Between Denial and "Comparative Trivialization": Holocaust Negationism in Post-Communist East Central Europe
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Romanian Political Science Review Vol. XXI, No. 1 2021
Romanian Political Science Review vol. XXI, no. 1 2021 The end of the Cold War, and the extinction of communism both as an ideology and a practice of government, not only have made possible an unparalleled experiment in building a democratic order in Central and Eastern Europe, but have opened up a most extraordinary intellectual opportunity: to understand, compare and eventually appraise what had previously been neither understandable nor comparable. Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review was established in the realization that the problems and concerns of both new and old democracies are beginning to converge. The journal fosters the work of the first generations of Romanian political scientists permeated by a sense of critical engagement with European and American intellectual and political traditions that inspired and explained the modern notions of democracy, pluralism, political liberty, individual freedom, and civil rights. Believing that ideas do matter, the Editors share a common commitment as intellectuals and scholars to try to shed light on the major political problems facing Romania, a country that has recently undergone unprecedented political and social changes. They think of Studia Politica. Romanian Political Science Review as a challenge and a mandate to be involved in scholarly issues of fundamental importance, related not only to the democratization of Romanian polity and politics, to the “great transformation” that is taking place in Central and Eastern Europe, but also to the make-over of the assumptions and prospects of their discipline. They hope to be joined in by those scholars in other countries who feel that the demise of communism calls for a new political science able to reassess the very foundations of democratic ideals and procedures. -
Trials of the War Criminals
TRIALS OF THE WAR CRIMINALS General Considerations The Fascist regime that ruled Romania between September 14, 1940, and August 23, 1944, was brought to justice in Bucharest in May 1946, and after a short trial, its principal leaders—Ion and Mihai Antonescu and two of their closest assistants—were executed, while others were sentenced to life imprisonment or long terms of detention. At that time, the trial’s verdicts seemed inevitable, as they indeed do today, derived inexorably from the defendants’ decisions and actions. The People’s Tribunals functioned for a short time only. They were disbanded on June 28, 1946,1 although some of the sentences were not pronounced until sometime later. Some 2,700 cases of suspected war criminals were examined by a commission formed of “public prosecutors,”2 but only in about half of the examined cases did the commission find sufficient evidence to prosecute, and only 668 were sentenced, many in absentia.3 There were two tribunals, one in Bucharest and one in Cluj. It is worth mentioning that the Bucharest tribunal sentenced only 187 people.4 The rest were sentenced by the tribunal in Cluj. One must also note that, in general, harsher sentences were pronounced by the Cluj tribunal (set up on June 22, 1 Marcel-Dumitru Ciucă, “Introducere” in Procesul maresalului Antonescu (Bucharest: Saeculum and Europa Nova, 1995-98), vol. 1: p. 33. 2 The public prosecutors were named by communist Minister of Justice Lucret iu Pătrăşcanu and most, if not all of them were loyal party members, some of whom were also Jews. -
Ideology, Social Basis, Prospects REPORT 2018
European Centre for Democracy Development Center for Monitoring and Comparative Analysis of Intercultural Communications CONTEMPORARY FAR-RIGHTS Right radicalism in Europe: ideology, social basis, prospects REPORT 2018 Athens-London-Berlin-Paris-Moscow-Krakow-Budapest-Kiev-Amsterdam-Roma 1 Editor in Chief and Project Head: Dr. Valery Engel, Chairman of the Expert Council of the European Centre for Tolerance, principal of the Center for Monitoring and Comparative Analysis of Intercultural Communications Authors: Dr. Valery Engel (general analytics), Dr. Jean-Yves Camus (France), Dr. Anna Castriota (Italy), Dr. Ildikó Barna (Hungary), Bulcsú Hunyadi (Hungary), Dr. Vanja Ljujic (Netherlands), Tika Pranvera (Greece), Katarzyna du Val (Poland), Dr. Semen Charny (Russia), Dr. Dmitry Stratievsky (Germany), Ruslan Bortnik (Ukraine), Dr. Alex Carter (UK) Authors thank the Chairman of the European Centre for Tolerance, Mr. Vladimir Sternfeld, for his financial support of the project CONTEMPORARY FAR-RIGHTS Right radicalism in Europe: ideology, social basis, prospects Report “Contemporary far-rights. Right-wing radicalism in Europe: ideology, social base, prospects" is the result of the work of an international team of experts from 10 European countries. The report answers the question of what is the social basis of European right- wing radicalism and what are the objective prerequisites and possible directions for its development. In addition, the authors answer the question of what stays behind the ideology of modern radicalism, what the sources of funding for right-wing radical organizations are, and who their leaders are. Significant part of information is introduced for the first time. © European Center for Democracy Development, 2018 © Center for Monitoring and Comparative Analysis of Intercultural Communications, 2018 © Institute for Ethnic Policy and Inter-Ethnic Relations Studies, 2018 2 Introduction Radicalism is a commitment to the extreme views and concepts of the social order associated with the possibility of its radical transformation. -
Communism and Post-Communism in Romania : Challenges to Democratic Transition
TITLE : COMMUNISM AND POST-COMMUNISM IN ROMANIA : CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION AUTHOR : VLADIMIR TISMANEANU, University of Marylan d THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FO R EURASIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARC H TITLE VIII PROGRA M 1755 Massachusetts Avenue, N .W . Washington, D .C . 20036 LEGAL NOTICE The Government of the District of Columbia has certified an amendment of th e Articles of Incorporation of the National Council for Soviet and East European Research changing the name of the Corporation to THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR EURASIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN RESEARCH, effective on June 9, 1997. Grants, contracts and all other legal engagements of and with the Corporation made unde r its former name are unaffected and remain in force unless/until modified in writin g by the parties thereto . PROJECT INFORMATION : 1 CONTRACTOR : University of Marylan d PR1NCIPAL 1NVEST1GATOR : Vladimir Tismanean u COUNCIL CONTRACT NUMBER : 81 1-2 3 DATE : March 26, 1998 COPYRIGHT INFORMATIO N Individual researchers retain the copyright on their work products derived from research funded by contract with the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research . However, the Council and the United States Government have the right to duplicate an d disseminate, in written and electronic form, this Report submitted to the Council under thi s Contract, as follows : Such dissemination may be made by the Council solely (a) for its ow n internal use, and (b) to the United States Government (1) for its own internal use ; (2) for further dissemination to domestic, international and foreign governments, entities an d individuals to serve official United States Government purposes ; and (3) for dissemination i n accordance with the Freedom of Information Act or other law or policy of the United State s Government granting the public rights of access to documents held by the United State s Government. -
Controversies Over Holocaust Memory and Holocaust Revisionism in Poland and Moldova
Kantor Center Position Papers Editor: Mikael Shainkman March 2014 HOLOCAUST MEMORY AND HOLOCAUST DENIAL IN POLAND AND MOLDOVA: A COMPARISON Natalia Sineaeva-Pankowska* Executive Summary After 1989, post-communist countries such as Poland and Moldova have been faced with the challenge of reinventing their national identity and rewriting their master narratives, shifting from a communist one to an ethnic-patriotic one. In this context, the fate of local Jews and the actions of Poles and Moldovans during the Holocaust have repeatedly proven difficult or even impossible to incorporate into the new national narrative. As a result, Holocaust denial in various forms initially gained ground in post-communist countries, since denying the Holocaust, or blaming it on someone else, even on the Jews themselves, was