Jewish Citizens of an Imperial Nation-State

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-84
Author(s):  
Ethan B. Katz
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Jewish History ◽  
Algerian War ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Jewish Resistance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Resistance Movement ◽  
Jews In France

Abstract This article draws on the work of recent years on Jews and Algeria to map a French-Algerian frame as a new approach to French Jewish history. The article thinks through the implications of two key ideas from the “new colonial history” for the history of Jews in France and Algeria and posits that Jews in French Algeria can profitably be understood as colonial citizens. After focusing briefly on the French-Algerian War and decolonization, a period for which recent scholarship has developed robustly in suggestive ways, the article turns to a case study from a different era: World War II and the Holocaust. It addresses the history of the majority-Jewish resistance movement in Algiers that paved the way for the success of Operation Torch. Finally, the article considers how this French-Algerian framework might reshape our thinking about certain basic issues in the field of French Jewish history. Cet article s'appuie sur les travaux des dernières années sur les juifs et l'Algérie pour tracer un modèle franco-algérien comme nouvelle approche de l'histoire des juifs en France. L'article examine les implications de deux idées clés de la « nouvelle histoire coloniale » pour l'histoire des juifs en France et en Algérie, et pose comme principe que les juifs de l'Algérie française peuvent à juste titre être compris comme des « citoyens coloniaux ». Cet article commence par aborder brièvement une période que l'historiographie récente a développé de manière suggestive—la guerre franco-algérienne et la décolonisation—avant de passer à l'étude d'une autre époque, la Deuxième Guerre mondiale et l'Holocauste. L'article analyse l'histoire du mouvement de résistance à majorité juive qui a ouvert la voie au succès de l'opération Torch. Enfin, l'article discute de la manière dont ce cadre franco-algérien pourrait modifier notre réflexion sur certaines questions fondamentales pour l'histoire des juifs en France.

Remediation and hypermediacy: Ezekiel’s World as a case in point

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-229
Author(s):  
Ayelet Kohn ◽  
Rachel Weissbrod
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Original Work ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Holocaust Survivors ◽  
World War ◽  
Graphic Narrative ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Graphic Narratives ◽  
Jewish Resistance ◽  
Resistance Movement

This article deals with Kovner’s graphic narrative Ezekiel’s World (2015) as a case of remediation and hypermediacy. The term ‘remediation’ refers to adaptations which involve the transformation of the original work into another medium. While some adaptations strive to eliminate the marks of the previous medium, others highlight the interplay between different media, resulting in ‘hypermediacy’. The latter approach characterizes Ezekiel’s World due to its unique blend of artistic materials adapted from different media. The author, Michael Kovner, uses his paintings to depict the story of Ezekiel – an imaginary figure based on his father, the poet Abba Kovner who was one of the leaders of the Jewish resistance movement during World War II. While employing the conventions of comics and graphic narratives, the author also makes use of readymade objects such as maps and photos, simulates the works of famous artists and quotes Abba Kovner’s poems. These are indirect ways of confronting the traumas of Holocaust survivors and ‘the second generation’. Dealing with the Holocaust in comics and graphic narratives (as in Spiegelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, 1986) is no longer an innovation, nor is their use as a means to deal with trauma; what makes this graphic narrative unique is the encounter between the works of the poet and the painter, which combine to create an exceptionally complex work integrating poetry, art and graphic narration.

Ordinary Jews

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evgeny Finkel
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Survival Strategies ◽  
State Repression ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Jewish Resistance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Patterns Of Behavior

Focusing on the choices and actions of Jews during the Holocaust, this book examines the different patterns of behavior of civilians targeted by mass violence. Relying on rich archival material and hundreds of survivors' testimonies, the author presents a new framework for understanding the survival strategies in which Jews engaged: cooperation and collaboration, coping and compliance, evasion, and resistance. The book compares Jews' behavior in three Jewish ghettos—Minsk, Kraków, and Białystok—and shows that Jews' responses to Nazi genocide varied based on their experiences with prewar policies that either promoted or discouraged their integration into non-Jewish society. The book demonstrates that while possible survival strategies were the same for everyone, individuals' choices varied across and within communities. In more cohesive and robust Jewish communities, coping—confronting the danger and trying to survive without leaving—was more organized and successful, while collaboration with the Nazis and attempts to escape the ghetto were minimal. In more heterogeneous Jewish communities, collaboration with the Nazis was more pervasive, while coping was disorganized. In localities with a history of peaceful interethnic relations, evasion was more widespread than in places where interethnic relations were hostile. State repression before World War II, to which local communities were subject, determined the viability of anti-Nazi Jewish resistance. Exploring the critical influences shaping the decisions made by Jews in Nazi-occupied eastern Europe, the book sheds new light on the dynamics of collective violence and genocide.

