Controversies Over Holocaust Memory and Holocaust Revisionism in Poland and Moldova
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Between Denial and "Comparative Trivialization": Holocaust Negationism in Post-Communist East Central Europe
Between Denial and "Comparative Trivialization": Holocaust Negationism in Post-Communist East Central Europe Michael Shafir Motto: They used to pour millet on graves or poppy seeds To feed the dead who would come disguised as birds. I put this book here for you, who once lived So that you should visit us no more Czeslaw Milosz Introduction* Holocaust denial in post-Communist East Central Europe is a fact. And, like most facts, its shades are many. Sometimes, denial comes in explicit forms – visible and universally-aggressive. At other times, however, it is implicit rather than explicit, particularistic rather than universal, defensive rather than aggressive. And between these two poles, the spectrum is large enough to allow for a large variety of forms, some of which may escape the eye of all but the most versatile connoisseurs of country-specific history, culture, or immediate political environment. In other words, Holocaust denial in the region ranges from sheer emulation of negationism elsewhere in the world to regional-specific forms of collective defense of national "historic memory" and to merely banal, indeed sometime cynical, attempts at the utilitarian exploitation of an immediate political context.1 The paradox of Holocaust negation in East Central Europe is that, alas, this is neither "good" nor "bad" for the Jews.2 But it is an important part of the * I would like to acknowledge the support of the J. and O. Winter Fund of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York for research conducted in connection with this project. I am indebted to friends and colleagues who read manuscripts of earlier versions and provided comments and corrections. -
Constructions and Instrumentalization of the Past: a Comparative Study on Memory Management in the Region
CBEES State of the Region Report 2020 Constructions and Instrumentalization of the Past A Comparative Study on Memory Management in the Region Published with support from the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies (Östersjstiftelsen) Constructions and Instrumentalization of the Past A Comparative Study on Memory Management in the Region December 2020 Publisher Centre for Baltic and East European Studies, CBEES, Sdertrn University © CBEES, Sdertrn University and the authors Editor Ninna Mrner Editorial Board Joakim Ekman, Florence Frhlig, David Gaunt, Tora Lane, Per Anders Rudling, Irina Sandomirskaja Layout Lena Fredriksson, Serpentin Media Proofreading Bridget Schaefer, Semantix Print Elanders Sverige AB ISBN 978-91-85139-12-5 4 Contents 7 Preface. A New Annual CBEES Publication, Ulla Manns and Joakim Ekman 9 Introduction. Constructions and Instrumentalization of the Past, David Gaunt and Tora Lane 15 Background. Eastern and Central Europe as a Region of Memory. Some Common Traits, Barbara Trnquist-Plewa ESSAYS 23 Victimhood and Building Identities on Past Suffering, Florence Frhlig 29 Image, Afterimage, Counter-Image: Communist Visuality without Communism, Irina Sandomirskaja 37 The Toxic Memory Politics in the Post-Soviet Caucasus, Thomas de Waal 45 The Flag Revolution. Understanding the Political Symbols of Belarus, Andrej Kotljarchuk 55 Institutes of Trauma Re-production in a Borderland: Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania, Per Anders Rudling COUNTRY BY COUNTRY 69 Germany. The Multi-Level Governance of Memory as a Policy Field, Jenny Wstenberg 80 Lithuania. Fractured and Contested Memory Regimes, Violeta Davoliūtė 87 Belarus. The Politics of Memory in Belarus: Narratives and Institutions, Aliaksei Lastouski 94 Ukraine. Memory Nodes Loaded with Potential to Mobilize People, Yuliya Yurchuk 106 Czech Republic. -
LAW WP Template 2013 2012
LAW 2013/12 Department of Law Historical Revisionism in Comparative Perspective: Law, Politics, and Surrogate Mourning Uladzislau Belavusau European University Institute Department of Law Historical Revisionism in Comparative Perspective: Law, Politics, and Surrogate Mourning Uladzislau Belavusau EUI Working Paper LAW 2013/12 This text may be downloaded for personal research purposes only. Any additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copy or electronically, requires the consent of the author(s), editor(s). If cited or quoted, reference should be made to the full name of the author(s), editor(s), the title, the working paper or other series, the year, and the publisher. ISSN 1725-6739 © Uladzislau Belavusau, 2013 Printed in Italy European University Institute Badia Fiesolana I – 50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI) Italy www.eui.eu cadmus.eui.eu Author Contact Details (Dr.) Uladzislau BELAVUSAU Faculty of Law Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam De Boelelaan 1105 1081 HV Amsterdam The Netherlands [email protected] Abstract Recently the law on the Armenian genocide denial in France with a subsequent decision of the Conseil Constitutionnel (February 2012) shed fresh light on the controversial issue of historical revisionism. It disposed the issue in a wider perspective than a recurrent legal discussion on Holocaust denial. Furthermore, in drawing their bill, the authors of the French law invoked the EU Council Framework Decision 2008/913. This article demonstrates the chilling effects of that EU instrument for the freedom of speech in Europe. To these ends, it first explores the “European” model of legal engagement with historiography that is radically different from its counterpart in the USA. -
