Abstract: A mentally healthy human being can go insane if suddenly diagnosed with leprosy. Eugen Ionescu finds out that even the “Ionescu” name, an indisputable Romanian father, and the fact of being born Christian can do nothing, nothing, nothing to cover the curse of having Jewish blood in his veins. With resignation and sometimes with I don't know what sad and discouraged pride, we got used to this dear leprosy a long time ago.
With these words, the Romanian–Jewish writer Mihail Sebastian expresses within his private diary some of the darkest moments of a World War II “transfigured” Romania, populated as they are by the gothic characters of legionaries, Nazis, and antisemitism. His death soon followed in 1945, when Romania was at the threshold of fascism and communism. However, with the discovery and the subsequent publishing of Sebastian's diary in 1996, and following 50 years of communist mystification of the Jewish Holocaust, the entire chaotic war atmosphere with the fascist affections of the Romanian intellectual elite was once again brought to light with all the flavor and scent of the dark past. In this entry from Sebastian's diary he speaks of his friend, Eugen Ionescu who, born of a French-related mother and a Romanian father, was living in Bucharest at that time. He would later become known to the world as Eugène Ionesco, the famous French playwright and author of the well-known plays The Bald Soprano and The Rhinoceros. The above quote from Sebastian's journal, predating the international fame of Ionesco, but already marking the end of Sebastian's career under fascism, remains a traumatizing testimony of the Jewish Kafkian torment as “guilt,” a deeply claustrophobic identity that many Eastern European Jewish intellectuals have learned to internalize. Beyond this symbolism, the publishing of Sebastian's diary in Romania unintentionally challenged an existent post-communist tendency of legitimizing inter-war fascist personalities within the framework of a general lack of knowledge about the Jewish Holocaust in both the communist and post-communist periods.
Abstract: It is a fact, that the Holocaust of European Jews has marked in various ways the Jewish diaspora and the Jewish presence worldwide. In the case of the Jews who live in Greece and especially in the city of Thessaloniki, though the Community delayed to break silence about this traumatic historic event, this fact was never let slip from memory. In the public sphere of action, the updating of Holocaust takes place through community actions at first hand and, later, through initiatives from local authorities, by making mnemonic and memorial donations. For the past seventy-four years, Holocaust inheres as a memory in three post-war Jewish generations in Thessaloniki and seals diversely the identity of the social subjects. This mnemonic event in collaboration with the social and politic developments and turmoils, describes the identity of the Jewish element, both directly and indirectly. The presentation will be focused on qualitative empirical data of fieldwork, from a sociological analysis perspective. More specifically, in this paper it will be explored the way in which, the Holocaust of the Greek Jewry emphasizes on the individual and collective responsibilities and, at the same time, it’s function as a contemporary conservation mechanism of the Jewish identity, a cohesive bond of the Greek-Jewry in Thessaloniki.
Abstract: Autorka v tejto publikácii sumarizuje svoje aktuálne poznatky získané dlhodobým výskumom problematiky holokaustu na Slovensku, jeho reflexie v spomienkach pamätníkov i obrazy šírené v súčasnej spoločnosti Slovenska. Zamýšľa sa nad možnosťami metódy oral history pri výskume tejto témy , jej úskaliami i pozitívami. Významné je pre ňu využitie tejto kvalitatívnej metódy zameranej na mikroúroveň spoločnosti, na subjektívne prežívanie veľkých dejín, priamy kontakt bádateľa s človekom, ktorý tieto udalosti prežil. Predstavuje jednotlivé dlhodobé výskumné projekty, ktoré autorka realizovala, ich výskumné vzorky, spôsob a podmienky práce. V tretej časti predstavuje spomienky na holokaust z dvoch perspektív: obetí (židovských pamätníkov) a divákov (ich nežidovských susedov, ktorí boli svedkami, no nie priamymi aktérmi diania). V závere sa zamýšľa nad vzťahom pamäti spomienkového spoločenstva a jeho vlastnými identitami, porovnáva spôsoby spomínania u židovských a nežidovských respondentov a uvažuje, čo prezrádzajú o vzťahoch medzi nimi a o ich vlastných referenčných skupinách.
