Search

The article discusses Ariella Aïsha Azoulay's book "La résistance des bijoux: Contre les géographies coloniales," focusing on themes of artisanal work, autobiography, settler colonialism, genocide, mourning, and the concept of Muslim Jew. Azoulay explores the impact of French colonialism on the Jewish Muslim world, challenges national narratives, and emphasizes the importance of reclaiming lost histories and languages. The author delves into the intergenerational trauma caused by colonial violence and the need to resist imperial narratives. The article provides a critical analysis of Azoulay's work, highlighting the complexities of identity, belonging, and resistance in the face of historical and ongoing injustices. [Extracted from the article]

The article is devoted to the study of the concept of genocide proposed by Raphael Lemkin and its evolution in international law. R. Lemkin - the author of the term «genocide» - developed a broad concept of this crime, which included not only the physical elimination of the national, ethnic or social groups but also the destruction of their language, culture, social structure and economic base. However, after the adoption of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948, the legal definition of genocide was significantly narrowed. The article analyses R. Lemkin's views on defining the scope of what can be considered genocidal acts, in particular, in the context of the Holocaust and other crimes committed by the Nazis, as well as in the context of the Holodomor. The article also examines the historical background of the emergence of the concept of genocide and the evolution of international legal instruments that protected the rights of national, ethnic and cultural groups before the emergence of this concept. In particular, the role of the Hague Conventions, many peace treaties, decisions of international judicial bodies and reports of international administrative bodies in the formation of legal prerequisites for the protection of the rights of the specified groups before the introduction of the concept of genocide and the adoption of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide of 1948 is analysed. In addition, the article analyses in detail the differences between the original concept of R. Lemkin and the narrower concept that was enshrined in the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Also, the views of modem scholars regarding the concept of genocide proposed by R. Lemkin are discussed. The results of this research may be useful for further analysis of the intellectual heritage of R. Lemkin, the influence of his concept of genocide on the development of modem international law, as well as for the further search for ways to improve international standards for the protection of minority rights and international legal instruments for the prevention of genocide, punishment for its commission and protection of its victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Second World War, the Hungarian state treated Jews as secondrank citizens, marginalized them socially and economically, confiscated all their property, and eventually handed them over to a foreign power to be killed. After the Holocaust, the remaining and returning Jews of Cluj faced serious difficulties. The survivors returning from deportation and labor service not only had to deal with the trauma of war, but also had to face the loss of family members and relatives, confiscation of their homes, and the closure of their institutions. Under these circumstances, the survivors’ primary goal was to rebuild their community and create a new livelihood, but they faced many legal and administrative obstacles in their efforts. In this study, we will trace the process of reorganization of the Jewish community in Cluj after the Holocaust, briefly discussing the problem of recovering confiscated property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler" is a book that examines the controversial reign of Pope Pius XII during World War II. The author presents a detailed account of Pius XII's actions and decisions, suggesting that he prioritized the interests of the Roman Catholic Church over taking a strong stance against Nazi atrocities. The book discusses the pope's relationship with Hitler and Mussolini, his silence on the Holocaust, and instances of racism within the Vatican. It raises questions about Pius XII's missed opportunity to speak out against Nazi atrocities and the moral responsibility of the Roman Catholic Church. [Extracted from the article]

Costigliola's biography of George Kennan delves into the emotional aspects of his life and how they influenced his diplomatic career. Kennan's deep feelings for Russia were rooted in his dissatisfaction with modern America, leading him to idealize preindustrial eras and even welcome disasters as opportunities for reform. The biography also highlights Kennan's insensitivity to vulnerable populations, such as his initial lack of sympathy towards Nazi persecution of Jews. Overall, Costigliola's work presents Kennan as a brilliant yet deeply problematic figure whose emotions played a significant role in shaping U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War. [Extracted from the article]

