- Polish History, East-Central European History, Contemporary History, Jewish History, Ukrainian History, Ukrainian Church History, and 26 moreEast German History, Czech History, Belarusian History, Belarusian Studies, Altarnative Culture, Samizdat, Geography of Dissent, Interwar Period History, Polish Interwar History, Postwar Europe, Central European Dissidence, Solidarnosc, Minority Studies, International Human Rights Law, Citizenship, Immigration Status & Nationality, Polish-Jewish Relations, Polish-Ukrainian relations, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Eastern Europe, Ukrainian Studies, Holocaust Studies, Eastern European history, Modern European Jewish History, Poland, Eastern European Studies, Ukraine (History), and Jews in Polandedit
Before 1939, relations between the Polish state and its non-Polish citizens were characterized by partly sharp disputes. However, there were also attempts to resolve the conflicts by mutual agreement. These took place outside the... more
Before 1939, relations between the Polish state and its non-Polish citizens were characterized by partly sharp disputes. However, there were also attempts to resolve the conflicts by mutual agreement. These took place outside the parliamentary arena and were usually initiated by actors from the second tier.
Stephan Stach's study is the first to examine the development of an institutional environment in which academics, ministerial officials, members of parliament and journalists developed concepts for the integration of national minorities into the Polish state. Using the example of the Jewish and Ukrainian minorities in Poland, processes are examined that created political trust between the conflicting parties.
Die Beziehungen zwischen dem polnischen Staat und seinen nichtpolnischen Bürgern waren vor 1939 von teils scharfen Auseinandersetzungen geprägt. Doch es gab auch Versuche, die Konflikte in beiderseitigem Einverständnis zu lösen. Diese fanden jenseits der parlamentarischen Bühne statt und wurden in der Regel von Akteuren aus der zweiten Reihe angestoßen.
Stephan Stachs Studie untersucht erstmals die Herausbildung eines institutionellen Umfelds, in dem Wissenschaftler, Ministerialbeamte, Abgeordnete und Journalisten Konzepte zur Einbindung nationaler Minderheiten in den polnischen Staat entwickelten. Am Beispiel der jüdischen und ukrainischen Minderheiten in Polen werden Prozesse beleuchtet, die politisches Vertrauen zwischen den Konfliktparteien schufen.
Stephan Stach's study is the first to examine the development of an institutional environment in which academics, ministerial officials, members of parliament and journalists developed concepts for the integration of national minorities into the Polish state. Using the example of the Jewish and Ukrainian minorities in Poland, processes are examined that created political trust between the conflicting parties.
Die Beziehungen zwischen dem polnischen Staat und seinen nichtpolnischen Bürgern waren vor 1939 von teils scharfen Auseinandersetzungen geprägt. Doch es gab auch Versuche, die Konflikte in beiderseitigem Einverständnis zu lösen. Diese fanden jenseits der parlamentarischen Bühne statt und wurden in der Regel von Akteuren aus der zweiten Reihe angestoßen.
Stephan Stachs Studie untersucht erstmals die Herausbildung eines institutionellen Umfelds, in dem Wissenschaftler, Ministerialbeamte, Abgeordnete und Journalisten Konzepte zur Einbindung nationaler Minderheiten in den polnischen Staat entwickelten. Am Beispiel der jüdischen und ukrainischen Minderheiten in Polen werden Prozesse beleuchtet, die politisches Vertrauen zwischen den Konfliktparteien schufen.
Research Interests: European History, Polish History, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Minority Studies, Poland, and 15 moreMinority Rights, Jews in Poland, Central and Eastern Europe, East-Central European History, Ukrainian History, Polish Interwar History, history of Poland, Polish-Jewish Relations, National minorities, History of Poland in twentieth century, Polish-Ukrainian relations, Polish Jewish history, History of 19th and 20th Century East Central Europe, Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, and Ethnicity and Nationality
Reined into the service of the Cold War confrontation, antifascist ideology overshadowed the narrative about the Holocaust in the communist states of Eastern Europe. This led to the Western notion that in the Soviet Bloc there was a... more
Reined into the service of the Cold War confrontation, antifascist ideology overshadowed the narrative about the Holocaust in the communist states of Eastern Europe. This led to the Western notion that in the Soviet Bloc there was a systematic suppression of the memory of the mass murder of European Jews. Going beyond disputing the mistaken opposition between “communist falsification” of history and the “repressed authentic” interpretation of the Jewish catastrophe, this work presents and analyzes the ways as the Holocaust was conceptualized in the Soviet-ruled parts of Europe.
The authors provide various interpretations of the relationship between antifascism and Holocaust memory in the communist countries, arguing that the predominance of an antifascist agenda and the acknowledgment of the Jewish catastrophe were far from mutually exclusive. The interactions included acts of negotiation, cross-referencing, and borrowing. Detailed case studies describe how both individuals and institutions were able to use antifascism as a framework to test and widen the boundaries for discussion of the Nazi genocide. The studies build on the new historiography of communism, focusing on everyday life and individual agency, revealing the formation of a great variety of concrete, local memory practices.
The authors provide various interpretations of the relationship between antifascism and Holocaust memory in the communist countries, arguing that the predominance of an antifascist agenda and the acknowledgment of the Jewish catastrophe were far from mutually exclusive. The interactions included acts of negotiation, cross-referencing, and borrowing. Detailed case studies describe how both individuals and institutions were able to use antifascism as a framework to test and widen the boundaries for discussion of the Nazi genocide. The studies build on the new historiography of communism, focusing on everyday life and individual agency, revealing the formation of a great variety of concrete, local memory practices.
Research Interests:
This book is about the interconnections of religion and law in East Central European legal culture – or more precisely cultures. It delves into the role of religion in legal thought, in political constitutions, legal practice and... more
This book is about the interconnections of religion and law in East Central European legal culture – or more precisely cultures. It delves into the role of religion in legal thought, in political constitutions, legal practice and performance, as well as in understandings of justice from the 16th century to 1939. At the core of the study are the Polish, Lithuanian, Belorusian and Ukrainian lands that were continuously inhabited by multiple religious communities and settlers of various religious belongings.
Research Interests:
Did history return to the countries of East Central Europe after 1989? Has the historical memory of these countries been frozen before 1989? Without a doubt the ruling socialist and communist parties exploited, suppressed and falsified... more
Did history return to the countries of East Central Europe after 1989? Has the historical memory of these countries been frozen before 1989? Without a doubt the ruling socialist and communist parties exploited, suppressed and falsified history, especially the history of World War II. So far, however, little attention has been drawn to the fact that dissidents in these counties found their own way to come terms with history. They created a variety of own «Counter-Histories», which opposed the communist narrative. Discussing the Holocaust, the expulsion of the Germans or the non-communist resistance against Nazism, they touched sensitive or tabooed issues, which appeared on the agenda also after 1989. This volume traces these debates - partly for the first time - and analyses them as part of a dissident historical culture.
