Search

The article analyses the novel Umschlagplatz (1988) by a significant Polish writer and literary critic, J.M. Rymkiewicz, which deals with a twice iconic space (Warsaw’s Umschlagplatz — pars pro toto of the Holocaust and the painful problem of Polish- Jewish relations during and after the Second World War). The article aims to determine the novel’s place in the ongoing debate in Polish society about Polish complicity in the Holocaust since the second half of the 1980s. The analysis of the complex text construction covers the relationship between poetics and the problem of testimony, the modality of fiction. Generated by an acute sense of the blatant non-presence of the space of the Jewish tragedy in Polish historical consciousness as a place of memory, guilt, and shame, Rymkiewicz’s novel appears as a postulate of commemoration and empathy addressed to Polish society, a call for recognition and comprehension of the traumatic past. Umschlagplatz was a significant artistic and ethical step in preparation for working through the Holocaust-related Polish trauma, complicated by the persistence of the heroic-romantic self-identification of Polish society.

Numerous academics addressed the violence against the Serbs and Jews within the Independent State of Croatia. In addition to identifying research gaps in this regard, this paper analyses the letters of Georges Gueyraud, a Vichy diplomat in Zagreb, along with several other documents sourced from the French Diplomatic Archive. Primarily focused on the violence against the Serbs, this paper delves into the period when the violence reached its peak, namely the summer of 1941. It contains Gueyraud’s analysis of the atmosphere of violence in Zagreb that he had witnessed, as well as testimonies of violence from various parts of Croatia that he had acquired. Furthermore, this paper examines the reactions of the Croatian authorities and the press in response to these atrocities. In addition to analysing the content of Gueyraud’s letters, this article evaluates his handling of the information he received, examining the presence of a critical approach. Furthermore, it assesses the accuracy of his information by cross–referencing it with sources and literature.

This paper explores the dynamics of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict through the perspective of Jewish history and collective memory, with a particular focus on the Holocaust as a point of departure. Through a history of civilization approach and collective memory analysis, this paper explores how the traumatic experience of the Holocaust has shaped the identity, politics and narratives of the Jewish people to influence their views on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. It reveals how the memory of the Holocaust is not only an integral part of Jewish identity but also plays a role in shaping the policies and strategies adopted by the state of Israel. Holocaust memory is often used to justify defensive and offensive actions to sustain the Jewish state amidst external and internal threats. In this context, the "From Holocaust to Holocaust" narrative reflects the transformation and continuity of collective trauma used as a legitimization and mobilization tool in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This paper uses historiographic methods and narrative analysis to identify recurring patterns of thought and feeling within the Jewish community and how these patterns translate into political action. It also highlights the role of critical actors, both political and intellectual, in shaping and articulating these narratives. The results of this paper are expected to provide deeper insights into the complexity of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and how history and collective memory play an essential role in the dynamics of this conflict.

A common practice used by the Germans and collaborators in World War II, as part of the Holocaust, was to use existing Jewish cemeteries as places for mass burial. Research was completed at the Old Jewish Cemetery in Riga, Latvia, the Livas Jewish Cemetery in Liepaja, Latvia, and the Zaliakalnis Jewish Cemetery in Kaunas, Lithuania. The Old Jewish Cemetery in Riga was adjacent to the Riga Ghetto and was used to bury individuals murdered in the ghetto. In Kaunas, an area of the Zaliakalnis Jewish Cemetery is devoid of grave stones, and literature sources and testimony indicate that this area was used for the mass burial of Jews from the Kaunas Ghetto and other mass killings. In Liepaja, the local Jewish Heritage Foundation believes that there are mass graves within the Livas Cemetery. Methodologies for this research include the use of a pulseEkko Pro 500-megahertz ground-penetrating radar (GPR) system. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data were collected through a linear array of electrodes coupled to a direct current (DC) resistivity transmitter and receiver. Analysis of aerial photography and satellite images was also employed at each location. ERT and GPR data indicate three separate trench anomalies in the Old Jewish Cemetery in Riga. The presence of these anomalies corroborates Holocaust survivor testimony that bodies were buried in mass graves in that area. In the Zaliakalnis Jewish Cemetery in Kaunas, ERT and GPR data indicate an anomaly in the western part of the cemetery, and ERT data further indicate two other possible mass graves. In Liepaja, preliminary GPR analysis indicates an anomaly in a cleared section of the cemetery. Based on the presence of geophysical anomalies in all three cemeteries, which correlate with literature sources and Holocaust survivor testimony, there is a high probability that mass graves are present at each site. Future research directions include expanding the search areas in each cemetery, additional literature and testimony-based research, and the addition of other geophysical methodologies.

Objective/Context: In the field of Holocaust studies, the Latin American experience has occupied a liminal space. Even when the global character assumed by its forms of remembrance is widely accepted, little attention has been paid to the national cases of this region. This paper deals with a specific national case through the construction record of the National Monument to the Victims of the Jewish Holocaust, located in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The present research reveals the legal and administrative process that accompanied its gestation, the recognition of the actors that intervened throughout the period, and, finally, the character and debates that the architecture of the pantheon provoked. This cycle, which lasted a little more than two decades, allows us to qualify the meaning of the global character of Holocaust memory by considering how this experience was redefined in a national context. Methodology: For this research, qualitative techniques are used in the analysis of the legislative and patrimonial records, journalistic sources, interviews with involved actors, and a documentary film called “Monument,” which aims to give an account of the history of its construction and the representational matrix of that memorial. Originality: Although there have been, in recent years, some works that addressed the memory of the Holocaust in Argentina, they focused on various cultural media: literature, film, and testimonial narratives. This paper addresses an object whose materiality is different—monumental—and which was conceived as a public policy of commemorative character. The analysis of the construction of this memorial pantheon allows recognition of how the transnational dimensions of Holocaust remembrance intersected with aspects of the Argentine political process of the last twenty years. Conclusions: The analysis of the construction process and the materiality assumed by its architecture demonstrate, first, how the global dimensions of Holocaust remembrance interact with local contexts and, second, the tensions raised between the actors and organizations that promote its memory and the victims of Nazi persecution in Argentina