Abstract: Rozsáhlá monografie odborníků z pražské právnické fakulty pod vedením Jana Kuklíka a Reného Petráše se věnuje problému majetkových ztrát židovského obyvatelstva za druhé světové války a různým metodám odškodnění. Publikace má široký historický a komparativní záběr, obsahuje podrobnou analýzu právních aspektů a zabývá se i dodnes nedořešenými otázkami. Nejpodrobněji je v knize zastoupeno území bývalého Československa, ale pozornost je věnována i vývoji v dalších státech: Německu, Rakousku, Polsku, ale také v zemích s velmi odlišnou situací, jako jsou Velká Británie, Bulharsko či Švýcarsko. Výklad u jednotlivých států obvykle zahrnuje nástin vývoje postavení Židů v daném regionu v posledních desetiletích před holocaustem, jsou však naznačeny i starší, středověké tradice. Jádrem práce je zachycení často až pozoruhodně různorodých metod záborů židovského majetku zejména v době druhé světové války a jeho restitucí nebo různých odškodňovacích akcí, které probíhají až do současnosti.
Abstract: Cet ouvrage dirigé par Jacques et Ygal Fijalkow découle du colloque qui s'est tenu en 2011 à Lacaune sur le thème des voyages de mémoire de la Shoah (colloque soutenu par la Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah). Enseignants, personnels des musées mémoriaux, témoins de la Shoah, acteurs institutionnels, experts et universitaires y livrent leurs regards et leurs analyses sur les voyages d'étude sur la Shoah.
Enseigner la Shoah n’est pas chose facile. Tous les enseignants le savent. Dans le souci de développer des formes nouvelles d’enseignement, certains ont trouvé une solution : sortir de la classe et aller avec leurs élèves sur des lieux de mémoire. Cette façon de faire, dans un contexte de développement des voyages en général, est en plein développement.Du côté des pouvoirs publics, la formule a plu et les soutiens arrivent de sorte que le nombre de voyages augmente d’année en année. Le succès aidant, un débat est né : qu’apportent véritablement ces voyages de mémoire aux élèves qui y participent ?
C’est sur cette toile de fond que cet ouvrage a été rédigé. On y trouvera des éclairages sur ce qu’apportent les institutions spécialisées dans ce domaine. On pourra y voir également comment les choses se passent, aussi bien lors de la préparation que sur les lieux de mémoire eux-mêmes. Et ceci en France mais aussi chez nos voisins anglais, belges, espagnols, italiens, suisses, ainsi qu’en Israël. Le cas d’Auschwitz est privilégié, mais d’autres lieux sont également examinés.
Abstract: Restitution for the mostly Jewish property and assets that were confiscated by the Nazis during World War II (WWII) in various European states has been a highly debated issue ever since the end of the war. Countries that adhered to the ideas of communism and nationalisation of property in the immediate aftermath of the war failed to address this issue until very recently. Serbia, too, has only began to consider remedying the incredible damage done to its rather small Jewish community. More specifically, in the past decade, Serbia has been trying to repair the damage by passing a series of restitution laws which eventually led to separate legislation on heirless property. This paper explores the substance and application of these laws, as well as the history of discrimination based on which the Serbian Jewish community was persecuted by German occupiers and their collaborators. In doing so, through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT), this paper identifies another group that has been persecuted on the basis of race, namely the Romani. What follows from such research is the following: firstly, the law allowed for discrimination on a racial basis of both Jews and Roma during WWII and, secondly, the law is now remedying the damages caused towards the former group, but not the latter. In conclusion, this paper suggests that such a distinction is made due to a possible interest convergence, as defined by CRT.
Abstract: Auschwitz, Holokaust, antysemityzm...