Gab es nach 1989 eine «Rückkehr der Geschichte» in die Länder Ostmitteleuropas? War das historische Gedächtnis dort zuvor «eingefroren»? Zweifellos instrumentalisierten, unterdrückten und verfälschten die herrschenden Parteien die Geschichte, insbesondere jene des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Bisher wenig beachtet blieb jedoch, dass Dissidenten in diesen Ländern die Geschichte auf ihre eigene Weise aufarbeiteten. Sie entwarfen eine Vielzahl von «Gegengeschichten», die dem vorherrschenden, kommunistischen Narrativ zuwiderliefen. Mit dem Holocaust, der Vertreibung der Deutschen oder dem nichtkommunistischen Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus wurden heikle oder tabuisierte Themen diskutiert, die auch nach 1989 auf der Tagesordnung standen. In diesem Band werden solche Debatten – teilweise zum ersten Mal – nachgezeichnet und als Teil einer oppositionellen Geschichtskultur analysiert.
Gab es nach 1989 eine «Rückkehr der Geschichte» in die Länder Ostmitteleuropas? War das historische Gedächtnis dort zuvor «eingefroren»? Zweifellos instrumentalisierten, unterdrückten und verfälschten die herrschenden Parteien die Geschichte, insbesondere jene des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Bisher wenig beachtet blieb jedoch, dass Dissidenten in diesen Ländern die Geschichte auf ihre eigene Weise aufarbeiteten. Sie entwarfen eine Vielzahl von «Gegengeschichten», die dem vorherrschenden, kommunistischen Narrativ zuwiderliefen. Mit dem Holocaust, der Vertreibung der Deutschen oder dem nichtkommunistischen Widerstand gegen den Nationalsozialismus wurden heikle oder tabuisierte Themen diskutiert, die auch nach 1989 auf der Tagesordnung standen. In diesem Band werden solche Debatten – teilweise zum ersten Mal – nachgezeichnet und als Teil einer oppositionellen Geschichtskultur analysiert.
Research Interests: Czech History, Contemporary History, Polish History, History and Memory, Eastern European history, and 13 moreMemory Studies, Czech Literature, GDR History, Central and Eastern Europe, Central European Dissidence, GDR Subculture, East Germany, History of Dissent, Solidarnosc, Altarnative Culture, Samizdat, Geography of Dissent, Holocaust History and Historiography, East Central European Dissidence, and Samizdat
This special Issue of Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung is dedicated to the relation between state institutions and the national minorities in Poland 1918-1939. In seven case studies it examines the role institutions, such as the... more
This special Issue of Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung is dedicated to the relation between state institutions and the national minorities in Poland 1918-1939. In seven case studies it examines the role institutions, such as the army or or the police, played in nationalizing processes and other conflicts between national minorities and the state.
Research Interests: Military History, Eastern European Studies, Belarusian Studies, Polish History, Ukrainian Studies, and 20 moreNationalism, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Eastern European history, Jewish History, Minority Studies, Nationalism And State Building, Polish Studies, Central and Eastern Europe, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Ukrainian History, Belarusian History, Polish Interwar History, Ukrainian, Russian and Polish Historiy, Eastern Europe Rus, Ruthenia, Lemko's, Galicia and Lemko History, National minorities, Wołyń, Polish-Belarusian relations, Belarusian minority in Poland, and Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian History
In this article, I analyze how antifascist ideology and political propaganda interfered with an emerging Holocaust memory in the GDR of the late 1950s and 1960s. I place three books that the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw published... more
In this article, I analyze how antifascist ideology and political propaganda interfered with an emerging Holocaust memory in the GDR of the late 1950s and 1960s. I place three books that the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw published in cooperation with East German publishers at the center of this analysis: The diary collection Im Feuer vergangen (Gone with the Fire), Ber Mark’s Der Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto (The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising) and the document compilation Faschismus—Getto—Massenmord (Fascism—ghetto—mass murder). Rather than the content of these books, I analyze how they were introduced to East German readers; received in the media; perceived in society; and used for educational projects, documentaries, and further artistic reflection on the Holocaust. I will show that the perception of these books, which publishers labeled as “antifascist literature” and reviews in East German Press presented as part of campaigns against Nazi criminals in West Germany, ultimately exceeded superficial propagandistic purpose.
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, History and Memory, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Jewish History, Memory Studies, and 15 moreHolocaust Studies, Jewish historiography, Poland, Holocaust Literature, Holocaust, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Holocaust Memory, Holocaust Shoah, Polish-Jewish Relations, Jewish history and cultural studies, Holocaust History and Historiography, Postwar Europe, Polish Jewish history, History of Polish People's Republic (PRL), and Modern European Jewish History
This volume provides new, groundbreaking views of Jewish life in various countries of the pro-Soviet bloc from the end of the Second World War until the collapse of Communism in late 1989. The authors, twelve leading historians and... more
This volume provides new, groundbreaking views of Jewish life in various countries of the pro-Soviet bloc from the end of the Second World War until the collapse of Communism in late 1989. The authors, twelve leading historians and anthropologists from Europe, Israel and the United States, look at the experience of Jews under Communism by digging beyond formal state policy and instead examining the ways in which Jews creatively seized opportunities to develop and express their identities, religious and secular, even under great duress. The volume shifts the focus from Jews being objects of Communist state policy (and from anti-Jewish prejudices in Communist societies) to the agency of Jews and their creativity in Communist Europe after the Holocaust. The examination of Jewish history from a transnational vantage point challenges a dominant strand in history writing today, by showing instead the wide variety of Jewish experiences in law, traditions and institutional frameworks as conceived from one Communist country to another and even within a single country, such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, and the Soviet Union. By focusing on networks across east-central Europe and beyond and on the forms of identity open to Jews in this important period, the volume begins a crucial rethinking of social and cultural life under Communist regimes.
Research Interests: Central European history, Jewish History, Communism, Holocaust Studies, Polish Studies, and 7 moreZionism, Modern European History, Central and Eastern Europe, History of Czechoslovakia, History of 19th and 20th Century East Central Europe, History of Holocaust Survivors In the Aftermath of World War II, and Central and Eastern European History / Studies, Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies, Nationalism History / Studies, Modern European History / Studies.
