hibernation”.In both analyses, freedom appears as a response to reality, to the here and now. That response, as such, means taking responsibility for reality and its shape. Hence it an important question to ask would be what it means to take control of one’s destiny. Is it an obligation, a task, life’s demand, or perhaps just submission to what life may bring? Freedom, which is constantly threatened, must fight for itself. This happens owing to the will to live, which first evokes meaning and then the obligation of taking responsibility for oneself, for others, and even for God himself.

Put prema holokaustu

Author(s): Michael Salewski / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1+2/2006

Nije neprijateljstvo prema Židovima, proizašlo iz kršćanstva, bilo plodno tlo za ideologiju zatiranja, kao ni rasprava o rasama u devetnaestom i početkom dvadesetog stoljeća. Proganjanje i ubijanje Židova razvilo se pod utjecajem okrutnog logičkog postulata njihove neljudskosti. Židovi nisu ljudi, nego gamad. Svaki uredan čovjek treba postati čistač, ukoliko želi očuvati čistim svoje životne prostore i životne snove. Tek kada židovska “gnjila plijesan” konačno i zauvijek bude umrtvljena, svijet će opet ozdraviti. Tako opako, sarkastično i prosto – nema potrebe objašnjavati čije se mišljenje ovdje kolportira. Židovi su naša nesreća. Svako izdanje “Stürmer-a” otpočinjalo je tom najpoznatijom rečenicom jednog od najpoznatijih njemačkih povjesničara, Heinricha von Treitschkea.

Czernowitz 1941/1942 – der Einsatz des deutschen Konsuls Fritz Schellhorn für die Juden

Author(s): Hartwig Cremers / Language(s): German Issue: 73/2014

This essay treats actions of Fritz Gebhard Schellhorn (1888-1982), physician, member of the German diplomatic service since 1920, German consul in Cernăuţi / Czernowitz (Romania) 1934-1944, resident in Jassy in the period 1940/41. It describes his efforts and resulting successes in preventing the continuation of the murder of Jews by a SS- Sonderkommando“ in Cernăuţi in July 1941 and stopping the deportation of Jews from Cernăuţi saving up to 20 000 human beings in October 1941. In addition, the essay questions the prevailing interpretation of the role of Traian Popovici, lord mayor of Cernăuţi and presents some thoughts on the motivation of Schellhorn and the reception of this incidents.

Három könyv a munkaszolgálatról

Author(s): János Dési / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 2/2017

Az elfelejtett tanúk megszólalnak

Author(s): Zsolt Kácsor / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 2/2017

PROGONI I STRADANJA JEVREJA U GRAČANICI TOKOM DRUGOG SVJETSKOG RATA

Author(s): Omer Hamzić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 2/2009

U ovom radu obrađeni su rezultati istraživanja podataka o stradanju Jevreja u Gračanici tokom Drugog svjetskog rata, koji su do sada manje-više bili nepoznati široj javnosti. Ti podaci ostajali su na marginama velikih tema naše politi čkei vojne historiografije, obično kao ilustracija ili eho velikih političkih preokreta ili vojnih akcija. Suočeni sa konkretnim ljudskim tragedijama i patnjama (na primjer, u slučaju gospođe Helene Kolman) s jedne, i sa površnošću raspoloživih evidencija i nedostatkom podataka o imenima i broju žrtava s druge strane, nismo mogli definitivno utvrditi konačan broj nastradalih Jevreja na ovom području, te smatramo da smo, na ovaj način, tek otvorili pitanje stradanja Jevreja u malim bosanskohercegovačkim gradovima i njihovim ljudskim sudbinama i patnjama tokom Drugog svjetskog rata, o čemu se do sada malo istraživalo i pisalo.

Akce "Pavouk". Evidování židovského obyvatelstva Státní bezpečností za normalizace

Author(s): Ondřej Koutek / Language(s): Czech Issue: 01/2017

Anti-Semitism and persecution of the Jewish population are frequent subject of historical research, which is usually related especially to World War II and Shoah history. The Czech historiography focused a little less attentionon on the status of the Jewish communities after the Second World War and especially during Communist rule regime in Czechoslovakia.

Útvar StB pro boj proti sionismu

Author(s): Ondřej Koutek / Language(s): Czech Issue: 01/2017

The article desribes methodes which have been used by the communists they fought against Zionism in Czechoslovakia. As a side effect of this policy was an increase of antisemitism also.

Around the Bloc: Russian Church, Crime Fighters Reopen Probes of Nicholas II’s Death

Author(s): TOL TOL / Language(s): English Issue: 12/05/2017

Orthodox bishop denies anti-Semitic overtones in remarks about 'ritual murder' of last czar and his family.

„Za wyżej wymienione pamiętniki nie żądałem żadnej zapłaty”. Jak Władysław Wójcik ratował dziennik Chaima Arona Kapłana i Archiwum Ringelbluma

Author(s): Jacek Leociak / Language(s): Polish Issue: 13/2017

The materials presented above include a file with the correspondence between Władysław Wójcik and the director of the Jewish Historical Institute Bernard Mark, located in the institute’s archive, as well as fragments of Wójcik’s memoir from the Yad Vashem Archives. In all of Wójcik’s writings, there is a discrepancy between the declared unselfishness, and ingratitude he had been experiencing after the war from the Jews. His claims relate, on one hand, to the lack of compensation from the mother of a girl, whom he helped to hide during the occupation, and on the other, from the JHI’s – due to his role in discovery and saving the second part of the Ringelblum Archive and Chaim Aron Kapłan’s Diary. The motive for his efforts to obtain payment are Wójcik’s financial problems after he emigrated to the USA.