Annamaria Orla-Bukowska
lentin.qxd 8/9/03 6:58 pm Page 179 CHAPTER TEN RE-PRESENTING THE SHOAH IN POLAND AND POLAND IN THE SHOAH Annamaria Orla-Bukowska It would be impossible to speak of representing the Shoah in the twenty- first century without speaking of Poland. In 1939, at the outbreak of World War II, Poland’s estimated 3.5 million Jews comprised the largest Jewish community in Europe (second only to that in the U.S.). Furthermore, the territories reigned by Poland in the interwar years constituted the very heart of Ashkenaz – the closest thing to a nation–state that the Jews in Europe had ever experienced. The bitter irony was that it would be eco- nomically and demographically facile for Germany to establish its ghettos and death camps on that same land. Although Poland’s Jewish citizens constituted roughly ten percent of her prewar population, they were fifty percent of her six million wartime dead. Occupied Polish territory was also to be the burial ground for millions of Jewish citizens of other coun- tries. In Poland, the postwar motto has been not never forget – a country which had experienced every World War II horror could never forget. The slogan here has always been never again. Nevertheless, one could consider the title of this paper and question whether there ever was in the first place a ‘presenting’ of the Shoah in Poland during most of the twentieth-century’s postwar years. It was, in fact, hardly presented at all. Heightened wartime writing, fiction and non–fiction, as well as some legal attempts – trials and executions – to con- front the horrors of the Holocaust continued above ground into the first half–decade before Stalinism ultimately closed all doors. -
Debates on the Holocaust and the Legacy of Anti-Semitism in Poland
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2015 The Memory Wars: Debates on the Holocaust and the Legacy of anti-Semitism in Poland Jonathan Andrew Bergquist Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd Recommended Citation Bergquist, Jonathan Andrew, "The Memory Wars: Debates on the Holocaust and the Legacy of anti- Semitism in Poland" (2015). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 5188. https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/5188 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in WVU Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports collection by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Memory Wars: Debates on the Holocaust and the Legacy of anti-Semitism in Poland Jonathan Andrew Bergquist Thesis submitted to the College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Robert Blobaum, Ph.D., Chair Joshua Arthurs, Ph.D. Joseph Hodge, Ph.D. Department of History Morgantown, West Virginia 2015 Keywords: Polish-Jewish Relations; the Holocaust; Collective Memory; anti-Semitism Copyright 2015 Jonathan Andrew Bergquist ABSTRACT The Memory Wars: Debates on the Holocaust and the Legacy of anti-Semitism in Poland Jonathan Andrew Bergquist The process of Vergangenheitsbewältigung, or mastering the past, is often slow and painful. -
Central and Eastern Europe
Central and Eastern Europe Federal Republic of Germany National Affairs J_ HE ADOPTION OF A NEW capital city was only one transition among many that transformed the Bonn Republic into the Berlin Republic in 1999. In the spring, usually vocal intellectuals of the left watched in stunned silence as Chancellor Gerhard Schroder of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), and For- eign Minister Joschka Fischer, the leader of the Greens, led Germany into its first military engagement since World War II. For decades, pacifism had been the les- son drawn by the German left from Auschwitz, yet Fischer justified his support for the NATO bombing campaign in the Balkans by comparing Serbian crimes in Kosovo to the Holocaust. For his part, the "war chancellor" believed that the military engagement marked the dawn of a new age in which the German role on the world stage would reflect its economic strength. Finance Minister Oskar Lafontaine shocked his loyal followers in the SPD in March when he resigned from both his government post and the chairmanship of the party. His retreat ended months of conflict within the government over eco- nomic policy. In addition to appointing a minister of finance more amenable to neoliberal thinking, the chancellor reluctantly assumed the chairmanship of the SPD. Then, when the government announced plans in the summer to tighten the reins on government spending, the left wing of the SPD revolted, and Schroder needed months to silence traditionalists within his own party. This crisis within the SPD and the disillusionment of rank-and-file Greens with the performance of their party in the coalition translated into dismal returns for the governing parties in state elections throughout the year. -