Historical works on Polish-Ukrainian relations in the interwar period mostly concern conflict history. The Polish-Ukrainian Bulletin, the subject of this article, was published from 1932 with the intention of contributing to a peaceful... more
Historical works on Polish-Ukrainian relations in the interwar period mostly concern conflict history. The Polish-Ukrainian Bulletin, the subject of this article, was published from 1932 with the intention of contributing to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. In Poland, under the authoritarian regime of Józef Piłsudski, the journal created a space for a relatively free debate on common questions and helped to build mutual trust across national divisions. Around the journal, networks of Polish and Ukrainian political and social activists emerged. These networks played a crucial role in the conclusion of the Polish-Ukrainian Normalization Agreement of 1935.
Research Interests: Polish History, Ukrainian Studies, Nationalism, Nationalism And State Building, Ukrainian Nationalism, and 13 morePolish Studies, Interwar Period History, History of Journalism, Ukraine (History), Poland, Press and media history, Ukrainian History, Polish Interwar History, history of Poland, National minorities, Polish-Ukrainian relations, Tadeusz Hołówko, and History of Ukraine
A considerable number of first-generation Holocaust researchers were Polish Jews: Philip Friedman, Isaiah Trunk, Józef Kermisz, Nachman Blumental, Rachel Auerbach, Michał Borwicz, Joseph Wulf, Szymon Datner, Artur Eisenbach, Tatjana... more
A considerable number of first-generation Holocaust researchers were Polish Jews: Philip Friedman, Isaiah Trunk, Józef Kermisz, Nachman Blumental, Rachel Auerbach, Michał Borwicz, Joseph Wulf, Szymon Datner, Artur Eisenbach, Tatjana Berenstein and Bernard Mark, to name just a few. Most of them left Poland in the late 1940s and early 1950s and resettled in the United States, France, Israel or West Berlin. Others continued their work in Poland. They all made important contributions to the documentation and research of the German mass murder of European Jews and many to the legal processing of this too. What connects them is the institution at they began their work, known then as Churbn-forshung1: the Central Jewish Historical Commission (CJHC) in Poland, from which the Jewish Historical Institute (JHI) was formed in October 1947. The chapter describes the origin of and the scientific
work and documentation carried out by the Commission and Institute, as well as its contribution to the prosecution and punishment of Nazi perpetrators against the background of the political situation in communist post-war Poland, particularly the Jewish community there.
work and documentation carried out by the Commission and Institute, as well as its contribution to the prosecution and punishment of Nazi perpetrators against the background of the political situation in communist post-war Poland, particularly the Jewish community there.
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Polish History, Yiddish, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Jewish History, and 11 moreHolocaust Studies, Polish Studies, History of Historiography, Jewish historiography, Holocaust, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Holocaust Shoah, Polish-Jewish Relations, Holocaust History and Historiography, and Jewish Responses to the Holocaust
This article examines the emergence of the ongoing debate on Polish aid for persecuted Jews during the Holocaust. While today it is mainly the nationalist Catholic right that tries to distract from other aspects of Polish-Jewish relations... more
This article examines the emergence of the ongoing debate on Polish aid for persecuted Jews during the Holocaust. While today it is mainly the nationalist Catholic right that tries to distract from other aspects of Polish-Jewish relations during the Second World War, this discursive reference to the "Polish righteous" originated in the 1960s. As I show in the article, it was primarily Jewish institutions and former aid activists who spoke publicly on this issue. In the course of the 1960s, nationalist circles in the Polish United Workers Party, however, took over the debate and gave it an increasingly anti-Semitic undertone.
Research Interests: Contemporary History, Polish History, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Jewish History, Holocaust Studies, and 8 moreJewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, History of Communism, History of Socialism, Contemporary History of Eastern Europe, esp. Czechoslovakia, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Jewish-Christian Polemics, Communist Parties, Polish-Jewish Relations, and Postwar Europe
The article investigates how the Holocaust was distorted and exploited in Cold War debates on the example of genesis and reception of the book Ghetto Warschau. Tagebücher aus dem Chaos [Warsaw Ghetto: Diaries from Chaos]. The book is a... more
The article investigates how the Holocaust was distorted and exploited in Cold War debates on the example of genesis and reception of the book Ghetto Warschau. Tagebücher aus dem Chaos [Warsaw Ghetto: Diaries from Chaos]. The book is a translation of the essay Stosunki polsko-żydowskie w czasie drugiej wojny światowej [Polish-Jewish relations during the Second World War], written by the Jewish historian and creator of the underground archive of the Warsaw Ghetto Emanuel Ringelblum while hiding from the German Occupiers in Warsaw in 1944. Ringelblum addressed his essay to the Polish reader discussing the relation of Christian Poles and Polish Jews under German occupation based on his own experience and the material he had collected. It was originally published in several portions in the Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute, an early Holocaust Research Center based in Warsaw. The German translation was based on this publication and published in summer 1967 in a Stuttgart-based publishing house. However, the new title, introduced by its German editors, suggested it was Ringelblum’s diary. Above that the blurb and many footnotes highlighted the role of Poles as perpetrators in
the Holocaust, while minimizing that of Germans. As the article shows, the book was prepared by the Göttinger Arbeitskreis ostdeutscher Wissenschaftler [Göttingen
Working Group of Eastern German Scholars], a Think Tank with close ties to the German expellee community, campaigning for a revision of the Polish western border.
Göttinger Arbeitskries used the book and earlier on excerpts of Ringelblum’s text for a smear-campaign in the West-German expellee press. Through the biased
presentation and distorted context of the work these former Ostforschers sought to portrait Poles as eternal anti-Semites and the factual perpetrators of the mass
murder of Polish and European Jews following their anti-Polish agenda. Polish nationalist within the ruling Polish United Workers Party in turn exploited the book and the campaign based on it, which coincided with the anti-Semitic campaign in Poland. Though the Institute was not involved in the publication of the German book, the Polish national communists accused it of supporting German revisionism and “Zionists” abroad in their slander of Poland.
the Holocaust, while minimizing that of Germans. As the article shows, the book was prepared by the Göttinger Arbeitskreis ostdeutscher Wissenschaftler [Göttingen
Working Group of Eastern German Scholars], a Think Tank with close ties to the German expellee community, campaigning for a revision of the Polish western border.
Göttinger Arbeitskries used the book and earlier on excerpts of Ringelblum’s text for a smear-campaign in the West-German expellee press. Through the biased
presentation and distorted context of the work these former Ostforschers sought to portrait Poles as eternal anti-Semites and the factual perpetrators of the mass
murder of Polish and European Jews following their anti-Polish agenda. Polish nationalist within the ruling Polish United Workers Party in turn exploited the book and the campaign based on it, which coincided with the anti-Semitic campaign in Poland. Though the Institute was not involved in the publication of the German book, the Polish national communists accused it of supporting German revisionism and “Zionists” abroad in their slander of Poland.