Resistance

Ordinary Jews ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evgeny Finkel
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Survival Strategy ◽  
World War ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Standing Up ◽  
Jewish Resistance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nazi Persecution ◽  
Resistance Organizations

This chapter examines resistance as a Jewish survival strategy during the Holocaust. Jewish resistance has historically been of interest to Holocaust scholars, mainly due to the desire to counter accusations that Jews were passive, complacent, and went “like lambs to the slaughter.” Holocaust historians, especially those based in Israel, have explored the Jews' resistance to Nazi persecution. They argue that armed resistance was infrequent, but equating resistance with violence is unnecessarily restrictive, and that the Jews had almost unanimously engaged in amidah (“standing up against” in Hebrew), or unarmed resistance. The chapter looks at Jewish resistance organizations in the ghettos of Minsk, Kraków, and Białystok and suggests that people with a history of pre–World War II political activism were significantly overrepresented in the resistance. It explains why some resistance groups failed early on, while others managed to put up a sustained fight.

scholarly journals An Empire For Our Times? A Discussion of Peter Wilson's The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe's History

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-572 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
James Madison ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of

In the two centuries since its dissolution in 1806, the Holy Roman Empire has usually been viewed as an antiquated relic of the medieval past, a dysfunctional polity that hindered Germany's development into a modern, liberal nation-state. In the wake of its demise, a chorus of famous intellectuals and statesmen—including Voltaire, James Madison, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Leopold von Ranke, and Heinrich von Treitschke—derided the Empire as a “monstrosity” hampered by outmoded institutions and backward policies. More recently, in the wake of World War II and the Holocaust, advocates of the so-called Sonderweg thesis blamed the Empire for Germany's belated unification and for the Germans’ supposedly “authoritarian” bent. In Heart of Europe [the American title of the study—Ed.], a bold and sweeping account of the Holy Roman Empire's thousand-year history, Peter Wilson sets out to supplant these anachronistic interpretations by explaining “what it was, how it worked, why it mattered, and its legacy for today” (5). With this important book, the best single-volume history of the Holy Roman Empire currently available, Wilson succeeds in answering these fundamental questions and provides fascinating insights into European politics from the early Middle Ages to the present. I would like to focus first on what I see as Wilson's most significant contributions to the existing scholarship on the Empire, and then examine how he treats the Protestant Reformation as a case study of the merits (and drawbacks) of his approach.

Erica Lehrer and Michael Meng (eds.), Jewish Space in Contemporary Poland. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015. 312 pp.

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Jewish History ◽  
World War ◽  
Indiana University ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Museum Exhibits ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of ◽  
Polish Jews ◽  
Heritage Industry

This chapter reviews the book Jewish Space in Contemporary Poland (2015), edited by Erica Lehrer and Michael Meng. Jewish Space in Contemporary Poland is a collection of essays that navigates between changing interpretations and reshapings of material sites by contemporary actors; representations of the past in Polish media (films, museum exhibits, video projects); and the poetic resonances of nostalgia and mourning. With the Holocaust as a backdrop, the book examines contemporary power politics in Poland with regard to Jewish space. Topics include Oswiecim/Auschwitz as a source of contention and conflict between both Jews and Christians and the tourism/heritage industry and local inhabitants; the politics of preservation in Polish shtetls; conflicting forms of memory (Communist, Polish nationalist, Catholic, Jewish) surrounding Holocaust/World War II memorials in Galicia; and the negotiation of conflicting understandings of Polish Jewish history in the Warsaw showcase space of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

The Afterlife of Empire in Beckett’s How It Is

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-105
Author(s):  
Anthony Cordingley
Keyword(s):  
Algerian War ◽  
Literary Representation ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Moment

