Fresco Fiasco: Narratives of National Identity and the Bruno Schulz Murals of Drogobych

2003 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 622-653
Author(s):  
Denise V. Powers
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
National Identity ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Moral Rights ◽  
World War ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Bruno Schulz

In May 2001, Yad Vashem's removal of portions of a recently unearthed mural painted during World War II by creative artist Bruno Schulz was enormously controversial, not only because of the questionable circumstances in which they were taken, but also because several parties had a legitimate claim to them. This article examines the dispute over the Schulz murals, illustrating how competing narratives of national identity—Polish, Jewish, and Ukranian—have infused the debate with particular intensity. Claims to the murals have been advanced largely on the basis of moral rights, which are grounded—explicitly or implicitly—in each nation's experience of collective suffering and victimhood. While not an exhaustive discussion of all the national dimensions of the debate, it is a starting point for understanding how the interplay of national identities shapes political claims in general, and underpins specifically the debate over the Schulz murals.

Presbyterians and Ethics

2019 ◽  
pp. 525-537
Author(s):  
Mark Douglas
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Great Awakening ◽  
Reformed Theology ◽  
Second Great Awakening ◽  
World War ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
History Of Ethics ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of

The history of ethics in the Presbyterian Church has been shaped by the theological commitments of Reformed theology, the church’s ecumenical and interreligious encounters, its interactions with the wider cultures in which it functions, and its global scope. Consequently, Presbyterian ethics have become increasingly diverse, culturally diffused, ecumenically directed, and frequently divisive. That said, its history can helpfully be divided into three lengthy periods. In the first (roughly from the church’s origins in 1559 to the Second Great Awakening in the early nineteenth century), theology, ethics, and politics are so interwound that distinguishing one from the others is difficult. In the second (roughly from the Second Great Awakening to the end of World War II), moral concerns emerge as forces that drive the church’s theology and polity. And in the third (for which proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 might be a heuristically helpful starting point), ethics increasingly functions in ways that are only loosely tethered to either Reformed theology or polity. The strength of the church’s social witness, the consistency of its global engagements, and the failings of its internecine strife are all evident during its five-hundred-year history.

scholarly journals Symbolic Geographies and the Politics of Hungarian Identity in the ‘Populist-Urbanist Debate,’ 1925-44

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 177-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard S. Esbenshade
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Mental Maps ◽  
World War ◽  
Jewish Origin ◽  
Cultural Concepts ◽  
The Way

This article examines intellectuals’ debates about national identity in interwar and World War II Hungary to uncover their connection to underlying “symbolic geographies” and “mental maps.” Focusing on the way in which Hungarian identity and history have been informed by, and indeed inserted into, virtual spatial rubrics that rely on the historically developed cultural concepts of “Europe” and “Asia,” and “West” and “East,” the paper looks in particular at the “populist-urbanist debate” that raged between two groups of writers, both opposed to the ruling neo-feudal order. The populists were composed mostly of provincial-born intellectuals who saw the recognition and uplift of the peasant as the key to Hungary’s salvation. The urbanists were cosmopolitan intellectuals, mostly of assimilated Jewish origin, who saw the wholesale adoption of progressive Western rights and norms as the only way forward.

Maria Krzeczunowicz (1895-1945?). „Prawa ręka” gen. Tadeusza Bora-Komorowskiego – prolegomena

2021 ◽  
pp. 355-378
Author(s):  
Renata Król-Mazur
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World War ◽  
The South ◽  
Right Hand ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Right ◽  
Source Materials

MARIA KRZECZUNOWICZ (1895-1945?) – “THE RIGHT HAND” OF GENERAL TADEUSZ BÓR-KOMOROWSKI – PROLEGOMENA The aim of the work is to outline the figure of Maria Krzeczunowicz (aka “Dzidzia”, “Dzidzi”, “Wanda”, “Roma”, “Maria Rzewuska”, “Maria Piotrowska”), a landowner who during World War II rendered great services to the Home Army of the Kraków Area, as well as to the courier activity in the “South” section. The author focuses on presenting her underground work in the country (ZWZ-AK Kraków Area) and in the ZWZ-AK foreign military contact base in Budapest. The article outlines her activities as an emissary and courier. A hypothesis was put forward about the possible cooperation of M. Krzeczunowicz with British intelligence. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic situation at the time of writing this text and the related limitations in the availability of source materials, it was not possible to fully describe the figure of this wonderful woman. The author had to be limited to only providing a biographical outline – many issues were not touched at all or only signalled. Therefore, this work is a starting point for further, in-depth research on the biography of one of the most trusted associates of Gen. Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski and at the same time the most trusted courier of the Polish independence underground.

Rendezvous on the High Plateau

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Öhrström
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
World War ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
High Plateau ◽  
The North ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
National Flag ◽  
The Hill

The two men in white anoraks were slowly approaching, skiing in the bitter cold over the Hardangervidda mountain plateau in the winter of 1943. Were they friends or foes? This was a matter of life and death for the six young men watching the only other living beings in sight for miles of snow-clad wilderness. Their pace was slow, the men were thin and didn’t look too well, just as if they might well have spent 130 days of the winter of 1942–43 hidden in a rudimentary hut on the mountain, surviving on moss and poached reindeer. It had to be them. The group’s leader, Joachim Rønneberg, decided to make contact. This story is first a tragedy and then a success, and it does not begin on the Hardangervidda but in Scotland where Britain’s ski capital, the small town of Aviemore in the Cairngorms National Park, is going to be our starting point for several dangerous journeys across the North Sea. A few years ago we drove up the main mountain road, eventually leading to the Cairn Gorm peak itself, 4,084 feet (1,245 metres) above sea level, and passed the park’s visitors’ centre located in pretty surroundings by a small lake. We glimpsed something flapping in the wind that did look a bit like the Union Jack, an unlikely occurrence in the highlands. We turned around and took the path up the hill, and soon discovered that what we first mistook for the British ensign, because of its colours, was in fact the Norwegian national flag. In 1468, when the Norwegians gave away their last Scottish possessions to King James III in Edinburgh, the Norwegian flag had not even been invented, so we were a wee bit curious as to why it was flying here, in the heart of the Cairngorms. But of course, mountains, snow, and skiing—what could be more Norwegian? And this simplistic reasoning is actually closer to the answer than we might have thought, as a commemorative sign told us that on this spot were the lodgings of the famous Kompani Linge during World War II.

Understanding the Trajectory of Japanese Capitalism

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-161
Author(s):  
Heidi Gottfried ◽  
David Fasenfest
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
World War ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Postwar Reconstruction ◽  
Regional Dynamics ◽  
Japanese Capitalism ◽  
Historical Examination

How can we understand the trajectory of Japanese capitalism? This Afterword situates Japan on a broad canvas stretching across both the region and the globe. East Asia’s regional dynamics figure prominently, shaping the trajectory of Japanese capitalism not only in the formative Age of Empire and postwar reconstruction, but also in the emergent Asian Century. An historical examination of geo-politics highlights imperial entanglements and both the routes and the roots of capitalist development in Japan. This discussion begins by setting the stage of post-World War II Japan, elaborating on the reproductive bargain that characterizes Japan’s political economy, investigating the importance of national identity as it informs who can participate in Japan’s economy, revealing the underbelly of contemporary Japan, discussing forces for change, and revisiting the methodological approach used to understand Japanese capitalism.

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