This essay explores how a Holocaust counter-narrative can be constructed in response to historical negationism, Romanian exceptionalism, and ‘ethnocentric mindscape’, as described by Ana Bărbulescu. In America de peste Pogrom [America Over Pogrom] (2014), Cătălin Mihuleac reconstructs the Iași pogrom, challenging contemporary antisemitic and negationist discourses. The novel exposes the complicity of public figures, police, and civilians in the Jewish extermination under Ion Antonescu’s regime, thus creating a fictional narrative closer to the historical truth than other postcommunist discourses that denied the accountability of the Romanian people. Through the character Suzy Bernstein, who uncovers Romania’s genocidal past, Mihuleac’s work serves as a memorial and postmemorial metanarrative, reflecting on historical trauma, the social and historical conditions that made the Holocaust possible in Romania, on its impact on contemporary Romania and on the accessibility of Holocaust knowledge nowadays. The novel, while ignored by Romanian critics, has been well-received in Western Europe, highlighting the differing priorities in Holocaust memory between Eastern and Western societies. I am also interested in the circulation of Mihuleac’s novel. If the Romanian critics ignored the novel, it has been well received in the France and German and was awarded important prizes as well as apologetic reviews. My hypothesis for the lack of interest on Romanian critics’ behalf and, in contrast, of the interest shown by Western publishers and critics is the marginalization of the Holocaust memory in Romania and the centrality of it in the Western society, much preoccupied with keeping the victims’ memory alive and defending it (by legislating it) from negationist and conspiracy tendencies associated with contemporary antisemitic ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Mark and Gail Appel Program in Holocaust and Antiracism Education: "Learning from the Past, Teaching for the Future" (TFTF) is a tri-national program that brings students from Canada, Germany, and Poland to sites of Holocaust memory to focus on the history, experience, representation, and memorialization of the Holocaust and its implications for other instances of atrocity, racism, and genocide. This forum gathers five voices from the 2013-2014 cohort of TFTF in order to reflect, a decade after the program, on the program's challenges, opportunities, and lasting impacts. The forum documents the various ways TFTF has influenced the lives and career trajectories of each of the forum participants. The forum is bookended by reflections from its editors--a program organizer and a program participant--on the potentials of experiential learning, the promise of an international network of educators, and the processing that a program like TFTF continues to demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increasingly diverse societal landscape in Greece for more than three decades within a context of migration, understandings of its fragile histories are still limited in shaping a sense of belonging that is open to 'otherness'. While Greek communities have utilised history as a pathway to maintain identity, other parallel histories and understandings do not resonate with 'Greekness' for most, such as the case of Greek Jewry. Critical historical perspectives can benefit from tracing 're-membering' as a feminist practice in the reassessment of societal values of inclusivity. Histories of violence and injustice can also include elements of 'difficult histories' and must be embraced to seek acknowledgement of these in promoting social change and cultural analysis for public humanities informing curation and curricula. Between eduscapes, art heritage spaces, an entry into contested and conflictual histories can expand a sense of belonging and the way we imagine our own connected histories with communities, place and nation. Greek Jews do not constitute a strong part of historical memory for Greeks in their past and present; in contrast to what is perceived as 'official' history, theirs is quite marginal. As a result, contemporary Greeks, from everyday life to academia, do not have a holistic understanding in relation to the identities of Jews in Greece, their culture or the Holocaust. Given the emergence of a new wave of artistic activism in recent years in response to the ever-increasing dominance of authoritarian neoliberalism, along with activist practices in the art field as undercurrents of resistance, in this intervention I bring together bodies of works to create a dialogic reflection with historical, artistic and feminist sources. In turn, the discussion then explores the spatiotemporal contestations of the historical geographies of Holocaust monuments in Greece. While interrogating historical amnesia, I endeavour to provide a space to engage with 'difficult histories' in their aesthetic context as a heritage of healing and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the role of Pope Pius XII and the Vatican during World War Two, specifically focusing on the controversy surrounding Pius XII's actions towards Jewish refugees. It discusses the complex role of the Catholic Church during the war, including diplomatic efforts and negotiations with Germany and Italy. The article concludes by noting the challenges faced by Pius XII and highlights evidence that suggests he covertly arranged actions to protect and assist Jews. Despite controversy, many Jewish survivors praise Pius XII for his support. Overall, the controversy surrounding his actions is unwarranted given the evidence disproving it. [Extracted from the article]