Abstract Relationships of political domination in Beckett’s Comment c’ est (1961)/How It Is (1964) are typically read through a specific historical moment (the Holocaust, the Algerian War) or literary representation (Dante, Sade). This article reveals spectres in the text from the long history of the colonisation of Ireland to the legacy of Renaissance and Enlightenment humanism; it explores Beckett’s sense of complicity in the Anglo-Irish Ascendency.

scholarly journals Employment Problems of Muslim Migrants in France (Exemplified by Paris). Part 1

2021 ◽  
pp. 5-13
Author(s):  
Natal’ya R. Zholudeva ◽  
◽  
Sergey A. Vasyutin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Algerian War ◽  
World War ◽  
French Society ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
History Of ◽  
French Colonies ◽  
Migration Crisis ◽  
Second World

The first part of the article briefly covers the history of immigration to France, social conflicts associated with migrants, and the results of French research on discrimination of immigrants in employment. In spite of the high unemployment rate, compared with other European Union countries, France remains one of the centres of migration and receives a significant number of migrants and refugees every year. The origins of immigration to France go back to the mid-19th century. Initially, it was mainly for political reasons, in order to find a job or receive an education. Between the First and the Second World Wars, France accepted both political (e.g. from Russia, Germany and Spain) and labour migrants (from Africa and Indo-China). After World War II, the French government actively invited labour migrants from the French colonies, primarily, from North Africa (Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco). When the Algerian War ended, the Harkis – Algerians who served in the French Army – found refuge in France. By the late 1960s, the Moroccan and Tunisian communities were formed. Up to the 1980s, labour migration was predominant. However, with time, the share of refugees and those who wanted to move to France with their families started to increase. This caused a growing social and political tension in French society resulting in conflicts (e.g. the 2005 riots in Paris). Moreover, the numerous terrorist attacks and the migration crisis of 2014–2016 had a particularly negative impact on the attitude towards migrants. All these issues have to a certain extent affected the employment of the Muslim population in France.

scholarly journals Colonial Values and Asylum Care in Brazil: Reclaiming the Streets Through Carnival in Rio de Janeiro

2020 ◽  
pp. 155-161
Author(s):  
Julia Evangelista ◽  
William A. Fulford
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Colonial History ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mental Well Being ◽  
The City

AbstractThis chapter shows how carnival has been used to counter the impact of Brazil’s colonial history on its asylums and perceptions of madness. Colonisation of Brazil by Portugal in the nineteenth century led to a process of Europeanisation that was associated with dismissal of non-European customs and values as “mad” and sequestration of the poor from the streets into asylums. Bringing together the work of the two authors, the chapter describes through a case study how a carnival project, Loucura Suburbana (Suburban Madness), in which patients in both long- and short-term asylum care play leading roles, has enabled them to “reclaim the streets,” and re-establish their right to the city as valid producers of culture on their own terms. In the process, entrenched stigmas associated with having a history of mental illness in a local community are challenged, and sense of identity and self-confidence can be rebuilt, thus contributing to long-term improvements in mental well-being. Further illustrative materials are available including photographs and video clips.

The Work of Testimony in the Age of Decolonization: Chronicle of a Summer, Cinema Verité, and the Emergence of the Holocaust Survivor

PMLA ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 119 (5) ◽  
pp. 1231-1246
Author(s):  
Michael Rothberg
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Discrete Event ◽  
Holocaust Survivor ◽  
Algerian War ◽  
The Public ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
First Time

The trial of Adolf Eichmann, in 1961, is generally considered a turning point in the history of Holocaust memory because it brought the Holocaust into the public sphere for the first time as a discrete event on an international scale. In the same year, Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin's film Chronicle of a Summer appeared in France. While absent from scholarship on memory of the Nazi genocide for over forty years, Chronicle of a Summer contains a scene of Holocaust testimony that suggests the need to look beyond the Eichmann trial for alternative articulations of public Holocaust remembrance. This essay considers the juxtaposition in Chronicle of a Summer of Holocaust memory and the history of decolonization in order to rethink the “unique” place that the Holocaust has come to hold in discourses on extreme violence. The essay argues that a discourse of truth and testimony arose in French resistance to the Algerian war that shaped and was shaped by memory of the Nazi genocide.

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