The Galician Paradigm? Post-war Voices of German-Speaking Polish Jewish Survivors1

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Aleksiun
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
German Culture ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Historical Commissions ◽  
Post War ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
Jewish Survivors ◽  
Second World

Abstract This paper examines the experience of Galician-Jewish survivors who were fluent in German and who had developed close ties to German culture before the Second World War. It suggests that looking through the German linguistic lens highlights the multilayered nature of Jewish cultural identity in Galicia and offers an important critical tool with which to understand the distinct ways in which Galician Jews experienced the Holocaust. Using personal accounts, this article analyzes the ways in which complex cultural biographies of Galician Jews shaped their identities as eastern European Jews, Polish citizens, and Holocaust survivors. On the basis of testimonies included in early accounts for the Jewish historical commissions, statements by Jewish witnesses in post-war trials, oral interviews, and memoirs, this article discusses the ways in which Galician Jews remembered their relationship with German culture and how their complex cultural identity shaped their personal trajectories after the liberation.

An Ordinary Polish Town: The Homecoming of Holocaust Survivors to Kalisz in the Immediate Aftermath of the War

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-112
Author(s):  
Lukasz Krzyzanowski
Keyword(s):  
Holocaust Survivors ◽  
Communal Life ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Industrial Town ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Economic Reality ◽  
Post War ◽  
Anti Jewish ◽  
Second World

The rapidly growing historiography on the aftermath of the Holocaust in Poland has focused primarily on post-war anti-Semitism. Scholars have traditionally concentrated on the post-war death, community destruction and emigration of Holocaust survivors rather than their attempts to return to their former homes. This article explores who these survivors were and what their return was like. Using the medium-sized industrial town of Kalisz in western Poland as a case study, the article argues that the composition of survivors' communities and the difficulty of adapting to the new economic reality, together with the already well-researched anti-Jewish violence, played a significant role in preventing a revival of Jewish communal life in provincial Poland in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War.

scholarly journals Between or Beyond? Jewish British Short Stories in English since the 1970s

Humanities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 110
Author(s):  
Axel Stähler
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
Jewish Experience ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Continuous Progress ◽  
Post War ◽  
War Experience ◽  
Second World

Looking at short stories by writers as diverse as Brian Glanville, Ruth Fainlight, Clive Sinclair, Jonathan Wilson, James Lasdun, Gabriel Josipovici, Tamar Yellin, Michelene Wandor, and Naomi Alderman, and extending from the center of Jewish British writing to its margins, this article seeks to locate the defining feature of their ‘Jewish substratum’ in conditions particular to the Jewish post-war experience, and to trace its impact across their thematic plurality which, for the most part, transcends any specifically British concerns that may also emerge, opening up an Anglophone sphere of Jewish writing. More specifically, it is argued that the unease pervading so many Jewish British short stories since the 1970s is a product of, and response to, what may very broadly be described as the Jewish experience and the precarious circumstances of Jewish existence even after the Second World War and its cataclysmic impact. It is suggested that it is prompted in particular by the persistence of the Holocaust and the anxieties the historical event continues to produce; by the confrontation with competing patterns of identification, with antisemitism, and with Israel; and by anxieties of non-belonging, of fragmentation, of dislocation, and of dissolution. Turned into literary tropes, these experiences provide the basis of a Jewish substratum whose articulation is facilitated by the expansion of Jewish British writers into the space of Anglophone Jewish writing. As a result, the Jewish British short story emerges as a multifaceted and hybrid project in continuous progress.

Unerwünschte Rückkehrer. Staatsbürgerschaft und Eigentum deutscher Juden in der Nachkriegstschechoslowakei

Naharaim ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matěj Spurný
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
International Debate ◽  
Central Eastern Europe ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
Post War ◽  
Czech Lands ◽  
Second World

The issue of displacement of the German speaking population of Czechoslovakia after the Second World War has been a subject of a broader Czech, German and international debate for several decades. This article examines the position of German-speaking Jews from Czech lands returning from emigration or concentration camps after the end of the war and the process of the nationalization of citizenship and property rights in post-war Czechoslovakia. As Jews, these former citizens of Czechoslovakia were undoubtedly victims of the National Socialist terror. As people of German (or at least non-Czech) nationality, however, they fit into particular categories affected by presidential decrees. This article shows how state authorities, and local officials especially, tried to use the post-war situation to eradicate all aspects of what was called “Germanness.” The story of German-speaking Jews in post-war Czechoslovakia is an element in the process of the disintegration of the state of law in post-war central-eastern Europe.

scholarly journals A Review of Małgorzata Mastalerz-Krystjańczuk, “Ostatni Mohikanie Pomorza”: Ludność rodzima znad jezior Łebsko i Gardno w publicystyce polskiej lat 1945–1989. Gdańsk; Słupsk: Instytut Kaszubski; Akademia Pomorska w Słupsku, 2019, 452 ss.