Holocaust museums around the world are distinctive in their emphasis on educational missions premised on the idea of "never again", a deep belief that increasing public awareness of the history and contemporary significance of the Holocaust – the mass murder of six million European Jews by the Nazi regime during World War Two – can prevent the future recurrence of such events. In the Australian context, tens of thousands of school students visit Holocaust museums every year to participate in learning programs designed to impart powerful historical and moral lessons about the Holocaust, its antecedent conditions, and its ongoing relevance. The aspirations attached to these programs and the scale at which they are delivered stand in stark contrast to the lack of empirical evidence to support their efficacy. This research protocol describes an extensive four-year research study designed to evaluate the presumed linear relationship between Holocaust education programs and ethical, moral, and affective learning that leads to durable attitudinal and behavioural change. Funded through the Australian Research Council's Linkage Projects scheme, the study will assess the impact of Holocaust museums' education programs on high school students from diverse demographics, including the extent to which participation influences the views and actions of young people in relation to racial and identity-based discrimination. The research design is longitudinal and transdisciplinary, integrating qualitative, quantitative, and participatory techniques across three case studies. By strategically employing rapid ethnographic assessment procedures, archival research, analysis of museum representational practices, surveys, and visual research methods, we will examine both the educational intent behind Holocaust education programs and their actual impacts on a large sample of Australian Year 10 students. We expect the results of the research to be used by our project partners to develop Holocaust education programs that effectively engage students on cognitive and affective levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The veil, as a metaphysical phenomenon that makes direct comprehension of pure human consciousness impossible, is a common metaphor associated with Locke's philosophy and his famous essay. Complete and pure understanding is obviously not possible - especially in the case of the most serious crimes committed by humanity, such as the crime of genocide and all its consequences and circumstances, within the framework of genocidal processes. Neither in specific cases nor in general. However, the veil has a peculiar characteristic: the wind can lift it. Future researchers must find a way to lift the „veil of oblivion" - and to record the truth that becomes apparent there. Until then, however, the human horror that leaves social wounds open forever: the genocides, the evaluative, interpretive, and preventive methods of further horrors must take this inhibiting factor into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into the underexplored intersection of Jewish identities and feminist art. It critically examines artworks by Judit Hersko and Susan Hiller, aligning with evolving identity constructs in contemporary aesthetics. Concepts like "postmemory" link second-generation Jewish artists to past experiences and unveil the erasure of Jewish women's memory of Jewish genocide. Analyzing Hersko and Hiller's diverse works, from landscape photography and sculpture to performance art, it underscores their shared pursuit: illuminating lingering "ghosts" of the Holocaust in modern landscapes. Susan Hiller's The J Street Project represents an ongoing exploration of loss and trauma beyond the Holocaust in Germany, using archives as a dynamic, evolving phenomenon. Judit Hersko's art calls for bearing witness to a potential climate catastrophe in Antarctica. The article culminates in the exploration of "The Memorial" (2017), an art project by the activist collective Center for Political Beauty that focuses on the resurgence of overt anti-Semitism in Germany. In essence, Hiller and Hersko confront erasures in history and nature, emphasizing justice and repair. Their art, intertwined with a project addressing contemporary anti-Semitism, serves as a testament to the enduring power of feminist art, reflecting, mourning, and transforming a world marked by historical traumas and war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The town of Bucha became a collective symbol of the modern genocide of Ukrainian people, because it was there where the scale of all the crimes committed against Ukrainians was revealed during the liberation of Kyiv Oblast from the Russian occupiers in March-April 2022. It was Bucha that gave many