The article analyzes the influence of the current international situation on the concept of German identity. The main elements that form the basis of contemporary German self-consciousness are identified. The author explores the relationship between the regional, national, and supranational components of German self-identification, examining the persistent mental “divide” between the new (former GDR) and the old lands (West Germany). Special attention is paid to the challenges posed for the Federal Republic of Germany in terms of historical discourse and memorial practices by the influx of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa. The role of the 2023 Palestine-Israel escalation in the transformation of the national narrative is separately examined. The article also evaluated the conflict around Ukraine as a factor in strengthening the European dimension of German identity.Among the key methods used by the author are content analysis of speeches by German officials, analysis of legislation and media. In addition, logical, chronological, and comparative-historical methods were applied. All this in aggregate led to the following conclusions. The Federal Republic of Germany is undergoing a systemic and multidimensional identity crisis. The main challenge is finding a balance between historical responsibility, transatlantic commitments, and national interests. The goal of the German establishment is to formulate a new national idea, which includes defining the role and place of Germany in the world, forming a value consensus regarding migrants, and overcoming the alienation between the east and west of the country. However, in the post-1990 world order, such a large-scale task remains rather impossible for the current elites.

This article aims to discuss the Dimensions in Testimony project, designed and launched by the USC Shoah Foundation to establish a novel approach to collecting oral testimony. The Foundation’s project was initially presented to a wide audience, especially by the U.S. press and researchers, as involving the creation of witness holograms. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Misdescribed by media outlets as based around holograms, this USC Shoah Foundation initiative looks, at least for the moment, to create two-dimensional images based on a long recording process and hours of in-depth interviews. Nevertheless, the project is bound to shape the future of Holocaust testimony and oral history itself. The key challenge for its authors remains to explain what the project actually is and to develop the concept of interactive biography, a name proposed by Stephen Smith, but not fleshed out enough in any academic articles in the author’s opinion. Consequently, this paper aims to discuss the USC Shoah Dimensions in Testimony project as a collection of interactive biographies, with particular emphasis on what an interactive biography is, as well as formulate a definition and propose alternative terms. For this purpose, the author proposes an interdisciplinary approach. To define interactive biography, this article will necessarily describe the mechanisms governing the project, the technique for displaying two-dimensional recordings of survivors, and how this aforementioned interactivity operates in the encounter of two-dimensional images of survivors and the recipients of their testimony. Finally, this paper will also look to answer attendant questions, including whether the project works as a post-memory tool for sharing survivor stories, and how are the survivors expressed in a digital tool.

This paper addresses the use of oral history sources in my practice of documentary filmmaking as a second-generation Holocaust survivor. It examines how the filmic documentation of oral history sources can reflect aspects of testimony, memory, and postmemory, as they are theorized in the field of Holocaust Studies. In my film “Past Forward: Journeys to Transnistria,” I document the challenge of relating an intergenerational and cross-cultural story while preserving historical accuracy. Filmed in Ukraine in 2002, it tells the story of my mother, a child-survivor of the Romanian Holocaust. Through oral testimony, the film captures my mother’s survival story as she tells it to me and later to her granddaughter who documents it for a history school project. It then retraces my mother’s journey between 1941 and 1944 from her hometown of Dorohoi, Romania to Transnistria as it was called then under German-allied Romanian occupation. Survivor’s testimony combined with onsite witness interviews, and an archival military map, were used to trace the story of a little Jewish Romanian girl who survived the journey to Transnistria. Recently available archival sources have further validated her story. It has also contributed to locating the film within the broader context of the Holocaust in Ukraine.

The events of the Holocaust are reflected in the numerous memoirs of rescued victims and witnesses of Nazi crimes. Collections of testimonies, memories and oral history on the Holocaust include thousands of early testimonies and life stories archived in for example the Yad Vashem and audio-visual collections initiated in later years such as the Institute for Visual History and Education USC Shoah Foundation, The Fortunoff Video Archives, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yahad-In Unum and others. In this open forum we how the knowledge from collecting and using oral history and testimonies in Holocaust research can inform current collecting initiatives in relation to for example the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine.

This source publication contains three categories of documents related to the Nazi German occupation of Poland, specifically the city of Lwów (Lemberg) in District Galicia of the General Government, which have been translated from German to English. The documents were selected for their relevance to ongoing debates and research questions evoked by the “third phase” of the Holocaust characterized by both widespread police searches for Jews and help offered by non-Jews to the fugitives, here set in the multi-ethnic context of Eastern Galicia between September 1943 and June 1944. Documents 1 to 4 are the German laws that formed the legal basis of decrees limiting Jewish residence and sanctioning punishment for their violation. Documents 5 to 7 are verdicts handed down by the Special Court in Lemberg (Sondergericht im Lemberg) on the basis of these decrees, in which the judges imposed the death penalty on the accused for giving refuge to Jews. Documents 8 to 11 are final reports regarding the arrests of Poles and Ukrainians, and the Jews whom they were sheltering, written by members of the Third Commissariat of the Lemberg Polish Criminal Police (PPK), which were sent to their supervisors in the German Criminal Police (Kripo).