Te trzy słowa symbole ewokują całą listę pytań badawczych. Czym jest dzisiaj dla nas - mieszkańców Polski - Auschwitz? Jaką wiedzę na temat obozu posiadamy, zwłaszcza czy wiemy, że Żydzi stanowili największą grupę ofiar? Czego symbolem jest dla nas – Polaków – Auschwitz, szczególnie czy jest raczej symbolem polskiego męczeństwa, czy żydowskiego Holokaustu? Jaki jest stosunek Polaków do Żydów? Jak szeroko rozpowszechniony i jak głęboki jest antysemityzm w Polsce, w jej różnych regionach i środowiskach? Czy mamy do czynienia z jednego rodzaju antysemityzmem czy z różnymi antysemityzmami? Co o Auschwitz, Zagładzie i Żydach wiedzą i sądzą młodzi Polacy? Jak efektywne są rozmaite działania edukacyjne i informacyjne dotyczące Zagłady i Auschwitz? Jaki skutek odniosły debaty o stosunkach polsko-żydowskich wywołane publikacją książek Jana Tomasza Grossa? Jakie doświadczenie wizyty w miejscach pamięci, takich jak Auschwitz, Majdanek czy Treblinka, zmienia myślenie młodych? Czy wzrost wiedzy o Zagładzie i Auschwitz zmienia postawy, zwłaszcza czy eliminuje antysemityzm?
Niniejszy tom zawiera artykuły, w których podjęto próbę udzielenia odpowiedzi na te pytania.
Abstract: Yellow Star, Red Star asks why Holocaust memory continues to be so deeply troubled—ignored, appropriated, and obfuscated—throughout Eastern Europe, even though it was in those lands that most of the extermination campaign occurred. As part of accession to the European Union, Jelena Subotić shows, East European states were required to adopt, participate in, and contribute to the established Western narrative of the Holocaust. This requirement created anxiety and resentment in post-communist states: Holocaust memory replaced communist terror as the dominant narrative in Eastern Europe, focusing instead on predominantly Jewish suffering in World War II. Influencing the European Union's own memory politics and legislation in the process, post-communist states have attempted to reconcile these two memories by pursuing new strategies of Holocaust remembrance. The memory, symbols, and imagery of the Holocaust have been appropriated to represent crimes of communism.
Yellow Star, Red Star presents in-depth accounts of Holocaust remembrance practices in Serbia, Croatia, and Lithuania, and extends the discussion to other East European states. The book demonstrates how countries of the region used Holocaust remembrance as a political strategy to resolve their contemporary "ontological insecurities"—insecurities about their identities, about their international status, and about their relationships with other international actors. As Subotić concludes, Holocaust memory in Eastern Europe has never been about the Holocaust or about the desire to remember the past, whether during communism or in its aftermath. Rather, it has been about managing national identities in a precarious and uncertain world.
Abstract: Silence appears frequently in discourses of the Holocaust – as a metaphorical absence, a warning against forgetting, or simply the only appropriate response. But powerful though these meanings are, they often underplay the ambiguity of silence’s signifying power. This article addresses the liminality of silence through an analysis of its richly textured role in the memorial soundscapes of Berlin. Beyond an aural version of erasure, unspeakability, or the space for reflection upon it, I argue that these silent spaces must always be heard as part of their surrounding urban environment, refracting wider spatial practices and dis/order. When conventions are reversed – when the present is silent – the past can resound in surprising and provocative ways, collapsing spatial and temporal borders and escaping the ritualized boundaries of formal commemoration. This is explored through four different memorial situations: the disturbing resonances within the Holocaust Memorial; the transgressive processes of a collective silent walk; Gleis 17 railway memorial’s opening up of heterotopic ‘gaps’ in time; and sounded/silent history in the work of singer Tania Alon. Each of these examples, in different ways, frames a slippage between urban sound and memorial silence, creating a parallel symbolic space that the past and the present can inhabit simultaneously. In its unpredictable fluidity, silence becomes a mobile and subversive force, producing an imaginative space that is ambiguous, affective and deeply meaningful. A closer attention to these different practices of listening disrupts a top-down, strategic discourse of silence as conventionally emblematic of reflection and distance. The contemporary urban soundscape that slips through the silent cracks problematizes the narrative hegemony of memorial itself.