the easiest way to strengthen national identities. In later years, however, Polish and Moldovan paths towards re-definition of self have taken different paths. At least in part, this can be explained as a product of Poland's incorporation in the European unification project, while Moldova remains in limbo, both in terms of identity and politics – between the Soviet Union and Europe, between the past and the future. Introduction This paper focuses on the debate over Holocaust memory and its link to national identity in two post-communist countries, Poland and Moldova, after 1989. Although their historical, political and social contexts and other factors differ, both countries possess a similar, albeit not identical, communist legacy, and both countries had to accept ‘inconvenient’ truths, such as participation of members of one’s own nation in the Holocaust, while building-rebuilding their new post-communist national identities during a period of social and political transformation. -
Jewish Community Museum As a Result of Citizen Activities
4 63 • 2015 ESSAY JEWISH COMMUNITY MUSEUM AS A RESULT OF CITIZEN ACTIVITIES PETER SALNER PhDr. Peter Salner, DrSc., Institute of Ethnology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova 19, 813 64, e-mail: [email protected] The study focuses on circumstances under which the Jewish Community Museum was established and officially opened in the Bratislava synagogue in 2012. Already prior to WWII, a respected architect and collector Eugen Barkány came with the idea of opening a museum consisting of Slovak judaica. He followed up his project after the liberation, too. In the second half of the sixties, it seemed that thanks to the Jewish Religious Community (JCR/ŽNO) Bratislava support there would be created a Slovak branch of the Prague Jewish Museum within the premises of the Neolog Bratislava synagogue. However, the project implementation had to be postponed for many years to come: first of all due to Bárkány’s death (1967), demolition of the sy - nagogue giving place to the construction of a new bridge, and the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. In the beginning of the next millenium, it was Maroš Borský, Art historian and Judaist , who undertook this project. He persuaded the board members of the JCR (ŽNO) Bra - tislava to vacate the already abandoned female gallery of the only preserved synagogue for presentation of Barkány’s collection. Apart from the permanent exhibition, the museum already offered three exhibits entitled: The Shadow of the Past (2013); We Are Here (2014); and Engerau – a Forgotten Story of Petržalka in 2015. Key words: The Jewish Community Museum, E. -
From Periphery to Centre.The Image of Europe at the Eastern Border of Europe
Munich Personal RePEc Archive From Periphery to Centre.The Image of Europe at the Eastern Border of Europe Şipoş, Sorin and Moisa, Gabriel and Cepraga, Dan Octavian and Brie, Mircea and Mateoc, Teodor University of Oradea, Romania, University of Padova, Italy 2014 Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/59276/ MPRA Paper No. 59276, posted 15 Oct 2014 12:04 UTC Edited by: Sorin Şipoş, Gabriel Moisa, Dan Octavian Cepraga, Mircea Brie, Teodor Mateoc From Periphery to Centre. The Image of Europe at the Eastern Border of Europe Editorial committee: Delia-Maria Radu Roxana Ivaşca Alexandra Bere Ionuţ Ciorba CONTENTS Sorin ŞIPOŞ, Dan Octavian CEPRAGA, From Periphery to Centre. The Image of Europe at the Eastern Border of Europe ………..………..… 5 I. PERIPHERY VIEWED FROM THE CENTRE …………………..… 13 Lorenzo RENZI, «Terra Romena» ……………………………………..… 15 Ion Alexandru MIZGAN, The Crusades – Cause of Tension between Eastern and Western Europe ………………………………………...…..…21 Florin DOBREI, Transylvanian “Schismatics”, “Heretics” and “Infidels” in the Vision of 13th-16th Century Catholic Europe ……………………..… 47 Ioan-Aurel POP, 16th Century Venetian Bailiffs‟ Reports on Realities in the Ottoman Empire …………………………………………………..… 61 Ion EREMIA, A False Theory Still Persists at the Eastern Border of Latinity .. 76 Delia-Maria RADU, From Centre to the Periphery and the Other Way Round ………………………………………………………..……..… 88 Teodor MATEOC, Identity and Race. The Problem of Otherness in Contemporary Cultural Studies …………………………………...……..…96 II. SELF-IMAGES AT EUROPE’S EASTERN BORDERS -
They Fought for Independent Poland