The role of Jewish functionaries during the Holocaust has fueled heated debates internationally, as well as in Israel since the 1940s. For decades, however, the topic was marginalized in Israeli cinema. The documentary, Kapo (Tor Ben-Mayor and Dan Setton 1999) was the first to include filmed testimonies of former Jewish female functionaries in Auschwitz-Birkenau. The documentary, We Wept Without Tears (Itai Lev and Gideon Greif 2021) is the first to include testimonies by members of the Sonderkommando (“the special squad”) i.e., prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau, primarily Jews, who were forced to work in the killing installations. This article analyzes the ways these documentaries deliberately suspend judgment to provide a more complex perspective on these individuals. Kapo and We Wept Without Tears are examined in the context of how Holocaust memory has changed in Israeli society and cinema. The discussion centers on the ways these films generate a non-judgmental narrative, and the similarities and differences between them in approaching this sensitive topic. It shows that Kapo endeavors to maintain cinematic ambivalence, whereas We Wept Without Tears deliberately highlights the protagonists’ lack of agency and avoids rendering judgment.

This article focuses on the analysis and interpretation of 15 testimonies collected immediately after the war by David Boder and by the Polish Historical Institute in Sweden with women deported to Auschwitz, evacuated to Ravensbrück in its last two phases and then to Malchow. The study of their statements can provide both a historical overview of Ravensbrück and its sub camps in 1944 and 1945, and help identify the effects of the camp, an overthrown social context, on individuals, women in this case, and groups. The comparative exam of the interviews allows to identify the crucial events and experiences which constitute the core of the interviewees’narration and representation of the events. The situations and episodes they chose to recall may explain their perception of the events and reveals a gendered perspective which affected their memories in terms of the selection of the events and their focus on specific issues. The memories were recalled in relation to social frames, which were different from those the survivors were previously used to and pertained to the context of the camp. These coordinates constitute a net which can provide an insight into the mechanism of memory construction and early representation of the Holocaust.

This article deals with the religious dimension of the violence against the Jews in Eastern Galicia at the start of Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany on June 22, 1941), in June–July 1941. It examines the context of the various attacks, such as the burning of synagogues, the public persecutions of devout Jews, in addition to the verbal insults, especially by priests instigating the local population against their Jewish neighbors. The paper looks at the political use of these narratives, as well as their consequences and justifications.

Background Despite advocacy from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and The Lancet Commission on medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust, Holocaust education is lacking in medical education. To address this gap, students at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (GCSOM) viewed an Association of American Medical College (AAMC) webinar about medicine during the Holocaust as part of the required curriculum for first year medical students introduced in 2022. Methods As part of their doctoring course, Physician and Patient Centered Care (PPCC), students viewed the AAMC webinar “The legacy of the role of medicine during the Holocaust and its contemporary relevance” and participated in two structured reflections: a written reflection on how webinar topics inform students' professional development and a verbal reflection on learning from the Holocaust to develop a sense of moral courage, advocacy, and activism in medicine. Researchers conducted qualitative analysis of written reflections and analyzed session surveys to determine key themes and impact of the session. Results Of the 108 enrolled in PPCC, 59 (54.6%) completed a post session Likert scale survey assessing the impact of the webinar on their personal and professional development. As an average, respondents moderately agreed that the webinar impacted their personal and professional development, with 91% slightly, moderately, or strongly agreeing. Additionally, thematic analysis of required written reflections indicated a majority of students (62.5%) identified the need for additional medical humanities education about the Holocaust and its relevance to medicine. Conclusion Holocaust education encourages medical students to bear witness to past medical atrocities and critically assess the profession and their personal–professional growth. Continued structured integration of the Holocaust in medical education supports critical self-reflection and the development of morally courageous physicians who endorse and practice social accountability in medicine.

CEL NAUKOWY: Celem artykułu jest analiza Fałszerzy pieprzu jako próby przepracowania i przezwyciężenia postpamięciowej traumy, a także umieszczenie ich w szerszym kontekście przemian w polskiej pamięci kulturowej jako Foucaltowskiego dyskursu kontrpamięci. PROBLEM I METODY BADAWCZE: Przyjmując jako punkt wyjścia koncepcję postpamięci Hirsch jako ponadpokoleniowej transmisji traumatycznej, w artykule analizie poddaję biograficzne dyskursy obecne w Fałszerzach pieprzu w kontekście Foucaltowskiej koncepcji kontrpamięci w ujęciu narracyjno-dyskursywnym. PROCES WYWODU: Fałszerze pieprzu są reprezentacją pracy postpamięci. Sznajderman odtwarza dwie równoległe historie rodzinne przodków. Największą oryginalność książki stanowi próba połączenia w ramach biografii rodzinnej dwóch wspólnot pamięci i cierpienia – polskiej i żydowskiej. WYNIKI ANALIZY NAUKOWEJ: Książka Sznajderman stanowi nie tylko próbę przepracowywania rodzinnej postpamięci, ale w szerszym kontekście jest symptomem przemian w polskiej pamięci kulturowej. Można ją odczytać jako Foucaltowski dyskurs kontrpamięci. WNIOSKI, REKOMENDACJE I APLIKACYJNE ZNACZENIE WPŁYWU BADAŃ: Fałszerze pieprzu są przykładem transformacyjnej mocy sztuki, których efektem może być afektywna pamięć, którą Landsberg nazwała pamięcią prostetyczną, a także przykładem komunikowania i negocjowania sprzecznych dyskursów, prowadzących do poszerzenia i przewartościowania polskiej pamięci kulturowej.