Research Interests: German History, Polish History, Cold War and Culture, Cold War, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, and 15 moreEastern European history, Memory Studies, Holocaust Studies, Holocaust Literature, Holocaust, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Polish-German-Jewish Relations, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Postwar Germany, The Holocaust, Politics of Memory, Holocaust Shoah, Polish-Jewish Relations, Holocaust History and Historiography, and Polish Jewish history
The Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute (Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego (BŻIH) was first published in Warsaw in 1950 and originally envisioned as an information bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute (Żydowski... more
The Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute (Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego (BŻIH) was first published in Warsaw in 1950 and originally envisioned as an information bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute (Żydowski Instytut Historyczny – ŻIH). In 1951 it was transformed into a scholarly biannual and later into a quarterly. Since the late 1950s it became the main publishing body of ŻIH and one of the key journals of research on Polish-Jewish history, a status it holds to this day, although under a new name − Kwartalnik Historii Żydów.
This text elaborates on the circumstances surrounding the establishment of BŻIH, its development and transformation into a scholarly journal. It also present an analysis of the authors’ and editors’ conditions of work in the first years of the periodical’s existence. Finally, I discuss its Polish and international perception and its impact on research. Chronologically speaking, this text devotes particular attention to the period between 1950 to the late 1970s, which was key for the growth and formation of the journal. BŻIH was the main publishing body of an institution that was deeply rooted in research focused on the genocide of the Jews (at the time, a field that was still new and not entirely recognised). Therefore, I concentrate on this particular subject, even though the journal published numerous important texts related to other areas of Polish-Jewish history as well.
This text elaborates on the circumstances surrounding the establishment of BŻIH, its development and transformation into a scholarly journal. It also present an analysis of the authors’ and editors’ conditions of work in the first years of the periodical’s existence. Finally, I discuss its Polish and international perception and its impact on research. Chronologically speaking, this text devotes particular attention to the period between 1950 to the late 1970s, which was key for the growth and formation of the journal. BŻIH was the main publishing body of an institution that was deeply rooted in research focused on the genocide of the Jews (at the time, a field that was still new and not entirely recognised). Therefore, I concentrate on this particular subject, even though the journal published numerous important texts related to other areas of Polish-Jewish history as well.
Research Interests: Historiography, Polish History, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Eastern European history, Jewish History, and 6 moreHolocaust Studies, Jewish historiography, Modern Jewish History, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and Scholarly Publishing
The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw was probably the only research institution in the Soviet Bloc and one of very few that undertook research on the Shoah during the 1950s. This article analyses the institute’s research and working... more
The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw was probably the only research institution in the Soviet Bloc and one of very few that undertook research on the Shoah during the 1950s. This article analyses the institute’s research and working conditions against the background of the general political regime under Stalinism in Poland. It argues that despite sometimes heavy-handed political biases in its publications,
the institute made an important contribution to research on the Shoah. Its work also came to the attention of Jewish centres outside the Soviet Bloc, though it was seen through the prism of the Cold War.
the institute made an important contribution to research on the Shoah. Its work also came to the attention of Jewish centres outside the Soviet Bloc, though it was seen through the prism of the Cold War.
Research Interests: Eastern European Studies, Jewish Studies, Polish History, Cold War and Culture, Cold War, and 10 moreEastern European and Russian Jewish History, Jewish History, Holocaust Studies, Polish Studies, Stalinist Historiography, Central and Eastern Europe, Central and East European Studies, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and Holocaust History and Historiography
The article deals with commemoration ceremonies on Holocaust Memorial Days organised by Polish and East German dissidents, which were both: an attempt to reclaim an own interpretation of history against the State-Socialist master... more
The article deals with commemoration ceremonies on Holocaust Memorial Days organised by Polish and East German dissidents, which were both: an attempt to reclaim an own interpretation of history against the State-Socialist master narratives by an emerging civil society and part of the political struggle of the opposition movements with the Socialist governments. These events constitute an often overlooked but important contribution to public Holocaust memory in these countries.
Research Interests: German Studies, German History, Polish History, History and Memory, Memory Studies, and 5 morePolish Studies, GDR History, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, German-Jewish Studies, and Polish-Jewish Relations
The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw was the largest research institution in the Soviet Bloc and one of very few that undertook research on the Shoah during the 1950s. This article analyses the institute's research and working... more
The Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw was the largest research institution in the Soviet Bloc and one of very few that undertook research on the Shoah during the 1950s. This article analyses the institute's research and working conditions against the background of the general political regime under Stalinism in Poland. It argues that despite sometimes heavy-handed political biases in its publications, the institute made an important contribution to research on the Shoah. Its work also came to the attention of Jewish centres outside the Soviet Bloc, though it was seen through the prism of the Cold War.
Research Interests: Eastern European Studies, Polish History, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Eastern European history, Holocaust Studies, and 12 morePolish Studies, Poland, Jews in Poland, Holocaust, Central and Eastern Europe, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, history of Poland, Holocaust Shoah, Holocaust History and Historiography, Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, and Jewish Responses to the Holocaust
The chapter discusses the function of the Institute for Nationality Research in Warsaw as a Think Tank in Minority Politics in Poland (1921-1939). The Institute was established by scholars, diplomats and politicans searching peaceful... more
The chapter discusses the function of the Institute for Nationality Research in Warsaw as a Think Tank in Minority Politics in Poland (1921-1939). The Institute was established by scholars, diplomats and politicans searching peaceful solutions for the ethnic conflicts in Poland after World War I. After Józef Pilsudski's coup d'etat in 1926 the Institiute became and influential think tank and discussion platform, where Polish politicians, diplomats, scholars and experts could meet and discuss with their peers from the national minorities.
Research Interests:
From 1927 until 1937, Aleksander Hafftka was head of the Jewish Division in the Nationalities Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland. In this capacity, Hafftla was in charge for the surveillance of political developments... more
From 1927 until 1937, Aleksander Hafftka was head of the Jewish Division in the Nationalities Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland. In this capacity, Hafftla was in charge for the surveillance of political developments in the Jewish community, legal projects that affected Jews and maintaining contacts with Jewish social and political eleites. Hafftka also often represented the Polish government vis-à-vis the Jewish community. At hte same time, he was a part of this very community himself and engaged in its social life. In this article, I briefly sketch Hafftka's career in interwar Poland and his attempts to reconcile the interests of the Polish state and its Jewish inhabitatants. I also focus on the political background of his dissmissal during the nationalist swing of the Polish government in 1937.