Abstract: Dévastée et démantelée par l’occupation nazie, lieu principal de la Catastrophe, la Pologne a un statut particulier pour la mémoire juive et la mémoire de la Shoah. Depuis une quinzaine d’années, un réexamen de cette époque est devenu possible. Avec la démocratie et l’intégration à l’Union européenne, on voit naître un vif intérêt pour cette histoire dans les nouvelles générations et de grands débats publics émergent. La recherche historique est libre, ouverte et riche. La culture et le patrimoine juif sont étudiés et restaurés. Des artistes en interrogent la mémoire. Des festivals, des journaux, des émissions de radio ou de télévision, des programmes éducatifs touchent la jeune génération. Une petite communauté juive reprend vie. Bien entendu, la mémoire du génocide et la responsabilité des témoins sont au cœur des commémorations et des discussions sur ce passé. La Fin de l’innocence entend faire connaître ce travail de la société polonaise sur elle-même et sur son passé. Texte de voyage, construit autour de l’évocation des lieux de mémoire, texte de conversations, qui présente des portraits entretiens des principaux acteurs de ce renouveau, et texte de réflexion, cet ouvrage est à l’image du foisonnement et des interrogations qu’il présente.
Abstract: Describes and gives results of an opinion poll conducted by the American Jewish Committee, working with D3 Systems, a U.S. opinion-research organization, and the Emnid Institute, a similar organization in Germany (both West and East) in October 1990. The questionnaires included questions concerning the memory of the Holocaust, special relations between Germany and Israel, Jewish influence in the world, Zionism, and the danger of antisemitism in contemporary Germany. Results showed that disturbingly high percentages of the population exhibited negative attitudes toward Jews, Israel, and remembrance of the Holocaust. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism)
Abstract: The study analyzes the problem of anti-Semitism in Czecho-Slovakia, with special emphasis on Slovakia, where the manifestations of anti-Semitism after the Velvet revolution" have been more numerous. It perceives these manifestations as the tip of an iceberg of historicaly accumulated prejudices against Jews rooted in the culture. Issuing from the findings of several representative surveys, the study proves the higher wariness towards the Jews among the population of Slovakia in comparison with the Czech lands. Similar to other countries, this wariness has features of an "anti-Semitism without Jews", as, due to the holocaust and several waves of emigration, the number of members of the Jewish community in Slovakia has rapidly decreased. The revived anti-Semitism in Slovakia is interpreted within the context of the "post-Communist panic" accompanying the intricate process of transition. Following the description of the specific features of traditional Slovak anti-Semitism, as well as empirical analysis of the value background of the present anti-Jewish prejudices, the conclusion is formulated that in the anatomy of Slovak anti-Semitism there have not been, despite the passing of decades, substantial changes. Anti-Jewish attitudes can be seen as a metaphorical and condensed expression of an anti-liberal orientation, lying behind which there are social and political insecurity, frustration, authoritarianism, cultural isolation, as well as general national intolerance. In order to come to terms with anti-Semitism in Slovakia, it is necessary to re-assess the period of the Slovak State (1939-1945) in view of the share of responsibility of Slovak political representatives and the general public for the tragedy of the Slovak Jews. Issuing from the empirical findings, the study shows the unsatisfactory state of the critical historical consciousness of the Slovak population.
Abstract: Aim. This paper analyses the inherent paradoxes of Jewish-Polish relations. It portrays the main beliefs that construct the contradicting narratives of the Holocaust, trying to weigh which of them is closer to the historic truth. It seeks for an answer to the question whether the Polish people were brothers-in-fate, victimized like the Jews by the Nazis, or if they were rather a hostile ethnic group.
Concept. First, the notion of Poland as a haven for Jews throughout history is conveyed. This historical review shows that the Polish people as a nation have always been most tolerant towards the Jews and that anti-Semitism has existed only on the margins of society. Next, the opposite account is brought, relying on literature that shows that one thousand years of Jewish residence in Poland were also a thousand years of constant friction, with continuous hatred towards the Jews. Consequently, different accounts of World War II are presented – one shows how the Polish people were the victims, and the others deal with Poles as by-standers and as perpetrators.
Results and conclusion. Inconsistency remains the strongest consistency of the relations between Jews and Poles. With the unresolved puzzle of whether the Polish people were victims, bystanders or perpetrators, this paper concludes with some comments on Israeli domestic political and educational attitudes towards Poland, that eventually influence collective concepts.