Ilona Karmel was a Holocaust victim. She endured diseases, Nazi ‘madness’, and imprisonment in the Krakow Ghetto and in concentration camps in Poland and Germany. At the end of World War II, she was abandoned to die by the retreating German enemy. Nevertheless, Victory Day in 1945 saw the beginning of another period of infirmity and confinement for Karmel, who was hospitalized in Sweden to treat leg injuries she had suffered by the Nazis. This essay, bringing together disability and Holocaust studies, explores harrowing post-Shoah sequelae in Karmel’s life, as reflected in Stephania (1953). To recover her sense of self after the bloodletting and to make visible physical impairment in her novel, Karmel creates the fictional Stephania: A Polish patient with spinal curvature worsened during wartime captivity who seeks medical treatment in Stockholm, all the while refusing to accept her body’s disfigurement. This article examines how disability and voluntary hospital confinement are portrayed in the novel Stephania and connected with Holocaust trauma. Despite memories of pain and incarceration invading their minds as survivors, Karmel and her creation Stephania inescapably must come to terms with their respective postwar impairments, heal from their emotional wounds, and cling to life during and beyond their convalescences.

The decline in knowledge about World War II and the Holocaust, coupled with increasing discrimination and populism, highlights the urgent need for innovative educational approaches. Abba Naor, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, has devoted his life to sharing his experiences, emphasizing the significance of historical learning to prevent future atrocities. The project ''Learning with digital testimonies'' (LeDiT) seeks to preserve Naor's memories and broaden their accessibility through interactive digital testimonies.Naor's interactive digital testimony offers an immersive and easily accessible means of engaging with a Holocaust survivor, vital for future generations who will not have the opportunity for in-person interactions. Originally recorded in German, the international version with English subtitles now allows users from around the world to ask a Holocaust survivor questions and learn about their personal stories. Implications of the project extend beyond educational settings in schools, with potential applications in museums, memorials, and online platforms dedicated to Holocaust education. Ongoing research aims to understand cross-cultural and generational perspectives on Holocaust education. Thus, interactive digital testimonies not only preserve the memories of survivors but also facilitate meaningful connections to historical events, fostering empathy and collective action against discrimination. Keywords 0Holocaust, memory, testimony, chatbot, Holocaust education, audiovisual translation, subtitling, interactive digital testimony

ABSTRACTObjective/Background: Despite increasing attention on transgenerational trauma, currently no comprehensive model and measure exists to be applied on various populations. This study represents the first step in the validation of such a model and a related scale. The Historical Intergenerational Trauma Questionnaire (HITT-Q) assesses family and offspring self-reported vulnerability and resilience, as well as offspring historical moral injury and current levels of insidious trauma.Method: We developed the HITT-Q based on the cross-population model (HITT model; [Starrs, C. & Békés, V. (2024). Historical and transgenerational trauma: A conceptual framework. Traumatology. In Press]) which incorporates key findings in existing population specific studies. For initial validation of the model and its measurement, Holocaust survivors’ offspring (N = 1104) completed the HITT-Q, measures of current mental health symptoms (PTSD, C-PTSD, anxiety, and depression), and a resilience scale.Results: In line with the HITT model, confirmatory factor analyses supported a 12-factor solution with the following factors under theorized dimensions: I. Family Vulnerability: (1) Dysregulated and Trauma-related Communication; (2)Trauma-influenced Parenting, (3) Fear; (4) Distress; II. (5) Family Resilience, III. Offspring Vulnerability: (6) Escape; (7) Heightened Responsibility; (8) Trauma-related distress; IV. Offspring Resilience: (9) Coping; (10) Belonging; (11) Values; V. (12) Historical Moral injury. The 12-factor model showed acceptable to good internal validity, and comparison with an existing measure of transgenerational Holocaust trauma indicated good concurrent validity. Finally, the HITT-Q demonstrated predictive validity for mental health symptoms and current resilience.Conclusions: The current study represents the first step in validating the HITT-Q as a comprehensive measure of historical intergenerational vulnerability and resilience. Our findings provide strong support for the underlying model, and suggest that the HITT-Q represents a valuable scale for both research and historical trauma-informed care.

Der 5. Strafsenat des BGH hat die Revision von Irmgard F. verworfen. Das LG Itzehoe hatte die Stenotypistin des Lagerkommandanten im Konzentrationslager Stutthof zu einer zweijährigen Freiheitsstrafe verurteilt. Das Urteil des BGH ist zeitgeschichtlich bedeutsam und stellt einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Anerkennung des Unrechts dar, das den Opfern des Nationalsozialismus widerfahren ist. Es konkretisiert außerdem die in der internationalen Strafrechtswissenschaft diskutierte Frage der Begrenzung der Beihilfestrafbarkeit bei sogenannten berufstypisch „äußerlich neutralen“ Handlungen.

Dieser Aufsatz präsentiert die funktionalistische Theorie der Würde, die in der Tradition Arnd Pollmanns steht und eine modifizierende Weiterentwicklung vorschlägt. Die funktionalistische Theorie der Würde stellt die historisch bedingte Funktion von Würde innerhalb der wichtigen modernen (Menschen-) Rechtsdokumente in den Vordergrund: Würde markiert die Abkehr zu den Verbrechen des Nationalsozialismus. Daraus lässt sich eine Schutzfunktion ableiten: Menschen sollten „Nie Wieder!“ – so der ablehnende moralische Standpunkt – in gravierenden Notsituationen leben, wie jene in welche die Nationalsozialisten ihre Opfer brachten. Menschenrechte haben zum Ziel, Menschen ein Leben in Würde zu ermöglichen. Im Kontext historischer Lernprozesse lässt sich die funktionalistische Theorie der Würde demnach auch auf zeitgenössische Unrechtssituationen anwenden. Die Eigenschaften dieses Würdebegriffs werden dabei ebenfalls aus der Funktion abgeleitet. Grundlage der funktionalistischen Theorie der Würde sind die Zeugnisse von Menschen in gravierenden Notsituationen und nicht primär die Einstellungen und Handlungen von möglichen Täter*innen.