2019 Special edition PISMO CODZIENNE Independence Day, November 11, 2019 FREE AGAIN! THEY FOUGHT FOR INDEPENDENT POLAND Dear Readers, The day of November 11 – the National Independence Day – is not accidentally associated with the Polish military uni- form, its symbolism and traditions. Polish soldiers on almost all World War I fronts “threw on the pyre their lives’ fate.” When the Polish occupiers were drown- ing in disasters and revolutions, white- and-red flags were fluttering on Polish streets to mark Poland’s independence. The Republic of Poland was back on the map of Europe, although this was only the beginning of the battle for its bor- ders. Józef Piłsudski in his first order to the united Polish Army shared his feeling of joy with his soldiers: “I’m taking com- mand of you, Soldiers, at the time when the heart of every Pole is beating stron- O God! Thou who from on high ger and faster, when the children of our land have seen the sun of freedom in all its Hurls thine arrows at the defenders of the nation, glory.” He never promised them any bat- We beseech Thee, through this heap of bones! tle laurels or well-merited rest, though. On the contrary – he appealed to them Let the sun shine on us, at least in death! for even greater effort in their service May the daylight shine forth from heaven’s bright portals! for Poland. And they never let him down Let us be seen - as we die! when in 1920 Poland had to defend not only its own sovereignty, but also entire Europe against flooding bolshevism. -
Romania, December 2006
Library of Congress – Federal Research Division Country Profile: Romania, December 2006 COUNTRY PROFILE: ROMANIA December 2006 COUNTRY Formal Name: Romania. Short Form: Romania. Term for Citizen(s): Romanian(s). Capital: Bucharest (Bucureşti). Click to Enlarge Image Major Cities: As of 2003, Bucharest is the largest city in Romania, with 1.93 million inhabitants. Other major cities, in order of population, are Iaşi (313,444), Constanţa (309,965), Timişoara (308,019), Craiova (300,843), Galati (300,211), Cluj-Napoca (294,906), Braşov (286,371), and Ploeşti (236,724). Independence: July 13, 1878, from the Ottoman Empire; kingdom proclaimed March 26, 1881; Romanian People’s Republic proclaimed April 13, 1948. Public Holidays: Romania observes the following public holidays: New Year’s Day (January 1), Epiphany (January 6), Orthodox Easter (a variable date in April or early May), Labor Day (May 1), Unification Day (December 1), and National Day and Christmas (December 25). Flag: The Romanian flag has three equal vertical stripes of blue (left), yellow, and red. Click to Enlarge Image HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Early Human Settlement: Human settlement first occurred in the lands that now constitute Romania during the Pleistocene Epoch, which began about 600,000 years ago. About 5500 B.C. the region was inhabited by Indo-European people, who in turn gave way to Thracian tribes. Today’s Romanians are in part descended from the Getae, a Thracian tribe that lived north of the Danube River. During the Bronze Age (about 2200 to 1200 B.C.), these Thraco-Getian tribes engaged in agriculture, stock raising, and trade with inhabitants of the Aegean Sea coast. -
American‑Russian Relations in the Times of the American Civil War (1861‑1865)
Studies into the History of Russia and Central-Eastern Europe ■ XLVIII Hanna Marczewska‑Zagdańska Historical Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences American‑Russian relations in the times of the American Civil War (1861‑1865) Outline: The 1860s were marked by an exceptional affection and friendship in the bilateral relations between the United States, a young American republic, and the long‑established tsarist Russia. This phenomenon, which had never occurred with such intensity before or since, inspired Russian and American researchers and politicians to organize The Tsar and the President: Alexander II and Abraham Lincoln, Liberator and Emancipator exhibition which was displayed, inter alia, in Moscow in 2011. The following article analyses (on the basis of numerous source materials from the period) the reasons of this mutual amity and trust, as well as their military and eco‑ nomic cooperation—both internal (the Civil War in the U.S., the January Uprising in the Russian Empire), and external (the rivalry with Great Britain and