people in Ukraine the reason to debate if there is God at all. Today, Ukrainian churches began to consider the possibility of "theology after Bucha", asking practically the same questions that Christians and Jews were concerned with after World War II. As then the main question was "Where was God at Auschwitz?" Now the question is where Biblical God was during Bucha genocide, and in a broader context, where God is with the love and mercy in Ukraine after February 24, 2022. The article is nearly the first scientific research of Christianity in Ukrainian academic religious studies during the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war. The author examines the conditions for the foundation of a new theological system in the realm of Ukrainian Christianity after the victory over rushism, following the example of the theology after the Holocaust/Shoa in Western Christianity after WWII. The article analyses a number of caveats that, if not addressed today, could make the constructive development of the abovementioned theology impossible. The author predicts possible parallels between "theology after Auschwitz" and the future "theology after Bucha". In fact, “theology after Auschwitz" did not radically affect Western, primarily European Christianity after 1945 because it did not provide unambiguous answers to a range of urgent essential questions related to the existence of a believer in the world recovering from the great war. So, with a considerable degree of probability (already evident from the remarks of individual representatives of different religious denominations) there is concern that "theology after Bucha" may fail practically at its beginnings, becoming a "pure theory", having no chances to be applied at the all-Christian level. It is partially clear today that an attempt would be made to launch "theology after Bucha" exactly along the ideological tracks of "theology after Auschwitz", that is, to direct it exclusively to the search for the arguments shifting the burden of responsibility for "Bucha" from God and thereby possibly save Christianity from the ideological crisis it has been in Ukraine after February 24, 2022. The author concludes that if "theology after Bucha" really begins to move along the similar ideological fairway like "theology after Auschwitz", the post-war Christianity in Ukraine will face a disappointing perspective to lose social relevance and, as a result, will be radically reduced to ritualism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How and what does the literature on Buchenwald remember? How does the paradox between the impossibility of archiving and the will to rescue the victims of concentration camps, and more specifically of Buchenwald, from anonymity, take shape in literature? The aim of this contribution is to answer these questions by analysing Ivan Ivanji’s novel Der Aschenmensch von Buchenwald [The Man of Ashes of Buchenwald] as an impossible archive containing the voices of the dead of the concentration camp. To this end, the parallels between Ivanji’s novel and the anti-archive created by Danilo Kiš in his text The Encyclopedia of the Dead (A Whole Life) will be explored. Both texts aspire to reflect the (impossible) totality, while paying homage to the anonymous dead of the wars and dictatorships of the 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our discussion of the Algerian Jewish community's Jewish education during the French period (1830–1939) sheds light on the community's multiplicity of identities viewed through the prism of the Spanish diaspora and French colonialism and sociology. Algerian Jewry's multiple identities during the French period originate in the community's education, both general and Jewish. The Jewish education in Algeria fueled loyalty to one's Jewish identity and heritage and partially knit together the fissures that materialized in Jewish society ever more forcefully in this era of change. This article proposes a new methodological and historiographical approach based upon the examination of diverse sources—from communal and colonial sources to rabbinic, consular, and scholarly ones—using them to present a complete and multidimensional historical picture. Recognizing the many identities adopted by Algerian Jews during the French period is indispensable to conducting balanced and quality research into Algerian Jewry's history. The complexity of Algerian Jews' identity during the French period was the source of its richness and amplitude and a point of contention in the historiographical research of Algerian Jewish history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German Exile Archive 1933-1945 of the German National Library and the USC Shoah Foundation offer visitors the opportunity to use the digital interactive interview with eyewitness Inge Auerbacher. The exhibition "Ask! Digital interactive interviews with Inge Auerbacher and Kurt S. Maier" allows visitors to engage in a dialogue with the digital interactive interview of Kurt S. Maier. In order to be able to continue speaking with Inge Auerbacher in the future, artificial intelligence is being trained and improved. The project is supported by the Commissioner of the Federal Government for Culture and Media and the state of Hesse. The ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics has conducted a study to investigate automated methods for updating its specialized vocabulary. It was found that the BERT language model DistilBERT is particularly effective in automated keyword extraction. The ZBW plans to use AI methods to update the thesaurus and improve the search for topics in economics. [Extracted from the article]