Cognitive value. The fact that the issue of the Israeli-Polish relationship has not been deeply inquired, seems to attest to the reluctance of both sides to deal with what seems to form an open wound. At the same time, the revival of Jewish culture in Poland shows that, today more than ever, the Polish people are reaching out to Israelis, and are willing to deal with history at an unprecedented level. As Israelis who wish to promote universal values, a significant encounter with the Polish people may constitute a door to acceptance and understanding of others. Such acceptance can only stem from mutual discourse and physical proximity between the two peoples.
Abstract: La disparition de la quasi-totalité des Juifs de Pologne pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale est due à leur assassinat systématique par les Allemands. Mais que sait-on des comportements de la population polonaise ? La paix revenue, que sont devenus les derniers survivants ? Que nous dit aujourd’hui l’irruption de ce passé dans la société polonaise ? Comment vivre avec la mémoire d’Auschwitz, de Treblinka, de Belzec, autant de mémoriaux situés en Pologne ?
Depuis une quinzaine d’années, des historiens de ce pays ont montré combien il était difficile aux Juifs qui tentaient d’échapper aux tueurs de trouver appui auprès des populations locales, surtout en milieu rural, tant en raison de la politique de terreur menée par l’occupant que de l’hostilité de la société polonaise à l’égard des Juifs. Leurs travaux font désormais autorité dans le monde entier. Pourtant, depuis quelques années, les autorités de Varsovie mettent en œuvre une « politique historique » qui vise à minorer, voire à nier, la participation de franges importantes de la population polonaise à la traque des Juifs.
Sur place, malgré les embûches et les intimidations, les historiens travaillent, publient, organisent des colloques, forment des étudiants. Les auteurs réunis dans cet ouvrage témoignent de la vitalité de cette historiographie. Faire connaître aujourd’hui la fécondité scientifique et la portée critique de la nouvelle école historique polonaise est une exigence intellectuelle, morale et politique.
Abstract: The paper argues that the recent history of Holocaust Studies in Lithuania is characterized by major provision (for research, teaching and publishing) coming from state-sponsored agencies, particularly a state commission on both Nazi and Soviet crimes. Problematically, the commission is itself simultaneously active in revising the narrative per se of the Holocaust, principally according to the ‘Double Genocide’ theories of the 2008 Prague Declaration that insists on ‘equalization’ of Nazi and Soviet crimes. Lithuanian agencies have played a disproportionate role in that declaration, in attempts at legislating some of its components in the European Parliament and other EU bodies, and ‘export’ of the revisionist model to the West. Much international support for solid independent Lithuanian Holocaust researchers and NGOs was cut off as the state commission set out determinedly to dominate the field, which is perceived to have increasing political implications in East-West politics. But this history must not obscure an
impressive list of local accomplishments. A tenaciously devoted group of Holocaust survivors themselves, trained as academics or professionals in other fields, educated themselves to publish books, build a mini-museum (that has defied the revisionists) within the larger state-sponsored Jewish museum, and worked to educate both pupils and the wider public. Second, a continuing stream of non-Jewish Lithuanian scholars, educators, documentary
film makers and others have at various points valiantly defied state pressures and contributed significantly and selflessly. The wider picture is that Holocaust Studies has been built most successfully by older Holocaust survivors and younger non-Jews, in both groups often by those coming to work in it from other specialties out of a passion for justice and truth in history, while lavishly financed state initiatives have been anchored in the inertia of nationalist regional politics.
Abstract: The successful incorporation of Eastern European states into the European Union, NATO and the Western pro-democratic family of nations usually focuses on the import of ideas, governmental and societal structures, and products, from West to East, and of large movements of East European populations westward. Often overlooked in the export of ideas has been the intensive, expensive and industrial-scale effort to rewrite the history of the Holocaust and World War II in the direction of Double Genocide and Holocaust Obfuscation, a trend spurred on dramatically by the decline in East-West relations and the increasingly frightening movement of Russia toward revanchist authoritarianism that threatens its neighbors. The paper argues that no good can or will come from the adaptation of models of bogus nationalist history rooted in far-right, ultranationalist thought in the liberated states of Eastern Europe. Double Genocide and its corollaries as currently practiced and underwritten by state budgets, represent a threat to history, freedom of thought and speech, equal rights and ultimately, a ruse to insert far-right academic revisionism disguised as anti-Russian activity into Western discourse.