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Polish History, Antisemitism (Prejudice), Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Eastern European history, and 12 moreJewish History, Polish Studies, Central and Eastern Europe, Central and East European Studies, Polish Interwar History, Polish-Jewish Relations, National minorities, Ethnicity and National Identity, Polish Jewish history, Ethnic and National Minorities In Poland, Piłsudczycy, and Jews of Central and Eastern Europe
The chapter deals with commemoration ceremonies on Holocaust Memorial Days organised by Polish and East German dissidents, which were both: an attempt to reclaim an own interpretation of history against the State-Socialist master... more
The chapter deals with commemoration ceremonies on Holocaust Memorial Days organised by Polish and East German dissidents, which were both: an attempt to reclaim an own interpretation of history against the State-Socialist master narratives by an emerging civil society and part of the political struggle of the opposition movements with the Socialist governments. These events constitute an often overlooked but important contribution to public Holocaust memory in these countries.
Research Interests: Polish History, Cold War and Culture, History and Memory, Memory Studies, Commemoration and Memory, and 14 moreHolocaust Studies, Polish Studies, GDR History, East German History, Holocaust, Central European Dissidence, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, DDR, East Germany, Solidarnosc, Postwar Europe, Polish Jewish history, History of Polish People's Republic (PRL), and East Central European Dissidence
This introduction to the special issue of Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung "Nationalization and Pragmatism. State Institutions and Minorities in Poland 1918-1939" re-evaluates the Polish minority policy of the interwar period from... more
This introduction to the special issue of Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropaforschung "Nationalization and Pragmatism. State Institutions and Minorities in Poland 1918-1939" re-evaluates the Polish minority policy of the interwar period from the perspective of state institutions. It summarizes this sphere of Polish politics and critically reviews the research literature and formulates conclusions from the single chapters of the volume.
Research Interests: Eastern European Studies, Polish History, Nationalism, Eastern European history, Nationalism And State Building, and 10 morePolish Studies, Interwar Period History, Ukraine (History), Poland, Central and Eastern Europe, Polish Interwar History, Ukrainian, Russian and Polish Historiy, Interwar period, 1919 - 1939, Józef Piłsudski, and National minorities
Research Interests: European History, Eastern Europe, Polish History, Cold War and Culture, Jewish History, and 13 moreHolocaust Studies, 20th Century German History, 20th Century, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Warsaw Ghetto, Postwar Germany, Holocaust History and Historiography, War Crimes Trials, German Expellees, Modern European Jewish History, History of Holocaust Survivors In the Aftermath of World War II, Jewish Responses to the Holocaust, and Post Holocaust Justice
"The article examines how dissidents and oppositional groups in Poland and East Germany remembered the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 and the so called Kristallnacht, the organized anti-Jewish pogrom of November 9-10 1938 throughout the... more
"The article examines how dissidents and oppositional groups in Poland and East Germany remembered the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943 and the so called Kristallnacht, the organized anti-Jewish pogrom of November 9-10 1938 throughout the 1980s. Both events served as a kind of substitute for Holocaust remembrance in the respective country, as it had not been remembered as such.
While both events were commemorated with state sponsored ceremonies and interpreted in communist terms, dissidents and oppositional groups began to hold their own commemorations in the 1980s. This dissident Remembrance resulted from their perception that the official memory and interpretation of these events was hypocritical and needed to be counterbalanced. However, also the dissident remembrance was not free of political influence."
While both events were commemorated with state sponsored ceremonies and interpreted in communist terms, dissidents and oppositional groups began to hold their own commemorations in the 1980s. This dissident Remembrance resulted from their perception that the official memory and interpretation of these events was hypocritical and needed to be counterbalanced. However, also the dissident remembrance was not free of political influence."
Research Interests: Intellectual History, Cultural History, Media and Cultural Studies, Polish History, History and Memory, and 16 moreMemory Studies, Cultural Memory, Holocaust Studies, Transnational Feminism, East German History, German Nationalism, The Third Reich, Central European Dissidence, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Solidarnosc, The Holocaust, Irish Nationalism, 20th and 21st Century Literatures of Immigration and Exile, East Central European Dissidence, Studies of Migration and Sexuality, and The Ideology of National Socialism and the Circulation of National Socialist Ideas In Europe
This review essay discusses the recent research concerning minority policy in Poland 1918-1939.
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The Jewish Historical Institute (ŻIH) is one of the oldest Holocaust Research Centres worldwide. I t was formally established in 1947, as an institutionalisation of the Central Jewish Historical Commission, founded already 1944. In the... more
The Jewish Historical Institute (ŻIH) is one of the oldest Holocaust Research Centres worldwide. I t was formally established in 1947, as an institutionalisation of the Central Jewish Historical Commission, founded already 1944. In the late 40’s however, the tightening political situation in communist Poland had also its effects on the ŻIH and its research. Unwilling to make ideological concessions, a large part of the institute’s staff emigrated and its management was replaced. The new director Bernard Mark, a pre-war communist who survived World War II in the Soviet Union, was able to prevent the ŻIH ’s dissolution by rather moderately “correcting” its political course. In early 1953, when suddenly a brash ideological tone appeared in the institute’s publications, it was due to the anti-Semitic atmosphere of late Stalinism and a denunciation of Bernard Mark.
Research Interests: Polish History, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Holocaust Studies, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, and History of Communism; Soviet; Post-Soviet; Russia; Eastern Europe
The Article examines the contacts of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, the only Holocaust Research Centre in the Soviet Bloc, with East and West Gemany in the 1950's and 1960's. It shows the highly politicized perception of the... more
The Article examines the contacts of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, the only Holocaust Research Centre in the Soviet Bloc, with East and West Gemany in the 1950's and 1960's. It shows the highly politicized perception of the Holocaust on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
Research Interests: German History, Polish History, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Eastern European history, Jewish History, and 7 moreHolocaust Studies, Holocaust, Central and Eastern Europe, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, History of Communism; Soviet; Post-Soviet; Russia; Eastern Europe, Postwar Germany, and Postwar Europe
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The article explores the share of Jewish Historical Commissions in the legal prosecution of the German mass murder of European Jewry in Poland and Austria in the early postwar years. Both the Central Jewish Historical Commission (since... more
The article explores the share of Jewish Historical Commissions in the legal prosecution of the German mass murder of European Jewry in Poland and Austria in the early postwar years. Both the Central Jewish Historical Commission (since 1947 the Jewish Historical Institute) in Poland and the Vienna based Jewish Historical Documentation used their collected material not only for the purpose of documentation but also to bring the perpetrators to court. Both organizations also cooperated across the borders of the emerging iron curtain
Research Interests: Polish History, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Eastern European history, Holocaust Studies, War Crimes, and 4 moreEarly Postwar (1945-1950), Central and Eastern Europe, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, and Austrian History
This newspaper essay reveals how the concept of prometheism, which originated in the interwar period, shapes Polish policy toward Russia and Ukraine in the present. The influence of Prometheism explains not only Poland's the enormous... more
This newspaper essay reveals how the concept of prometheism, which originated in the interwar period, shapes Polish policy toward Russia and Ukraine in the present. The influence of Prometheism explains not only Poland's the enormous support for Ukraine, but also why the ruling party PiS (Law and Justice) is the only right-wing, national-conservative party in Europe that opposes the neo-imperialist policies of Putin's Russia.