The aim of this paper is to analyze and compare the language used by the Guardian from the UK, Der Spiegel from Germany, Dnevnik from Bulgaria and Cumhuriyet from Türkiye to report on the events of Oct. 7th, 2023 starting with Hamas' attack on Israel and continuing with Israel's military response to it. The cross-linguistic critical analysis is limited to the headlines of the published articles and attempts to reveal whether the events in question are reported in a similar way considering the fact that all four media outlets are seen as left-liberal and in the case of differences whether and to what extent these are determined by national historical and/or political realities. All four media outlets report on the events of Oct. 7th as they develop; however, the Bulgarian and the Turkish newspaper lack the resources to do this as extensively as the Guardian and Der Spiegel. There are differences both in the presence of victims in the headlines and in the way Hamas and its attack are referred to. While the Guardian talks about 'militants', Der Spiegel prefers 'terrorists' and Cumhuriyet uses more agentless structures. All four media outlets publish videos of the military conflict but Der Spiegel limits itself to showing only Hamas' attack and not the destruction caused by the Israeli army in response. Possible explanations for such differences are belonging to the same religion in the case of Türkiye and historical events like the Holocaust in the case of Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to identify the specifics of the Jewish text in Howard Fast's iconic novel Torquemada. The study is based on the semiotic definition of the text. The Jewish theme in the oeuvre of Fast, a writer of Jewish origin, occupies a significant place. The specific construction of the Jewish theme allows one to highlight the boundaries of a certain Jewish text in the author's work, which was clearly formed during the period of ideological and national quest. The novel Torquemada occupies a special place in the Jewish text of Fast. The Jewish text of the novel Torquemada is represented by a multi-level model. At the anthological level, the Jewish text of the novel can be correlated with the ideological quests of the author, Howard Fast. However, at the same time, it is an allegoric narrative about the fate of the Jews of the 20th century and the tragedy of the Holocaust. The events of the 15th century are the allegory of the events of the 20th century, and the times of the Spanish Inquisition are associated with the tragedy of the Jews of Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alfred Gong is one of the German-speaking Jewish Authors from Bukovina, who survived deportation and the Holocaust. At the End of the 40s, he succeeded in emigrating from communist Romania to Vienna and afterwards with the help of a refugee organization he reached the USA. The present paper follows two layers of analysis. The introductory part follows a biographical approach which is meant to bring up his considerations, thoughts, or inner conflicts towards the USA as a newcomer. For this part, Joseph Strelka's or Joachim Herrmann's works are the most relevant, for they published and brought up various passages from the author's archive. The second part of this paper focuses on the analysis of a couple of poems, which are dedicated to the American metropolis. The main purpose of this analysis is to present the meaning of this literary topoi in Gong's literature and the way such topoi are regarded by the author. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudios de Linguistica del Espanol is the property of University Library of Bern and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Universitaria de Historia Militar (RUHM) is the property of Centro de Estudios de la Guerra and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article is focused on the so-called urban texts related to Poland with a special emphasis on the historical and geographical region of Galicia, which covers the territories of Red Ruthenia in Ukraine and Lesser Poland, and on their historical connotations as presented in Boris Khersonsky's book of poetry Family archive (2006). Khersonsky is a Russian-speaking Ukrainian poet from Odesa, who has been awarded prestigious prizes for his literary work both in Ukraine and abroad. Family archive can be described as a sort of novel in verse about the tragic history of the 20th century told through the family history of the author himself. The main goal of this article is to analyze the specific spatial structure of the book in the context of geopoetics and places of memory with a special accent on Polish cities and towns. This territory is the quintessential locus of historical events connected to Eastern European Jewish heritage and