“Never again” is, first and foremost, a story. It’s a story about our collective fears, anxieties, and aspirations, those moments and events that we have promised ourselves that will never be repeated. The Jewish story is interwoven with the Holocaust—the killing of six million Jews in Europe and the urgency of the re-establishment of a Jewish state to solve the problem of Jewish homelessness. Yet the constitutional and international meaning of “never again” depends on one’s position and point of view, and it changes over time. The chain reaction that began with the horrors of WWII continues to drive constitutional and international agendas. It is clear that “history talks,” but in which direction?

This article examines approaches to the problem of evil in historical and contemporary Jewish theology. The material is structured conceptually rather than as a chronological survey. The introduction contrasts classical Jewish formulations of the problem of evil with the standard formulations of the problem in Christian and Western philosophical thought. The former tend to focus on evil’s distribution rather than its existence, while the latter ask how evil can exist in the world God created if God possesses the traditional attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, and moral perfection. The Introduction then turns to Jewish conceptions of attributes of God which are particularly germane to the problem of evil and notes the important distinction between natural and moral evil. The second section turns to theodicies and defences, mainly utilizing categories familiar from contemporary philosophical discussion of the problem of evil, and analysing relevant Jewish theological material under these headings. The discussion includes Talmudic theodicies and theodicies considered by medieval Jewish thinkers such as Saadia Gaon, Maimonides, Joseph Albo, and others. The final two subsections deal with theodical approaches in Kabbalah and with the post-Holocaust theodicies of Eliezer Berkovits and Ignaz Maybaum. The third section introduces the approach to the problem of evil termed in the contemporary philosophical literature ‘sceptical theism’. Classical Jewish texts that appear to anticipate sceptical theism are noted in this context. The fourth section focuses on antitheodicy and its treatment in the thought of Jewish theologians such as Richard Rubenstein, Emil Fackenheim, Joseph Soloveitchik, Emmanuel Levinas, and Irving Greenberg. The Jewish theological significance of treatments of the Holocaust in literature, for example in the work of Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel, is briefly considered. The fifth section explores, from a Jewish theological perspective, some strengths and weaknesses of the different general approaches to the problem of evil that have been discussed in this article – theodicy/defence, sceptical theism, and antitheodicy. Finally, the conclusion emphasizes the great variety of approaches to the problem of evil in the history of Jewish theology and argues that Jewish theological approaches to the problem can often both enrich and be enriched by contemporary debates in the philosophy of religion.

The article aims to prove that there are autobiographical threads in Hanna Krall’s reportages, which are related to the necessity to hide during the occupation, detention at the police station and the death of her mother. The discovery of autobiographical tropes in Krall’s work may change the reception of her publications. The first coded mentions of her life appear in Shielding the Flame. Still, commentators emphasized her influence on changing how the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was told (Marek Edelman, the main witness of the uprising and its leader also contributed to this). So far, researchers have spotted autobiographical threads in the novel The Lodger, in which Krall’s occupation past becomes part of a plot based on fiction. An important clue that makes it possible to link Krall’s reportages with her biography is the interviews she gives. Reconstructing fragments of Krall’s biography can be considered a valuable source of information that has little to do with the need for self-creation and creating a specific image. Krall, as a child belonging to the “1.5” generation, left two variants of the records of her survival during the Holocaust. The first was in a small text entitled The Game for My Life. The second variant is her reportage books, where she allows for the emotions hidden in the text, thanking many people for their help. The author argues that the first variant contains a text for others, while the second is an attempt to convey the complicated feelings of a little girl who had to submit to the will of others.

Recension av Silvia Goldbaum Tarabini: Danske jøders liv og død i Theresienstadt (Köpenhamn: Gyldendal, 2023). 656 s.

Before 1939, Jewish architects were active members of their profession, participating in domestic and international architectural networks and contributing to the built environment of Polish cities. From the mid-1930s, however, intensifying antisemitism and far-right political forces pressured architectural networks to exclude Jews from professional unions. The start of the Second World War and the German occupation in 1939 strained professional architectural networks but led to the formation of underground workshops, cooperatives, and other groups, whose connections extended from Warsaw through the camps and ghettos of occupied Poland. This article presents the history of Jewish-Polish architects from 1937 to 1945. Demonstrating how architectural networks reacted to changing conditions of war, occupation, and genocide, it emphasizes architectural networks as sites of political engagement, ranging from prewar antisemitic attacks on Jews and their removal from the Society of Polish Architects (SARP) to underground architectural networks that hid Jews and allowed them to work. Although the fate of Jewish architects depended largely on their relationships with their professional networks, they also actively decided how to utilize those networks to resist the Nazis and to ensure their survival. This research shows that interpersonal relationships and wartime networks were consequential in determining the wartime fates of Jewish architects and also shaped the profession’s post-war structure.

In the collection of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN is an album that contains various paper documents, such as programmes, leaflets on several pre-war films, as well as photographs of the films and their sets. There are also cards with commemorative writings (stammbuch) sewn into the initial section. These are mainly materials from the production of the Warsaw-based Leo-Film studio, headed since 1926 by Maria Hirszbein, one of the most important institutions of its kind in pre-war Poland. The author of this article describes this unusual artefact, trying to show its multi-layered nature. Matuszelański’s album, originally intended as a reflection of his own professional way and an album of memorabilia, and evolving over the years into an archive showing the activities of the Leo-Film studio — in its present form it is an album in memory of Maria Hirszbein, who was perished in the Holocaust.