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An obituary to Hubert Witt, who had been editor and translator of Yiddish poetry into German.
Research Interests: Yiddish Literature, Jewish Studies, Literature, Yiddish, Holocaust Studies, and 6 moreBook Publishing, GDR History, Holocaust Literature, Yiddish Studies, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, and East Germany
The essay explores different political approproations of the memory of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in the Polish Peoples' Republic by Jewish and non-Jewish, governmental and dissident actors.
Research Interests: Eastern European Studies, Jewish Studies, Polish History, History and Memory, Eastern European history, and 10 moreJewish History, Memory Studies, Cultural Memory, Commemoration and Memory, Polish Studies, Central and Eastern Europe, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Warsaw Ghetto, Polish-Jewish Relations, and Polish Jewish history
How Dissidents in the German Democratic Republic searched their own way to come to terms with the Shoah before 1989 and how this opened the door for a Soviet-Jewish immigration to Germany since 1990.
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Research Interests:
" Dans les années 1980, des cercles d’opposants au régime du SED ont remis en cause la légitimité de la RDA en tant qu’État «antifasciste». Souhaitant revenir sur la question de la culpabilité (est-)allemande vis-à-vis de la Shoah, ils... more
" Dans les années 1980, des cercles d’opposants au régime du SED ont remis en cause la légitimité de la RDA en tant qu’État «antifasciste». Souhaitant revenir sur la question de la culpabilité (est-)allemande vis-à-vis de la Shoah, ils ont exigé une confrontation publique sur l’Histoire.
Après la Révolution pacifique de l’automne 1989, le premier parlement est-allemand démocratiquement élu a reconnu les crimes allemands de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. En geste de réparation, il a accordé l’asile aux Juifs de l’Union soviétique. 200.000 personnes ont répondu jusqu’à aujourd’hui à cette invitation."
Après la Révolution pacifique de l’automne 1989, le premier parlement est-allemand démocratiquement élu a reconnu les crimes allemands de la Seconde Guerre mondiale. En geste de réparation, il a accordé l’asile aux Juifs de l’Union soviétique. 200.000 personnes ont répondu jusqu’à aujourd’hui à cette invitation."
Research Interests: Culture, Holocaust Studies, East German History, Central European Dissidence, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, and 6 moreGerman Unification 1989-1990, GDR Subculture, Alternative Culture, Altarnative Culture, Samizdat, Geography of Dissent, Samizdat, and Geography of Dissent
"n den 80er Jahren zogen oppositionelle Kreise der DDR mit Frage nach der (ost-)deutschen Schuld an der Shoah die Legitimation der DDR als „antifaschistischen“ Staat in Zweifel und forderten eine offene Auseinandersetzung mit der... more
"n den 80er Jahren zogen oppositionelle Kreise der DDR mit Frage nach der (ost-)deutschen Schuld an der Shoah die Legitimation der DDR als „antifaschistischen“ Staat in Zweifel und forderten eine offene Auseinandersetzung mit der Geschichte.
Nach der friedlichen Revolution vom Herbst '89 bekannte sich das erste demokratisch gewählte DDR-Parlament zu den deutschen Verbrechen im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Als Geste der Wiedergutmachung gewährte sie sowjetischen Juden Asyl. Dieser Einladung folgten bis heute 200.000 Menschen. "
Nach der friedlichen Revolution vom Herbst '89 bekannte sich das erste demokratisch gewählte DDR-Parlament zu den deutschen Verbrechen im Zweiten Weltkrieg. Als Geste der Wiedergutmachung gewährte sie sowjetischen Juden Asyl. Dieser Einladung folgten bis heute 200.000 Menschen. "
Research Interests: Culture, Holocaust Studies, East German History, Central European Dissidence, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, and 5 moreGerman Unification 1989-1990, GDR Subculture, Alternative Culture, Samizdat, and Geography of Dissent
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Research Interests: Eastern European Studies, Polish History, Antisemitism (Prejudice), Political Violence and Terrorism, History of Political Violence, and 12 morePolitical Violence, Nationalism And State Building, Polish Studies, Interwar Period History, Central and Eastern Europe, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Minorities, Antisemitism, Polish Interwar History, Polish-Jewish Relations, National minorities, and Polish Jewish history
Jerzy T o m a s z e w s k i : Żydzi w II Rzeczypospolitej. [Juden in der Zweiten Republik.] Hrsg. von Artur M a r k o w s k i und Szymon Rudnicki. (Klasycy historiografii warszawskiej.) Wydawnictwo Neriton. Warszawa 2016. 444 S. ISBN... more
Jerzy T o m a s z e w s k i : Żydzi w II Rzeczypospolitej. [Juden in der Zweiten Republik.] Hrsg. von Artur M a r k o w s k i und Szymon Rudnicki. (Klasycy historiografii warszawskiej.) Wydawnictwo Neriton. Warszawa 2016. 444 S. ISBN 978-83-7543-410-1. (PLN 45,–.)
Research Interests: Eastern European Studies, Polish History, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Eastern European history, Jewish History, and 8 morePolish Studies, Interwar Period History, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Polish-German-Jewish Relations, Polish Interwar History, Polish-Jewish Relations, Polish Jewish history, and Polish-Jewish History
A Review of Christian Domnitz Study on the public debates on Europe and European Integration in Poland, Czechoslavakia and East Germny during State Socialism (1975-1989).
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In this text I review a monography by Hans-Christian Dahlmann on the anti-Semitic campaign in Poland 1968. In his new approach, Dahlmann underscores the role of the lower party ranks and the inability of the party leadership to control... more
In this text I review a monography by Hans-Christian Dahlmann on the anti-Semitic campaign in Poland 1968. In his new approach, Dahlmann underscores the role of the lower party ranks and the inability of the party leadership to control the campaign.