the tragedy of the Holocaust. This paper seeks to reconstruct the image of Poland with all the connotations and cultural myths associated with its multicultural experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, titled "Dynamics of Identities: Jewish Communities in Africa and Their Diaspora," explores the Jewish communities in Africa and their diaspora. It discusses the ancient Jewish traditions and rich cultural heritage of these communities, as well as their integration into the broader Jewish and general history of Africa. The research presented in the article focuses on various aspects of Jewish identity, including tradition and modernity, education, holidays and customs, religious organizations, and more. The article also includes specific case studies on Jewish communities in Ethiopia, Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, and Israel. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores Lily Brett's The Auschwitz Poems (2004) and Elizabeth Rosner's Gravity (2014), two female-authored second-generation poetic renditions of the Holocaust. Examining these works through the lens of postmemory, my goal is to shed new light on the intergenerational transmission of trauma from a gendered perspective, focusing on its connections with poetry. I argue that both anthologies share at the core of their narrative a gender-focused layer of meaning, which penetrates into a postmemorial experience that is to a great extent defined by this social construct. This essay fosters scholarship on postmemory by conceiving it as a double-edged process encompassing both aesthetics and a form of social activism, and informed by feminism, which is mirrored in the reconception and rethinking of both the female body and gender hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the representations of the Holocaust in the Mexican sociocultural horizon of the 1950s and 1960s, focusing on the film newsreel Cine Verdad. It highlights the influence of the United States on Mexican cinema during World War II to counteract Axis propaganda. It is mentioned that the theme of the Holocaust has not been widely linked to topics such as identity, violence, and human rights in Mexico, unlike other countries such as Argentina. The text analyzes the representation of the Holocaust in Mexican literature and cinema. The influence of the film newsreel Cine Verdad in the dissemination of the Holocaust in Mexico is also analyzed. The article discusses the participation of Carlos Fuentes and José Emilio Pacheco in magazines and novels related to the left and the Holocaust. In addition, the representation of the Holocaust in post-war cinema and how it was integrated into an anti-fascist narrative is mentioned. The text analyzes Lanzmann's work and his contribution to the dissemination of the word "Shoah" instead of "Holocaust" in European and North American intellectual and cultural media. It is also mentioned that the series "Holocaust" had a similar effect in the United States as the Eichmann trial in Israel, as it prompted the collection of testimonies of the genocide. The article analyzes the representation of the Holocaust in Mexico's historical consciousness through the film newsreel Cine Verdad. It is emphasized that, unlike Germany and Israel, Mexico did not have a role as perpetrator or victim in World War II and the Holocaust. Overall, the importance of these topics in relation to the present and the prevention of the repetition of a catastrophic past is highlighted. The cited document is a list of bibliographic references that address topics related to the representation of the Holocaust and traumatic past in the audiovisual and literary field. [Extracted from the article]

In this article, I analyze Julia Pirotte's photographs of the immediate aftermath of the Kielce pogrom as a resource for conceptualizing the relationship between trauma and photography, gendered ways of seeing, memory and trauma, body and archive, vision and death, death and the archive, images and history, survival, and destruction. These specific atrocity pictures make a difference to contemporary conceptions of trauma photography and the female gaze in relation to racist, political violence. I work with theories that go beyond thinking about trauma and photography based on the Lacanian concept of tuché on the one hand, and Barthes' punctum on the other. I investigate to what extent Pirotte's documentation of the Jewish victims and survivors of the pogrom can be read as a belated encounter with the trauma of the Holocaust, and what it reveals about survival at the site of violence. The article is a work of a feminist academic oriented at reclaiming a space within the narrative on visual violence; the reflection on the female traumatic gaze is an element of a broader gesture aimed at reorienting the theory of atrocity pictures and documentations of political violence, as well as photography of trauma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christian Moraru's book, "Flat Aesthetics: Twenty-First-Century American Fiction and the Making of the Contemporary," explores contemporary American literature through the lens of object-oriented ontology and new aesthetics. The book argues for a "flat