Topics: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Muslim, Antisemitism: Far right, Anti-Zionism, Holocaust Denial, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust Education, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Jewish - Muslim Relations
Abstract: This chapter situates France’s diverse Jewish community, the largest in Europe, in relation to Holocaust memory, exile from North Africa, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, anti-Semitism and cultural (co-)production. The chapter begins by historically contextualising contemporary anti-Semitism and goes on to explore cultural representations, including Jewish-Muslim artistic collaborations. Contemporary anti-Semitism in France is driven by three main motivations which sometimes overlap, namely radical Islam, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and old anti-Jewish stereotypes. Education and cultural production (particularly collaborative, that is, through Jewish–Muslim cooperation) are particularly important in combating the conflation between Jews and Zionists, and in expressing solidarity between Jews and Muslims, who are both victims of racism in France albeit in the differing forms of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Abstract: Warto zwrócić uwagę na przestrzenie lokalne – przedwojenne sztetle, małe miejscowości zamieszkiwane przed wojną przez liczne społeczności żydowskie. To w nich wyraźniej widać następstwa Zagłady. Po wojnie przestały istnieć tam całe wspólnoty żydowskie, a po ich wielowiekowej obecności pozostały domy, sklepy, przed-mioty codziennego użytku; wojnę przetrwało, choć w różnym stanie, żydowskie dziedzictwo materialne – dawne synagogi, cmentarze, książki, przedmioty kultu religijnego. Wielu badaczy wskazuje na fakt, że nieżydowscy mieszkańcy odnieśli korzyści na skutek Holokaustu – przejęli majątki należące kiedyś do Żydów oraz pozycje społeczne zajmowane kiedyś przez nich Ten fakt, jak również namacalność Zagłady w przestrzeniach dawnych sztetli(masowe groby, niezamknięte getta, egzekucje) i różne postawy wobec ludobójstwa oraz jego ofiar miały wpływ na kondycję tworzących się po wojnie społeczności – szczególnie w wymiarze tożsamościowym. Następstwa Zagłady złożyły się na ramy trudnej przeszłości, które do dziś kształtują postawy wobec Żydów oraz pamięć o Holokauście w dawnych sztetlach. Co ważne, przestrzenie te zachowały w dużym stopniu swój urbanistyczny układ – do dziś stoją tam przedwojenne domy i kamienice, pozostały też elementy żydowskiego dziedzictwa materialnego – najczęściej dawne synagogi oraz żydowskie cmentarze. Pamięć o wojnie, o dawnych sąsiadach, o postawach członków grupy własnej jest wciąż podtrzymywana jako część lokalnego kontekstu.
Abstract: Kolektivní monografie o podobách antisemitismu v Čechách a na Slovensku analyzuje diskursivní a vizuální formy obrazu Žida v české a slovenské většinové společnosti. Příspěvky se zabývají otázkou, jak se v průběhu 20. a 21. století utvářel pojem „Žid“ nebo „židovský“ a jak se v souvislosti s tímto „cizím“ obrazem utvářel obraz „nás“ samotných. Autoři jednotlivých studií se ve svých analýzách tematicky obrací k otázce kontinuity a transformace těchto zrcadlových obrazů a zároveň zkoumají vztah identity a (politické) moci. Badatelé na příkladu Protektorátu Čechy a Morava, válečného slovenského státu, komunistického Československa, ale také soudobých reálií přesvědčivě ukazují, že antisemitismus není vázaný na skutečného nebo domnělého nepřítele, nýbrž na (sebe)legitimizační konstrukty. Předkládaná kniha je založena na využití dobového tisku, orálněhistorických životopisných rozhovorů, pamětí a archivních dokumentů. Také proto je publikace určena nejenom akademické obci a učitelské veřejnosti, ale všem zájemcům o fenomén antisemitismu, jeho projevy a vývoj ve 20. století a v současnosti.