France, and political calculations in the search for suitable alliances)—in the period of world power rivalry for global spheres of influence. Keywords: President Lincoln, Tsar Aleksander II, US Civil War, Russian Empire, Polish Insurrection of 1863, Russian Fleet, United States – Foreign Relations – Russia, Russia – Foreign Relations – United States, 19th Century Diplomatic History. On February 22, 2011, the seat of the State Archive of the Russian Federation in Moscow saw the unveiling of an exhibition under the surprising and intriguing title “The Tsar and the President: Alexander II and Abraham Lincoln, Liberator and Emancipator”. Conceived on the initiative of the American‑Russian Cultural Cooperation Foundation and already displayed in the United States in 2008‑2009, the exhibition attracted a large number of visitors and enthusiasts. -
Absurdistan Refacut Cu Headere Ultimul.P65
Dorin Tudoran (n. 30 iunie 1945, Timi[oara). Absolvent al Facult\]ii de Limb\ [i Literatur\ Român\ a Universit\]ii din Bucure[ti, pro- mo]ia 1968. Este Senior Director, pentru Comunicare [i Cercetare, membru al conducerii executive a Funda]iei Interna]ionale IFES, Washington D.C., Statele Unite, [i redactor-[ef al revistei democracy at large. C\r]i de poezie: Mic tratat de glorie (1973), C`ntec de trecut Akheronul (1975), O zi `n natur\ (1977), Uneori, plutirea (1977), Respira]ie artificial\ (1978), Pasaj de pietoni (1978), Semne particulare (antologie, 1979), De bun\ voie, autobiografia mea (1986), Ultimul turnir (antologie, 1992), Optional Future (1988), Viitorul Facultativ/Optional Future (1999), T`n\rul Ulise (antologie, 2000). C\r]i de publicistic\: Martori oculari (`n colaborare cu Eugen Seceleanu, 1976), Biografia debuturilor (1978), Nostalgii intacte (1982), Adaptarea la realitate (1982), Frost or Fear? On the Condition of the Romanian Intelectual (traducere [i prefa]\ de Vladimir Tism\neanu, 1988), Onoarea de a `n]elege (antologie, 1998), Kakistokra]ia (1998). Pentru unele dintre c\r]ile sale, autorul a primit Premiul Uniunii Scriitorilor (1973, 1977, 1998), Marele Premiu al Asocia]iilor Scriitorilor Profesioni[ti ASPRO (1998), Premiul Uniunii Scriitorilor din Republica Moldova (1998), Premiul revistei Cuv`ntul Superlativele anului (1998). I s-a decernat un Premiu Special al Uniunii Scriitorilor (1992) [i este laureatul Premiului ALA pe anul 2001. www.polirom.ro © 2006 by Editura POLIROM Editura POLIROM Ia[i, B-dul Carol I nr. 4, P.O. BOX 266, 700506 Bucure[ti, B-dul I.C. Br\tianu nr. 6, et. -
Political Antisemitism in Romania? Hard Data and Its Soft Underbelly Shafir, Michael
www.ssoar.info Political antisemitism in Romania? Hard data and its soft underbelly Shafir, Michael Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Shafir, M. (2012). Political antisemitism in Romania? Hard data and its soft underbelly. Studia Politica: Romanian Political Science Review, 12(4), 557-603. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-445667 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-NC-ND Lizenz This document is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND Licence (Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung) zur (Attribution-Non Comercial-NoDerivatives). For more Information Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de Political Antisemitism in Romania? 557 Political Antisemitism in Romania? Hard Data and its Soft Underbelly MICHAEL SHAFIR As in many other former communist countries of East Central Europe1, antisemitism in Romania resurged almost concomitantly with the demise of the former regime2. Empirical research on antisemitism, however, emerged only considerably later and did not take off as a main focus until the establishment of the National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania ”Elie Wiesel” (INSHREW) in 2005. This does not imply that the subject of Jews, attitudes to Jews measured by instruments such as stereotypic perceptions and/or ”social distance”, or attitudes toward controversial Romanian historical figures linked to the country’s antisemitic past was not tangentially or even directly tackled on occasion. What lacked until 2005, however, was an effort to systematically (among other instruments, employing a standard questionnaire capable of rendering comparative results) place under focus the phenomenon in its synchronic and diachronic unfolding.