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (51) ◽  
pp. 211-224
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Vasiukov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Social Activists ◽  
Indigenous Ethnic Group ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Important Argument ◽  
Specific Position ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

The collection of articles “The Last Mohicans of Pomerania”: The Indigenous Population of Łebsko and Gardno Lakes in Polish Nonfiction 1945–1989, edited by contemporary Polish historian Małgorzata Mastalerz-Krystjańczuk, includes several dozen articles published in Polish newspapers and magazines from 1945 to 1989 dedicated to the Kashubian ethnographic group of Slovincians who lived in Poland until the 1970s. The post-war nonfiction, written by professional ethnographers, linguists, historians, as well as journalists, travelers and social activists, was intended to acquaint the Polish reader with the specificities of the small indigenous ethnic group of Pomerania, fully incorporated into Poland as a result of the Second World War. An extensive preface by Dr. Mastalerz-Krystjańczuk will allow the reader to learn about the specificities of the inclusion of Slovincians in Polish social and political life, the historical and cultural context in which the texts about Slovincians were created, their thematic content, as well as the role played by censorship on the practice of depicting modern Slovincians. As the materials of the collection show, Slovincians had taken a specific position in Polish scientific and political ethno-classifications. Being German-speaking Lutherans, the Slovincians—due to their Slavic origin and the expected Slavic language practice—had to play the role of an important argument in legitimizing West Pomerania’s inclusion in the imagination of the Polish authorities. The review provides a brief survey of the main themes, images, and stories about Slovincians circulating in numerous articles of this collection.

scholarly journals The status and the future of Baltic States and Romania in the strategy of Western Allies in the early years of the Second World War: a comparative view

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-109
Author(s):  
Ramojus Kraujelis
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Second World

The fate of Lithuania and Romania as well as future of the whole Central and Eastern European region was determined in the years of the Second World War. The common origin of their tragic and painful history was the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact – the secret deal between Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, which divided Central and Eastern Europe between two totalitarian regimes. In June 1940 the three Baltic States and a part of Romania were directly occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union. The main objective of this paper is to identify, analyze and compare the attitudes of the United States and Great Britain with respect to the annexation of the Baltic States and the Romania territory and discussed the post-war future reserved to them. During the early years of the Second Word War (1940-1942) few interesting international discussions about possible post-war arrangement plans existed. The analysis of the Western attitude would enable us to give answers to certain questions: What could have been done by the Western states for the benefit of Central and Eastern European region; what have they, in fact, done and what did they avoid doing? The year 1943 witnessed the consolidation of the Western attitude with regard to Soviet Union’s western borders, which resulted in the fundamental fact that Moscow did not intend to retract its interests in the Baltic States, Eastern Poland, North Bucovina and Bessarabia while the West did not intend to fight for these territories. Considering the fact that at the Teheran conference (1943) the Western states agreed upon turning the Baltic states into a Soviet interest sphere, the United States and Britain entered the Yalta conference (1945) with no illusions as to the fate of Central and Eastern Europe in general.

Genesis and Other Biblical Events Depicted in Postmodern Drama.

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-300
Author(s):  
Ana-Magdalena Petraru
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
German Culture ◽  
National Theatre ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
East German ◽  
Post War ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Great Code

Abstract A complex person (novelist, playwright, screenwriter, translator), George Tabori, pen name of György Tábori, born in Budapest in 1914, was little acclaimed in North America where he spent twenty years of his life and left a mark on the German culture of the 20th century. Due to his cathartic black humour, he overcame the tragic experience of the Holocaust that took away from him almost all his family. Known in post-war drama especially by means of his anti-Hitler farce Mein Kampf (1987) which he authored, directed and acted in, Tabori even took the East-German public by surprise with his special, yet less familiar perspective on history.1 Mein Kampf was the first play that had a Romanian staging, at Cluj; however, Die Goldberg-Variationen (1991), a real international success2, became known to our public at the theatre Radu Stanca in Sibiu under the same title and as Goldberg Show at the National Theatre of Iasi (TNI). Our aim, in this paper, is to analyse the biblical events in the play from a postmodern perspective as homage to the author’s contribution to the philological sub-field of Bible and literature, already consecrated by N. Frye’s Great Code and more recent studies.