aesthetics" that acknowledges the equal presence and aesthetic potential of all objects, moving away from a human-centered perspective. The author introduces the concept of "flat reading," which involves closely examining objects and their interactions without relying on interpretation. The book aims to offer a fresh approach to understanding and interpreting contemporary literature based on its ontological realities. It analyzes works by authors like Ben Lerner and Michael Chabon to illustrate how literature can challenge instrumental logic and provide insights into the modern world. The author proposes a nonhierarchical literary aesthetics that recognizes the reality and significance of both human and nonhuman entities. However, the text also raises concerns about whether this approach may still be susceptible to commodification. [Extracted from the article]

During the Second World War (1939–1945), the rate that flour was extracted from wheat to make wholemeal bread was continuously increased to save wheat supplies in Ireland. Once the dangers of eating this bread became known, doctors and scientists advocated that extraction rates be reduced alongside the fortification of flour to counteract the potential side effects. Despite several calls for action, no changes were made until connections were drawn between calcium deficiency, rickets and tuberculosis (TB). This article uses flour as a case study to understand the complexities of introducing health policy at critical periods, such as war. While interest in public health was raised due to the war, the war also ensured that attempts at sound food policies were limited. Higher extraction rates temporarily relieved wartime pressures, but this had severe health effects on the wider population. By mapping flour extraction rates alongside the incidence of disease, this article argues that political short-terminism exacerbated public health problems as symbolised in the black loaf. It was the medical profession that managed to successfully encourage action on the sole basis that flour extraction had created a health crisis among children and the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim is to explore how the information about the Holocaust in Lviv was given in the documents of the Soviet authorities in 1944--1945. The purpose is to analyze how functionaries at the local level identified the mass "disappearance" of Jews in letters of response to numerous appeals about their search, and what linguistic constructions were used, what they wrote about the enemy, and how they explained the stories of the rescued, how censorship worked, as well as how the image of post-war Lviv rises. The methodology is based on general scientific, special, and interdisciplinary methods of scientific knowledge (narrative and textual analysis, content analysis, biographical method, and tools of social anthropology are used in particular). Scientific novelty. Narrative analysis of previously unpublished texts (by authorities in the city of Lviv in the mid-1940s) deepened the knowledge of concealment by the Soviet power of the tragedy of the Jewish people at the final stage of the war. Conclusions. The authorities avoided any mention of the isolation of Jews to the ghetto; there was no mention of numerous individual appeals as a mass extermination of the Jewish people. At every request for the search for specific residents or the whole family, several persons at diff erent addresses of residence, the city authorities gave individual and distinct answers about the "disappeared", who were "carried out", "taken" or "evicted" by Germans "to an unknown destination". The research deepens the knowledge about the creation of the Soviet discourse of the World War II at its final stage, complements the established in historiography the image of the Holocaust in the USSR not so much as a slurred but an unwelcome memory that had a framework and opportunities to be spoken loud at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Athenaeum: Polskie Studia Politologiczne is the property of Faculty of Political Science & Security Studies Nicolaus Copernicus University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Historia y Comunicación Social is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

By articulating a shared victimhood or guilt or responsibility, memorial museums are designed as ethical projects that encourage visitors to learn from the past to build a "better future". In contemporary Europe, Holocaust memorials and museums constitute a trajectory of remembrance about public Holocaust memory that consolidates political legitimacy and articulates national narratives of the legacy of WWII. In parallel, increasing adoption and spread of digital technologies have resulted in a convergence and a globalisation of themes and user interests associated with Holocaust memory. The purpose of this study is to investigate the perspectives and interests of users of the social media profiles of a group of Holocaust museums and memorials in Germany and Italy. Using a primarily quantitative approach, the study sought to understand the motivations, interests, and online activities of users of nine Holocaust museums and memorials. While