Research Interests: History, Eastern European Studies, Jewish Studies, Antisemitism (Prejudice), Jewish History, and 8 moreHistory of the Jews, Poland, Jews in Poland, Central and Eastern Europe, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Antisemitism, history of Poland, and 1968 in Europe
This is a review of a volume edited by Robert Brier on the contacts and cooperations of East European dissidents from various countries among each other and with western activists.
Research Interests: Eastern European Studies, Soviet History, Cold War and Culture, Cold War, Czech & Slovak Studies, and 12 morePeace Movements, History of Hungary, Soviet Union (History), Poland, GDR History, Cold War history, Central and Eastern Europe, Central European Dissidence, Soviet Dissidents, history of Poland, History of the Cold War, and Central and Eastern European Studies
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Review of: Stephanie Kowitz-Harms: Die Shoah im Spiegel öffentlicher Konflikte in Polen. Zwischen Opfermythos und Schuldfrage (1985-2001) (= Europäisch-jüdische Studien. Beiträge; Bd. 4), Berlin: de Gruyter 2014 & Piotr Forecki:... more
Review of: Stephanie Kowitz-Harms: Die Shoah im Spiegel öffentlicher Konflikte in Polen. Zwischen Opfermythos und Schuldfrage (1985-2001) (= Europäisch-jüdische Studien. Beiträge; Bd. 4), Berlin: de Gruyter 2014 & Piotr Forecki: Reconstructing Memory. The Holocaust in Polish Public Debates (= Geschichte - Erinnerung - Politik. Posener Studien zur Geschichts-, Kultur- und Politikwissenschaft; Bd. 5), Bern / Frankfurt a.M. [u.a.]: Peter Lang 2013.
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Research Interests: Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Eastern European history, Holocaust Studies, History of the Jews, Early Postwar (1945-1950), and 14 moreJewish historiography, Jews in Poland, Holocaust survivors, Holocaust, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, German-Jewish Studies, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Postwar Germany, The Holocaust, Postwar Europe, Deutsch-jüdische Geschichte, Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, History of Holocaust Survivors In the Aftermath of World War II, and Jewish Responses to the Holocaust
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Research Interests: Eastern European Studies, Polish History, Antisemitism (Prejudice), Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Jewish History, and 3 moreCentral and Eastern Europe, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, and Polish Interwar History
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This text is a report on the Forum of Researchers of Contemporary History, which took place in Warsaw University, 10 Dezember 2016. The forum discussed the impact of the Polish government's history politics on historical research and... more
This text is a report on the Forum of Researchers of Contemporary History, which took place in Warsaw University, 10 Dezember 2016. The forum discussed the impact of the Polish government's history politics on historical research and historical debate in Poland.
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Report on the Conference " Czech-Jewish and Polish-Jewish Studies: (Dis)Similarities" in Prague 29-30 Oct. 2014.
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Czech History, Polish History, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Central European history, and 5 moreJewish History, Czech & Slovak Studies, Central and Eastern Europe, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, and History of 19th and 20th Century East Central Europe
Research Interests:
+++ Please send an abstract of about 300-400 words and a brief biography to Anna Koch ak1466@york.ac.uk and Stephan Stach stach@usd.cas.cz by January 30. +++ The Cold War influenced how people, societies and states dealt with and... more
+++ Please send an abstract of about 300-400 words and a brief biography to Anna Koch ak1466@york.ac.uk and Stephan Stach stach@usd.cas.cz by January 30. +++
The Cold War influenced how people, societies and states dealt with and understood the Holocaust and its aftereffects. Yet historiography tends to neglect the role the block confrontation played in shaping scholarship, trials, and memory in Western Europe, the US and Israel. At the same time ideological and political manipulations of collective memory are highlighted and at times overestimated in treatments of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Rarely can we see discussions of Holocaust memory that look at both East and West. Foregrounding the essential role of the Cold War, this international workshop asks how it affected research, legal proceedings and collective and individual memories. Recently, historians have challenged the assumption that research on the Holocaust begun only with the Eichmann trial in 1961, and have highlighted the role mostly Jewish scholars and lay people played in documenting the murder of European Jews immediately after the liberation, or even before. This new perspective has made historians reconsider Eastern European Holocaust Memory, showing how people acting outside the state's framework succeeded in making room for at least limited discussions of the Holocaust.
The Cold War influenced how people, societies and states dealt with and understood the Holocaust and its aftereffects. Yet historiography tends to neglect the role the block confrontation played in shaping scholarship, trials, and memory in Western Europe, the US and Israel. At the same time ideological and political manipulations of collective memory are highlighted and at times overestimated in treatments of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Rarely can we see discussions of Holocaust memory that look at both East and West. Foregrounding the essential role of the Cold War, this international workshop asks how it affected research, legal proceedings and collective and individual memories. Recently, historians have challenged the assumption that research on the Holocaust begun only with the Eichmann trial in 1961, and have highlighted the role mostly Jewish scholars and lay people played in documenting the murder of European Jews immediately after the liberation, or even before. This new perspective has made historians reconsider Eastern European Holocaust Memory, showing how people acting outside the state's framework succeeded in making room for at least limited discussions of the Holocaust.
Research Interests: European History, Cultural Studies, Eastern European Studies, European Studies, Jewish Studies, and 34 moreWestern Europe, Historiography, Polish History, Cold War and Culture, Cultural Cold War, History and Memory, Cold War, Jewish History, Memory Studies, Cultural Memory, Holocaust Studies, Holocaust education, History of Historiography, Israel, Cold War history, Holocaust Literature, Holocaust, Central and Eastern Europe, Holocaust theories of representation, The Cold War, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Holocaust Art, The Holocaust, Holocaust Memory, Holocaust Shoah, Post-War Reconstruction, Cinematic representation of the Holocaust, Holocaust History and Historiography, Holocaust and Film, History of Holocaust Survivors In the Aftermath of World War II, Jewish Responses to the Holocaust, Cold War Literature, and German Jewry during Holocaust
Research Interests: Jewish Studies, Czech History, Polish History, History and Memory, Socialisms, and 27 moreCzech & Slovak Studies, History of Hungary, Memory Studies, Holocaust Studies, Polish Literature, Czech Literature, Polish Studies, History, Writing and Memory, Socialism, History of Historiography, Poland, GDR History, Holocaust, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, GDR Subculture, History of Socialism, Contemporary History of Eastern Europe, esp. Czechoslovakia, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, History of Czechoslovakia, history of Poland, Postwar Germany, The Holocaust, Holocaust Shoah, 20th Century Hungary, Socialisms and Postsocialisms, History of Poland in twentieth century, Postwar Europe, and History of Slovakia
The conference 'Biographies and Politics: The Involvement of Jews and People of Jewish Origin in Leftist Movements in 19th and 20th Century Poland' aims to determine the actual Jewish engagement in leftist movements in Poland in the 19th... more
The conference 'Biographies and Politics: The Involvement of Jews and People of Jewish Origin in Leftist Movements in 19th and 20th Century Poland' aims to determine the actual Jewish engagement in leftist movements in Poland in the 19th and 20th centuries from the point of view of their individual ideological choices.