RECEPCIJA I REPREZENTACIJA HOLOKAUSTA U ISTOČNOM BERLINU I BEOGRADU NAKON DRUGOG SVETSKOG RATA

Lipar ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (75) ◽  
pp. 163-186
Author(s):  
Milena Nešić Pavković ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
East Berlin ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Post War ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
Second World

The goal of this paper is to investigate the memory of the Holocaust, i.e. the reception and representation of the suffering of the Jewish population during the rule of the Third Reich (under Nazi rule and occupation) in the capitals of the states constituted after the Second World War - in East Berlin, GDR, and Belgrade, SFRY, during the period from 1945 to 1989/1991. Relying on the achievements of memory studies and analyzing the political moods of that time and the ways of constructing official narratives about Jewish suffering in selected post-war Communist countries, the similarities and differences in the policy of representing Jewish suffering in these two countries and the memory of Jewish victims in places of remembrance and in the practices of remembrance in their capitals will be pointed out.

2. The Yiddish self

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-30
Author(s):  
Ilan Stavans
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
World War ◽  
Yiddish Literature ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The World ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Second World

“The Yiddish self” analyzes the emergence and dissemination of Yiddish as the lingua franca of eastern European Jews from the thirteenth century to the Holocaust and beyond, focusing on the three founders of Yiddish literature: Mendele Mokher Sforim, Israel Joshua Singer, and Sholem Aleichem. Sholem Aleichem’s volume of interconnected stories Tevye the Dairyman is arguably the most important narrative ever to be produced in the Yiddish language. Yiddish writers have reflected on anti-Semitism and migration. Yiddish writing in the United States, Latin America, and other parts of the world and the Singer siblings (Israel Joshua, and Isaac Bashevis) in particular are examples of adaptation to different environments after the Second World War.

The Memory of Europe’s Age of Catastrophe, 1914–2014

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Mercer
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
National Narratives ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Cultural Struggle ◽  
Nazi Past ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

The enormous death toll of the twentieth-century world wars created a cultural struggle over their meaning. States, institutions, and individuals developed conflicting memories, which shifted with the political trends of the post-war eras. After the First World War nationalist narratives promoted by states did not automatically win unanimous adherence, but the apparently apolitical language of loss and mourning was most successful where the war was least controversial or where national narratives were unavailable. While memory of the Second World War and the Holocaust has often been discussed in terms of forgetting, there was no amnesia but rather a selective appropriation of the past. Myths of victimhood and resistance proved popular across Europe and persisted despite periodic engagements with the past. Germany’s acknowledgement of the Nazi past is the most thorough, while most Europeans states now more easily remember the Second World War than their colonial heritage.

‘From Nazi Inferno to Soviet Hell’: Polish-Jewish children and youth and their trajectories of survival during and after the Second World War

2021 ◽  
pp. 161189442110177
Author(s):  
Katharina Friedla
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Forced Migration ◽  
Child Victims ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Forced Migrations ◽  
Jewish Children ◽  
Post War ◽  
Personal Accounts ◽  
Second World

This article relates the experiences of Polish-Jewish children, born or raised in Germany, who survived the war in the Soviet hinterland, and validates that their traumatic wartime experiences had long-lasting consequences. Over the course of the years 1938 to 1945, as well as throughout the post-war decade, this group of children survived several fundamental, political transformations, which deeply affected and irrevocably changed their lives. These caesuras thrust them through a triad of transitions: as young deportees and refugees they ceased to be children; they were moved forcibly from one country to another; and the emotional pain and trauma they experienced during forced migrations. All of these children were refugees three or more times over: expelled from Germany to Poland, deported or sent to the interior of the Soviet Union, ‘repatriated’ from the USSR to Poland, they fled to Displaced Persons camps in Germany or Austria, and finally emigrated to Western countries. These extremely personal accounts of Polish-Jewish children experiences not only open a window into the past and help us to better understand the special plight of child victims and survivors, but they also allow us to reflect more deeply, thoughtfully, and comprehensively on the present-day issues of forced migration, displacement, and refugee crises.

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