Antisemitism Without Jews and Without Antisemites
ALINA CA£A ANTISEMITISM WITHOUT JEWS AND WITHOUT ANTISEMITES The problem of antisemitism was a major factor bearing on the attitudes of Europeans toward Jews from the end of 19th century. It also strongly influenced the political scene of Poland between the two world wars. To a certain degree it has been poisoning Polish public life ever since. In Poland, which was once home to the largest community of Jews in the world (over 3 million people in 1939), the Jewish population has shrunk to about 6,000 Jews (registered in Jewish religious and secular organisa- tions) and 10,000 to 15,000 people of Jewish origin.1 Contemporary polit- ical antisemitism cannot be justified by any ethnic or economic conflict. There is simply no substance for such conflict. There is no “Jewish ques- tion” in this sense, as it was understood before World War II. The vigour of antisemitic sentiments remains a puzzling fact, for it seems to be anti- semitism without Jews. In my puzzlement I turned to a sociological survey that was conducted in 1992 by the Jewish Historical Institute with the co-operation of the Sociology Dept. of Warsaw University and under the guidance of Prof. Ireneusz Krzeminski.2 Below I will present some results of the survey.3 I would like to present also some basic characteristics of the phenomenon in Poland in the last 3 years (1999–2001). They are the results of the program of monitoring antisemitism, sponsored by the Research Support Scheme of the Open Society Foundation4, which has been completed in 2002. -
Jews, Poles, and Slovaks: a Story of Encounters, 1944-48
JEWS, POLES, AND SLOVAKS: A STORY OF ENCOUNTERS, 1944-48 by Anna Cichopek-Gajraj A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in The University of Michigan 2008 Doctoral Committee: Professor Todd M. Endelman, Co-Chair Associate Professor Brian A. Porter-Sz űcs, Co-Chair Professor Zvi Y. Gitelman Professor Piotr J. Wróbel, University of Toronto This dissertation is dedicated to my parents and Ari ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am greatly appreciative of the help and encouragement I have received during the last seven years at the University of Michigan. I have been fortunate to learn from the best scholars in the field. Particular gratitude goes to my supervisors Todd M. Endelman and Brian A. Porter-Sz űcs without whom this dissertation could not have been written. I am also thankful to my advisor Zvi Y. Gitelman who encouraged me to apply to the University of Michigan graduate program in the first place and who supported me in my scholarly endeavors ever since. I am also grateful to Piotr J. Wróbel from the University of Toronto for his invaluable revisions and suggestions. Special thanks go to the Department of History, the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, and the Center of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Michigan. Without their financial support, I would not have been able to complete the program. I also want to thank the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture in New York, the Ronald and Eileen Weiser Foundation in Ann Arbor, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York, and the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC for their grants. -
Polish Complicity During the Holocaust Jacob Flaws Iowa State University
Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2011 Bystanders, blackmailers, and perpetrators: Polish complicity during the Holocaust Jacob Flaws Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Flaws, Jacob, "Bystanders, blackmailers, and perpetrators: Polish complicity during the Holocaust" (2011). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 11917. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/11917 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Bystanders, blackmailers, and perpetrators: Polish complicity during the Holocaust by Jacob A. Flaws A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major: History Program of Study Committee: John Monroe, Major Professor Kevin Amidon Charles Dobbs Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2011 Copyright © Jacob Allen Flaws, 2011. All rights reserved. ii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Pre-War Polish Anti-Semitism 12 Chapter 3: The Silent Masses 26 Chapter 4: Scavengers, Blackmailers, & Extortionists 44 Chapter 5: Carrying Out the Holocaust 59 Chapter 6: Conclusion 81 List of Works Cited 86 1 Chapter 1: Introduction “For every noble Pole who risked all to rescue a fellow human being, there were ten scoundrels who hunted Jews for a livelihood.”1 Why would a Holocaust survivor make this statement? In a scholarly field where a substantial fraction of the literature claims that Polish hostility was minimal, survivor statements like this one cast a negative light on certain Poles. -