The paper aims to analyse how the staging of Shakespeare’s texts in post-war and contemporary Poland reflected the indifferent and hostile attitudes of Poles towards Jews, particularly during the Holocaust, and the distortions and gaps in the collective memory regarding the events. In the first part, the author focuses on Hamlet Study (dir. Jerzy Grotowski) performed in 1964 by Laboratory Theatre of 13 Rows in Opole, which is symptomatic of silencing the matter during the communist period. The second part draws from the statement of Jan Ciechowicz, a Polish theatre historian, who claimed that “the Holocaust killed Shylock for Polish stage.” While verifying it, the author analyses selected aspects of three productions directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski (The Tempest (2003), The Merchant of Venice (1994) and The African Tales by Shakespeare (2011)) and juxtaposes them against the background of the changes in collective memory. He argues that the most cogent productions concerning Polish attitudes towards Jews are those that position the audience as witnesses of the acts of re-enacted violence and thus provoke an affective response.

In my 2022-23 Fulbright Award to Spain and Greece, I took on the daunting task of writing six plays, titled Mi Corazón Español Vive Ahora En Grecia: Six Plays of Sephardic Greece, about the Spanish roots of the Jewish communities of Thessaloniki and Veria, of which I am a descendent (my father’s mother, my Nona, Mary Massarano Crespin was from Thessaloniki, and my Nono, Isaac Morris Crespin was from Veroia). This project was built upon a previous 2018 Fulbright project titled Madre de Israel: Three Plays of Jewish Salonika. In this essay, I will document and analyze my dramatic adaptation process for both Fulbright Projects, creating living histories for the stage to memorialize a Sephardic Jewish world nearly destroyed by the Holocaust. Working through a process which included teaching, oral narrative, traditional scholarship, and the creative research of exploring the geography, family histories, and cultural experiences of Ladino/Spanish music, poetry, and storytelling, I have written a total of 10 new plays, all using a non-linear technique of dreamwork for dramatic writing. The challenges tied to this ongoing project include the absence of collective memory, the destruction of entire communities, and the controversial curation of places of Jewish memory.

The article is dedicated to researching the biography and historical memory of the Japanese consul in Lithuania in 1939–1940 and the only Japanese Righteous Among the Nations Sugihara Chiune, who issued 2139 transit visas to Polish and Lithuanian Jews from July to September 1940, which helped them escape the tragedy of the Holocaust in Lithuania after the German attack on the USSR. For the reader’s convenience, the work is divided into 5 parts. The first focuses on the stages of Sugihara’s career before his appointment as consul in Kaunas: his early biography (1900–1919), his study of Russian in Harbin (1919–1924), his work at the Japanese Consulate General (1925–1932) and the Manchukuo Foreign Ministry (1932–1935), his transfer to the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo (1935–1937), and his departure for a diplomatic mission in Finland (1937–1939). Along with a description of his professional development, an important place in this part is occupied by an analysis of Sugihara’s personal life and the process of shaping his views, which subsequently determined his willingness to act in a way that, at first glance, was not typical of a diplomat of militarist Japan. The second and third parts describe Sugihara’s activities in Kaunas (1939– 1940). Attention is paid both to his intelligence activities with the support of Polish agents and to his private life, the events of which developed Sugihara’s earlier capacity for sympathy for people of other nationalities. It also details the process of issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees, deliberately carried out in violation of Foreign Ministry instructions, as well as estimates of the number who left Lithuania thanks to Sugihara and describes their further journey. The fourth part, although small, covers a broad period in the life of the former Japanese consul in Lithuania: his work in Prague (1940–1941), Königsberg (1941), and Bucharest (1941–1944), internment and repatriation to Japan (1944–1947), work in various commercial firms (1947–1975) and the process of recognition as a Righteous (1984). Finally, the final part of the paper is devoted to the analysis of the historical memory of Sugihara in Israel, Japan, the USA, Poland, Lithuania, and Russia, as well as identification of the main differences in its nature and the reasons that determined this heterogeneity.

In the search for an understanding of the complexities that could have led such a “banal” man as Adolf Eichmann, to stand trial in Jerusalem for crimes against Humanity – in the humanity of the Jewish People – one ought to go beneath the surface of contemporary events into the roots of an overwhelming hatred that enslaved Europe for far too long and with consequences beyond what imagination could have conceived within the limits of reason alone. In the pursuit for the “black hole” that brought European nations to a virtual ethical collapse, seriously damaging the capacity to exercise judgment, this article approaches one of the background dimensions of anti-Semitism which enabled the actions of men to structure evil in all but a “banal” manner. The second part of this study seeks alternative ways to conceive a relation between Judaism and Christianity.

Requested Review

Autorka proponuje rozważania nad perswazyjną intencją książki Moniki Sznajderman Fałszerze pieprzu. Historia rodzinna. W perspektywie retoryki wspomnienia rodzinnego rozważone zostały zagadnienia niepamięci, traumatycznych białych plami postpamięci jako procesów psychologiczno-społecznych, prowadzących do potrzeby rekonstrukcji własnej tożsamości i dokonania własnych wyborów etycznych. Ramą dla analiz stała się triada retorycznych sposobów przekonywania, czyli lógos, éthos i pathos oraz semantyka i filozofia fotografii.

Archaeological research in ​​the former Warsaw Ghetto conducted in 2021-2022 was the first scientific investigation undertaken in the area in a systematic and planned way. Non-invasive research took place in four locations, followed by excavation campaigns in two selected sites and revealed the cellars of the pre-war buildings and lots of artefacts. Especially interesting was the immediate vicinity of the so-called Anielewicz bunker, where the commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, Mordechai Anielewicz, fought his last battle. Very little is known about the bunker itself and the excavations have shed new light on the issue, possibly unearthing part of the bunker's extended structure. We have to be aware that in comparison to the typical problems of urban archaeology, the archaeology of the Warsaw Ghetto faces some specific issues. The post-war buildings in the area were constructed on the rubble of the ancient city, almost completely destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. Moreover, the former residential quarter of the murdered Jews carries a huge emotional load, and any archaeological find made here acquires symbolic significance. Thus the social reception of the research is extremely important.