national narratives regarding public policy continue to diverge in the two countries, users express a convergence of interests and motivations when using these social media profiles. This dual venture of Holocaust memory is a complex yet powerful example of how the globalisation of digital media is playing an increasingly significant role in European contemporary society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home economics, as a field of scientific research and practice that aims to improve quality of life, does not get the attention in the twenty-first century that it should. When thinking of this subject, one might picture middle school students learning how to sew or attempting to cook an ill-fated meal, but in the late nineteenth century and through most of the twentieth century, home economics was a thriving field that provided an area for women to contribute to their communities, families, and to their country during war times. The Bureau of Home Economics and the women who ran this organization could disseminate information that directly contributed to improving lives on the home front and aiding in the War effort between 1939 and 1945. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents how visual contemporary art can form intertextual relations to the architecture of the Holocaust. For that purpose, two works are used as examples and analyzed in more detail: Lego. Concentration Camp by Zbigniew Libera (1996) and Diamond Dust by Zoran Dimovski (2021). This paper shows how these artists cite architecture of the Holocaust by scale-modelling and additional elements that give their works complex semantic layers. This paper also includes discussion about invisibility and visibility of concentration and extermination camps, as well as the segment that explains the difference between the use of architectural scale models by the Third Reich propaganda and by contemporary artists. This paper concludes how, when cited in works of contemporary art, architecture becomes a complex sign shifted from one discourse into another and from one historic period to the present, a phenomenon embraced by artists to criticize the socio-political context of its creation, but also to criticize the alarming phenomena of today's era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Survivor testimonies link survival in deadly POW camps, Gulags, and Nazi concentration camps to the formation of close friendships with other prisoners. To provide evidence free of survival bias on the importance of social ties for surviving the Holocaust, we study individual histories of 30 thousand Jewish prisoners who entered the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on transports from the Theresienstadt ghetto. We ask whether the availability of potential friends among fellow prisoners on a transport influenced the chances of surviving the Holocaust. Relying on multiple proxies of preexisting social networks and varying social-linkage composition of transports, we uncover a significant survival advantage to entering Auschwitz with a larger group of potential friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "And the ship... goes" from the magazine Studies on Contemporary Cultures talks about the author's work experience in the Culture Program of CUIS at the University of Colima. It highlights the atmosphere of affection and camaraderie in the program and mentions the commemoration of the XXXVII anniversary of the ESCC magazine in September 2023. It also highlights ESCC's adaptation to the digital transition and its participation in the RedALyC initiative. The issue presents several research articles in the field of Cultural Studies, addressing topics such as popular religiosity in Western Mexico, the uses and abuses of cultural heritage in Mexico, attitudes towards gender and sexual minorities in Colima, and the professional mobility and cultural change of young Tseltal people in Chiapas. [Extracted from the article]

This essay confronts the political attempts to forget –diminish and eliminate– in parts of Europe today all issues referring to human violations during the Second World War; specifically, the Holocaust. The example I use is Poland and its current educational policies, which are also the prototypical example of what other European societies involved in the killing of Jews, still struggle with. As these violations entered society with justifications and were normalized in their political life then, they still remain without explanation. How did such destruction occur so easily and, for us today, how to prevent such thinking to overtake again any society? In this essay, I attempt to identify, philosophically, what gets deactivated in the thought process but must always remain active to maintain an ethical and humane society. I analyze the function of “shame” and “guilt,” and reject Poland´s political formula that proposes “the feeling good” sentiment by ignoring her historical past. The subject matter is essential today everywhere as it illustrates the tremendous easiness with which people can fall prey to prejudices and justifications that facilitate the destruction and extermination of human groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]