Personal histories, family fortunes, and forming political identities will be analyzed using a biographical method. Thus, they will help answer the question of what drove Polish Jews to join leftist organizations.
Personal histories, family fortunes, and forming political identities will be analyzed using a biographical method. Thus, they will help answer the question of what drove Polish Jews to join leftist organizations.
Research Interests: Eastern European Studies, Gender Studies, Jewish Studies, Polish History, Labour history, and 12 moreEastern European history, Jewish History, Communism, Biography, Migration Studies, Biographical Methods, Socialism, Zionism, Central and Eastern Europe, Jewish heritage, Polish-Jewish / German-Jewish Relations, klezmer revival, Jewish heritage tourism, Holocaust commemoration, antisemitism, social identity, oral history, History of Communism, and HIstory of Zionism and Jewish Nationalism
The Cold War influenced how people, societies and states dealt with and understood the Holocaust and its aftereffects. Challenging previous perceptions of the West as the democratic “Free World” that embraced commemoration and the East as... more
The Cold War influenced how people, societies and states dealt with and understood the Holocaust and its aftereffects. Challenging previous perceptions of the West as the democratic “Free World” that embraced commemoration and the East as totalitarian and repressive, the papers in this conference will examine how political interests influenced commemoration in both East and West. At the same time speakers will show how individual actors carved out space to remember the Holocaust in ways that stood at odds with the dominant narratives. Examining communal, individuals and state efforts, from the Soviet
Union to the US, from Hungary to France, this conference will provide opportunities to re-evaluate the commonalities, differences and entanglements between Eastern and Western memory of the Holocaust.
Union to the US, from Hungary to France, this conference will provide opportunities to re-evaluate the commonalities, differences and entanglements between Eastern and Western memory of the Holocaust.
Research Interests: European History, Cultural History, Cultural Studies, European Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, and 18 moreJewish Studies, Cold War and Culture, Cultural Cold War, Genocide Studies, Cold War, Eastern European and Russian Jewish History, Eastern European history, Jewish History, Memory Studies, Holocaust Studies, Modern Jewish History, Cold War history, Holocaust, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Postwar Germany, Holocaust Memory, Holocaust History and Historiography, and Postwar Europe
Please see the conference programme (Prague, 23-25 May 2017). If you want to attend, please register at stach@usd.cas.cz by 30 April 2017. The experience of the Jews under the Communist régimes of east-central and eastern Europe has been... more
Please see the conference programme (Prague, 23-25 May 2017). If you want to attend, please register at stach@usd.cas.cz by 30 April 2017.
The experience of the Jews under the Communist régimes of east-central and eastern Europe has been a hotly debated topic of historiography since the 1950s. Until the 1980s, Cold War propaganda exerted a powerful influence on most interpretations presented in articles and books published on both sides of the ‘Iron Curtain’. Moreover, most works focused both on the relationship between the régime and the Jews living under it and on the role of the Jews in the Communist/Socialist movements and the political events connected with the rise of antisemitism and emigration.
The following topics are of particular importance for us:
1. The legal positions of the Jews of the Communist/Socialist countries of Europe and the institutional opportunities for the Jews there (including religious, cultural, educational, and charitable institutions).
2. The ways of preserving and developing ‘Jewishness’ under the Communist regimes, within and outside the official organizations, in private and in public.
3. Family and gender aspects of Jewish life under Communism.
4. Networks across the ‘Iron Curtain’ and across the state borders in the ‘Soviet bloc’.
5. Yiddish culture and education under the Communist régimes.
The experience of the Jews under the Communist régimes of east-central and eastern Europe has been a hotly debated topic of historiography since the 1950s. Until the 1980s, Cold War propaganda exerted a powerful influence on most interpretations presented in articles and books published on both sides of the ‘Iron Curtain’. Moreover, most works focused both on the relationship between the régime and the Jews living under it and on the role of the Jews in the Communist/Socialist movements and the political events connected with the rise of antisemitism and emigration.
The following topics are of particular importance for us:
1. The legal positions of the Jews of the Communist/Socialist countries of Europe and the institutional opportunities for the Jews there (including religious, cultural, educational, and charitable institutions).
2. The ways of preserving and developing ‘Jewishness’ under the Communist regimes, within and outside the official organizations, in private and in public.
3. Family and gender aspects of Jewish life under Communism.
4. Networks across the ‘Iron Curtain’ and across the state borders in the ‘Soviet bloc’.
5. Yiddish culture and education under the Communist régimes.
Research Interests:
The following is an appeal by more than 100 German-speaking experts on Eastern Europe for a reality-based, and not illusions-guided, Russia policy. Numerous additional current and former parliamentarians, artists, activists, academics,... more
The following is an appeal by more than 100 German-speaking experts on Eastern Europe for a reality-based, and not illusions-guided, Russia policy. Numerous additional current and former parliamentarians, artists, activists, academics, and interested citizens voiced their support for this appeal as signatures were being collected. Some of the most influential German correspondents on Russia and Ukraine sympathize with the appeal but, for specifically professional reasons, did not add their signatures. The appeal appeared in Zeit Online, Der Standard, and Der Tagesspiegel. The German original appeal can be freely signed, on the site Change.org.
Research Interests: Eastern European Studies, European Studies, Russian Studies, Ukrainian Studies, Russian Politics, and 25 moreEuropean Security and Defence Policy, East European studies, Russian Foreign Policy, European Foreign Policy, Ukrainian Politics, Eastern Partnership, German Politics, German Foreign Policy, European Foreign and Security Policy, Ukrainian Foreign Policy, EU Foreign Policy, Polish and German security and defence policies, Russian-Ukrainian Relations, EU institutions, EU foreign policy, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, securitization, Ostpolitik, NATO-Russian Relations, Ukraine, Russia, Eastern Europe, Russia and Germany, European and euroatlantic integration of Ukraine, German-Polish Relations, Deutsche Außenpolitik, Friedens Und Konfliktforschung, Aussenpolitik, German-Russian Relations, and Russia-Ukraine Relations
142 Osteuropaexperten wenden sich gegen den Aufruf "Nicht in unserem Namen" zu mehr Dialog mit Russland im Ukraine-Konflikt.