Himka Obstacles to Integration
Canadian Slavonic Papers Obstacles to the Integration of the Holocaust into Post-Communist East European Historical Narratives Author(s): John-Paul Himka Source: Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes, Vol. 50, No. 3/4 (September-December 2008), pp. 359-372 Published by: Canadian Association of Slavists Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40871306 . Accessed: 18/10/2013 12:56 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Canadian Association of Slavists and Canadian Slavonic Papers are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne des Slavistes. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 129.79.13.20 on Fri, 18 Oct 2013 12:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions John-PaulHimka Obstacles to the Integrationof the Holocaust into Post-CommunistEast EuropeanHistorical Narratives Abstract: Factors that have made it difficultfor post-communist East European societies to integratethe Holocaust into theirhistorical cultures include the communist heritage,which downplayedthe specificallyJewish -
Ethnic Identity and Anti-Semitism Tadeusz Słobodzianek Stages the Polish Taboo Bryce Lease
Ethnic Identity and Anti-Semitism Tadeusz Słobodzianek Stages the Polish Taboo Bryce Lease On 10 July 1941, in a small village in the northeast of Poland, up to 1,600 local Jews were rounded up by their neighbors, locked inside a small barn, and burned to death. Traditional Polish historiography attributed the guilt for the now infamous pogrom to the Nazis. But Jan T. Gross’s 2001 study, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, places the responsibility for the massacre firmly with the local community. The publi- cation of Gross’s monograph caused mass outrage, provoking Joanna Michlic to identify the debate around the pogrom as the most important and long-standing in post-Communist Poland Figure 1. The children, dancing in their classroom. Michael Gould, Lee Ingleby, Rhys Rusbatch, Tamzin Griffin, Justin Salinger, Sinead Matthews, Jason Watkins, Amanda Hale, Edward Hogg, and Paul Hickey in the Royal National Theatre production of Our Class, September 2009. (Photo by Robert Workman) Bryce Lease is Lecturer in Drama at the University of Exeter, UK. His research interests include contemporary European theatre directors, migration, queer and feminist theory, and non-Western alternative sexuality. Having published extensively on Polish theatre, Bryce is currently completing a monograph, Contemporary Polish Theatre. [email protected] TDR: The Drama Review 56:2 (T214) Summer 2012. ©2012 New York University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 81 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/DRAM_a_00168 by guest on 02 October 2021 (2002:1). As Leonard Neuger notes, “Many Poles have felt deeply wounded by the Jedwabne case” (2009). -
Polish Writing on Rescue Activities Related to Jews During WWII, 1945-2011
Borderlands of Discourse: Polish Writing on Rescue Activities Related to Jews during WWII, 1945-2011 Master’s Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Department of History Joanna B. Michlic, Advisor Antony Polonsky, Advisor In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Master’s Degree by Tomasz Frydel May 2011 Copyright by Tomasz Frydel © 2011 Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the unrelenting support, attention, and care of my advisors Antony Polonsky and Joanna B. Michlic Who have been instrumental in the development of this thesis and my own growth as a fledgling historian More generally, I would like to acknowledge the influence of a number of faculty members at Brandeis, whose wisdom, warmth, and rapport contributed to a rich learning environment: Paul Jankowski, Mark Hulliung, Alice Kelikian, and Ellen Kellman Kudos to my wife, Daítza, for tolerating all of my moods in graduate school and for the combined love and sustenance of friends and family Finally, I would like to thank the Kościuszko Foundation for their Tuition Scholarship, which allowed for a greater degree of financial freedom in pursuing my graduate studies I dedicate this work to the memory of those Who, with the help of their Neighbors, met a squalid Death And so could not dignify The white Pages of the Nation’s History ABSTRACT Borderlands of Discourse: Polish Writing on Rescue Activities Related to Jews during WWII, 1945-2011 A thesis presented to the Department of History Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts By Tomasz Frydel This thesis examines the dominant approaches taken by historians to the subject of Polish rescue activities related to Jews during the Second World War.