This paper discusses Sylvia Plath’s feelings towards her patriarchal society. In her poem, Lady Lazarus, she expresses her contempt for the mistreatment she receives from the close male members of her family, her father, and husband. Through the poetic lines in the poem, she illustrates the world that women live within a patriarchal society. This paper justifies her hatred of men that Plath conveys in her poem. Her poetic lines in Lady Lazarus are analyzed to show her inner feelings. The paper also explains Plath’s attitude against this oppression that she suffers from. It explains how Plath employs an example of oppression to blame patriarchy for their actions.

The Hungarian-born English contemporary poet George Szirtes has written several times about two traumas of his family history: the Holocaust, which both his parents survived, while several of their relatives perished, and the Revolution of 1956, which forced them into exile. My paper focuses on two major narratives about Szirtes’s mother: a cycle of poems “Metro” (1988) and a biography in prose The Photographer at Sixteen (2019). Exploring the differences in perspective and form as well as the similarities in themes and structure, I seek the answer to the questions how one’s own memories are intertwined with the past of the communities where one belongs; how these controversial sets of memories might lead to internal conflicts; and how the memory of one’s predecessors are being transformed by the process of the speaker’s own transformation in the time span of three decades. Investigating these aspects, I argue that Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory not only proves to be instrumental in understanding several books by Szirtes better but also that Szirtes goes one step further than Hirsch by revealing how individual memory not only is embedded into and influenced by communal memory, but also is constructed in the form of family memories passed on from one generation to the next.

Holocaust, defined as the process of suffering of 6 million Jews, organized by the Nazi Germany during the World War II, is a topic that does not lose its relevance. Teaching about the Holocaust should be aimed at students’ understanding of historical facts, and it is also necessary to point out the importance that this part of the past has for the modern world and current social problems. In the teaching process, attention should be paid to preserving the memory of the lives of the Jews and the Jewish community in Europe before the war in order to highlight their rich cultural heritage. The paper presents the results of an empirical research aimed at analyzing the challenges in the process of learning and teaching about the Holocaust in formal and informal education. Using a close-ended questionnaire, the perspective of the students of teacher education faculties in Serbia was investigated, and the sample included 741 respondents. The results indicate a varied understanding of the term Holocaust, with the prevailing understanding that the process included a wide range of victims. Students find this topic emotionally taxing and very disturbing, and they identify this as one of the biggest obstacles encountered in teaching about the Holocaust. The obtained results can serve as a platform for creating implications for educational policies and formulating recommendations for the improvement of the school practice with the aim of deepening and expanding knowledge on this topic, but also with the aim of developing intercultural competences, reflective dealing with stereotypes and prejudices, and fostering a culture of remembrance.

The authors discuss the legal aspects (with specific attention to the criminal law aspects) of legal acts of remembrance in selected countries, related to the collective memory of Poles. In particular, the following issues are analysed: the effectiveness of legal interference in collective memory; the judicial practice (civil and criminal judgments) concerning the remembrance of the Holocaust in Poland; the relation of the protection of the reputation of a State (e.g., Poland), a Nation or certain individuals to the freedom of scientific research guaranteed by the international and constitutional law and international aspect of criminal responsibility in case of the crime committed abroad (double criminality). The way the law concerning national memory is applied in practice in the Polish legal order is subject to detailed analysis. Investigating the legal proceedings concerned with memory indicates that applying these laws constitutes a limitation of constitutionally guaranteed freedom of scientific investigation.

This article investigates the post-war life trajectories and careers of eight Aryanization (»Romanianization«) bureaucrats who were involved in the persecution and dispossession of Jews during the pro-Nazi Antonescu regime (September 1940– August 1944). While many of them were removed from the civil service, became unemployed, went into hiding, or were arrested, others thrived – at least temporarily – thanks to their skilful navigation of the post Antonescu transition, their highlevel connections with the political establishment, and the ability to claim certain merits for their behavior before August 1944, either as victims of or by resisting against the Antonescu regime. However, most of these opportunistic bureaucrats were successful only in the short term; eventually their past caught up with them, and they were imprisoned by the communist authorities or had to flee the country to escape arrest. The article shows that the communist revolution was not as radical as the communist leaders liked to boast and that it did not immediately bring a complete transformation of the state, its institutions, and employees holding crucial positions. Especially during the first postwar transitional years, the connections between the two ideologically different authoritarian regimes – fascist and communist – continued on various levels, including the bureaucratic one.

The article considers key aspects of the transformation of cultural memory in Germany. The arrival of G. Schroeder to the post of Federal Chancellor after the reign of G. Kohl marked serious changes in the political and cultural life of Germany. The public discourse on the issues of historical memory has gone beyond the political stage and has acquired a universal character, accumulating also in the publicistic and scientific spheres. The unification of Germany and the subsequent «historians’ dispute» triggered a new stage in the understanding of the culture of memory, the meaning of which was not only to work on the mistakes of National Socialism, but also of the GDR regime. It is concluded that a new German historical politics and historical narrative is emerging that is not only focused on the memory of the Holocaust, but also on German suffering.

The Communist seizure of power is generally regarded as the key context of the transitional justice that characterized the prosecution of Nazi criminals and collaborators in postwar Poland, which naturally affected trials related to the Holocaust. Some of the guiding questions of this scholarship have asked the following: Should postwar trials be understood as “real” trials as opposed to staged political trials? To what extent did they allow for an expression of the distinctiveness of the Holocaust? Did the trials help or inhibit the creation of a space for Jewish voices and agency? The current state of research points to two emerging stories of Polish judicial reckoning with the Holocaust “behind the Iron Curtain.” On the one hand, scholars increasingly agree that the trials were not politically orchestrated but were generally conducted in the spirit of the rule of law, comparable to those held in Western European courts. Further, the Polish contribution to the prosecution of Nazi perpetrators is regarded as exceptional and successful in delivering some measure of justice. On the other hand, research into trials of Polish grassroots perpetrators of anti-Jewish crimes points to a failure in reaching a meaningful judicial and societal reckoning.