Zatrucie. Piołun i popiół… trzydzieści lat później

Author(s): Marta Tomczok / Language(s): Polish Issue: 13/2017

W artykule zadaję sobie pytanie, co sprawiło, że opublikowany trzydzieści lat temu esej Romana Zimanda Piołun i popiół. Czy Polacy i Żydzi wzajem się nienawidzą? został dziś prawie zupełnie zapomniany. Stawiam sobie także zadanie, aby zmienić tę sytuację, a przede wszystkim przyjrzeć się okolicznościom, które doprowadziły do niej.

Souzen bude sionismus

Author(s): Tomáš Habermann / Language(s): Czech Issue: 03/2017

Processes with Simon Ornstein et al. and with Mordechai Oren

Around the Bloc: Outrage Over Children Displaying Neo-Nazi Symbols at Football Game in Bulgaria

Author(s): TOL TOL / Language(s): English Issue: 05/01/2018

Racist and far-right incidents at games in the Balkan country have been frequent in the past few years.

Drinking vodka with anti-Semites. A case study of ‘Polish-Jewish relations’ today

Author(s): Anna Zawadzka / Language(s): English Issue: 11/2018

This text analyzes the events that occurred between December 31, 2016 and January 6, 2017, namely the ‘scandal’ at the Café Foksal pub in Warsaw and its ramifications, as well as the simultaneous attacks on the Prince Kebab shop in Ełk. Both events were local or, many would venture to say, marginal. It is not my intention to attribute great importance to them. I rather treat them as meaningful case studies which exemplify how anti-Semitism operates in Polish culture at present and, probably more importantly, the roadblock encountered when problematizing anti-Semitism. These allegedly insignificant events from the turn of 2016–2017 are an excellent illustration of the conditions that Jews and other individuals perceived to be non-Polish have to accept in order to ensure relative safety to themselves. I discuss these events as a certain spectacle, whose actors played either the roles they chose or the only roles available to them (perpetrator, victim, bystander, and mediator). I also suggest viewing these events from the point of view of certain elements of Polish history.

Perspektywa postkolonialna w badaniach nad diasporą żydowską. Żyd-Chińczyk we wspomnieniach Anki Votickiej

Author(s): Emilia Rydel / Language(s): Polish Issue: 11/2018

This article is an attempt to link reflection on Jewish refugee’s memory with postcolonial perspective. The primary source of my considerations is Anka Voticky’s written memories. Voticky had survived the Second World War in Shanghai and Hongkew ghetto. As a starting point, postcolonial theory has been used in close relation to Holocaust studies and diaspora studies. I also show traces of co-existence of Jews and Chinese allowed to break non-writing tradition about colonized people (amah, rickshaw, coolie) during Second World War.

“A young boy attacked us once and started shooting; we didn’t even run any more.” Murders committed on Jews from the village of Strzegom by AK and BCh members

Author(s): Anna Bikont / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017

A group of more than 30 Jews was hiding in a dugout in a forest near Strzegom, a small village on the edge of a forest in the Świętokrzyskie Province. Attacked and robbed by the villagers who were members of the Home Army and Peasants’ Battalions, the Jews continued to hide in the forest in smaller groups. The same group of partisans that had attacked the Jews in the dugout continued to capture and murder them, including women and children. There were eight survivors: children and adolescents plus one adult. The article reconstructs the six-month period of hiding basing on a touching testimony of one of the surviving girls, Dora Zoberman, who gave it at the age of eleven, materials from the post war August Decree trials, and recent conversations with the survivors and Strzegom inhabitants. It also reconstructs the actions of the judiciary with regard to the crimes committed against the Jews. Sentenced to death, the murderers were pardoned and released after 1956. One of them received compensation in the 1990s for having been repressed because of his pro-independence activity.

‘Turning Jews Over’ – the Participation of ‘Blue’ Policemen in Deportations of Jews Illustrated with the Example of the Radomsko County

Author(s): Ewa Wiatr / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017

Based on previously unknown archival documents, the author discusses the Polish Police functionaries’ participation in deportations of the Jewish population from Radomsko County to the ghetto in Radomsko or to death centres. The ‘blue’ policemen participated in the “Jewish campaigns” not only as guards, but they also took a direct part in both the loading of Jews and Jewish possessions and in the stamping of Jewish property. The policemen delegated from the local police stations to assist at the deportations were paid stipends from the budget of the Union of Communities in Radomsko.

The Auschwitz Virus

Author(s): Przemysław Czapliński / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2017

The article presents – based on a review of Sławomir Buryła’s book Tematy (nie) opisane – a polemic with the approach to the Holocaust as an element of the historical process, an element, which can be isolated from modernity and to which loftiness can be assigned. Czapliński contrasts it with the conception of the ‘Auschwitz virus’, according to which morality, economy, and science after the Holocaust shall never be able to separate themselves from it.