This is the source publication of a yet undiscovered DEGOB protocol from 1945 taken by survivor and interviewer Erna Galosi, recording her husband Elemer Galosi’s testimony after returning from Bergen-Belsen to Budapest. The protocol was found in its original form by their great-granddaughter at home after decades of unvoicing the struggles and tragedy the family had survived. This testimony is first published here by Alexandra M. Szabo.

World War II is now at three generations away, and this year, on September 1, it was 83 years since it broke out. The war cast a long and very dark shadow over the second half of the 20th century. The commemoration of his victims continues and the popular fascination with his history is still alive. Unlike the Great War of 1914–1918, the second conflict affected literally the entire world, resulted in around five times as many deaths, and was punctuated by remarkable moments of drama and sacrifice, all of which explain that lingering interest. The chronological distance from this war has, however, allowed historians to think differently about how to describe and define it, how to explain its course, and above all, what topics should now concern us when we think to the experience and consequences of this war

In the graphic novel Heimat. Ein deutsches Familienalbum (2018), the German author Nora Krug documents the analysis of her family’s history. As a member of the third generation after the Holocaust, Krug wants to find out if and in which way her grandparents were involved in the Holocaust. In addition, her research shows whether her own family’s history corresponds to Germany’s cultural history. Krug seeks to improve her understanding of her family’s relations and her ‘Heimat’. The archive is the starting point of her investigations and defines the design of the story. Heimat connects information from the archives with testimonies and memorabilia. In this fashion, Krug creates a creative treatment of the family history. Not only the archive, but also photography is significant in the design of the graphic novel. Hirsch’ theory on postmemory explains the self-representation of the family in photographs. Krugs plurimedial design of the story creates a multilayered narrative that processes the complex themes of Heimat in a sensible way.

Building upon fairly recent scholarship on the reception of Holocaust survivors in Canada and Montreal more specifically, this article examines a synagogue and sisterhood specific to Hungarian Holocaust survivors in Montreal, most of whom arrived in the wake of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Holocaust survivor accounts suggest a barrier between them and previously settled Canadian Jews, particularly in the realms of sociability and synagogue life. This barrier was heightened among Hungarians given the language gap, contributing to their impetus for a synagogue of their own, named the Hungarian Martyrs Synagogue. Their Holocaust commemoration events and dances were distinctive in their reverential discourse of martyrdom, and sense of cultural revitalization. The primary source base for this article is the memorial volume of the Hungarian Martyrs Synagogue (which includes commemorative poetry), with insight and context from oral history interviews.

The paper is focused on the analysis of the lessons learned from the genocides in the 20th century for the existing situation in Ukraine. Apart from the short overview of the history behind the term genocide and the adoption of the convention for its prevention and punishment in the post-World War II period, the paper explores the main specifics of the selected genocides (Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Yugoslavia). On the basis of the identified specifics, several conclusions and lessons have been drawn, including the expectation that mass atrocities will happen again and that international justice is often slow and deals with a limited number of perpetrators.

This article analyses the Lithuanian feature film Izaokas (Isaac, 2018) as an expression of memory activism. The film actualised heated debates on a national level over the role of ordinary Lithuanians in the Holocaust and collaboration with Nazi Germany, in spite of the fact that the filmmakers did not intend to engage in historical debates. Nonetheless, by generating an immersive experience and engaging viewers at the level of affect, the film effectively engages in polemics with public narratives of the Second World War.

The purpose of the article is to analyze the oral history collection of the Holocaust sources at the Yahad-In Unum scientific institution (Paris, France) on the example of the Nazi-occupied territories of the Volhynia-Podolia General District of Reichskommissariat Ukraine. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism and scientific objectivity. Analysis of oral history sources is the main method of the research. Scientific novelty: For the first time in historiography, the oral history Holocaust sources of the Yahad-In Unum scientific institution were analyzed based on the example of the Volhynia-Podolia General District. The conclusions prove that the oral history sources of Yahad-In Unum have powerful potential for Holocaust studies. They have exclusive information that is not found in other sources. German and Soviet documents cannot fully shed light on Holocaust history. Instead, the stories of witnesses provide an opportunity to examine this topic in a multifaceted way.

Lithuanian historiography shows that the topic of rescuing the Jews in Lithuania during World War II (WWII) is intertwined into different narrative schemes: the pre-Holocaust story of the rescue of Jewish refugees at the beginning of WWII and the topic of the Holocaust in Lithuania. The question is: what narrative schemes of the rescue of the Jews are used in Lithuanian museums, what does the museum want to communicate to the public on the topic of the rescue of the Jews, by what means does the museum create a historical narrative, what historical cultural events promote the emergence of themes of the rescue of the Jews in one or another Lithuanian museum? The analysis of four cases (Vilna Gaon Museum of Jewish History, ‘Sugihara House’ in Kaunas, The Ninth Fort of Kaunas, ‘Lost Shtetl’ museum under construction in Šeduva) is used to answer these questions. It revealed that the aim of the topic of rescuing the Jews is to present the most objective, all-encompassing image of this past and to perform several important functions with the help of it. This is the education of Lithuanian and foreign visitors (the museum as a space of knowledge), honoring, remembering and thanking the Jewish saviors (the museum as a memorial space), refuting stereotypes related to the rescue of Jews (the museum as a space of demythification).