scholarly journals Holokaust jako ludobójstwo wyjątkowe

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-79
Author(s):  
Jacek Surzyn
Keyword(s):  
Mass Production ◽  
Human History ◽  
World War Two ◽  
World War ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Moral Problems ◽  
Moral Dimensions ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time

The article is dedicated to an analysis of the Holocaust uniqueness against the backdrop of other genocides. Most of all, the text follows the clues from Berel Lang, who interpretsthe Nazi Crime as a perfect genocide, that is, such a genocide that implemented its ideological assumptions fully for the first time in human history. What transpired then was in fact a comprehensive synthesis of “idea” and “actions.” Therefore, the relation between the Holocaust and other genocides turns out to be one-sided: the Holocaust is a genocide but no other genocide is the Holocaust. The category of genocide was, first of all, introduced into international circulation by a Polish lawyer of Jewish origin Rafał Lemkin during the final decade before the outbreak of World War Two. Genocide has become an almost universally acknowledged term, reinforced by the UN declaration of 1947. Mass crimes occurred in human history since the time immemorial. However, their character fundamentally changed with the advent of modernity, when powerful nation states within the framework of ideological postulates managed to give a new dimension to their politics, the one including actions meted out against entire communities: ethnic groups or nations. The Nazi crime of the Holocaust seems to be a unique exemplification of “modernity” (the term introduced in this sense by Zygmunt Bauman), that is, the combination of technicalisation and mass production with strong bureaucratic structure, which resulted in an unimaginable deed of murdering millions of Jews while utilising technical methods. The killing took a form of “production tasks,” which made the moral problems of responsibility and guilt appear in a different light. In the article an attempt is made to show implications stemming from the acceptance of the Holocaust’s uniqueness as “a perfect genocide,” both in its political and social as well as philosophical and moral dimensions.

scholarly journals His Majesty Emperor Hirihito of Japan, K. G., 29 April 1901 - 7 January 1989

1990 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 241-272
Keyword(s):  
Science Museum ◽  
World War ◽  
Living Things ◽  
Spare Time ◽  
Imperial Court ◽  
Implicit Trust ◽  
Post War ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time ◽  
National Science Museum

The biographer, reflecting on the long and manifold life of the Showa Emperor, cannot but be struck by many contrasts. None, perhaps, is greater than that which distinguished the Scholar Emperor and Imperial Biologist, about whom this memoir is written, from His Imperial Majesty the Emperor and Statesman. Many short articles have appeared in illustration of his biological prowess (Egami 1989; Guillain 1989; Hamburger 1962; Kitamura 1988; Komai 1972; Reischauer 1975; Steam 1989; Taku 1972), and there is the early book by Hino (1931). The substantial biographies of the western press, however, treat it as if it had been a pastime (Haas 1975; Mosley 1966; Packard 1987; Sayle 1988; Takeda 1988). It was far more. No amateur could have encompassed and mastered the vast field of nature that he did and have risen to international authority. His enjoyment of biology not only provided comfort and relaxation, as others have remarked, but reflected his confidence in natural science as a means, so dear to his heart, of uniting all mankind. With much greater resources than others, he assembled a biological court of advisers in whom he had implicit trust, and became the first emperor to have devoted his spare time to science. Said to have entered this world alarmingly slight as an infant, he developed the physique and resolution to reign for 62 years, longer than any monarch in history, and he passed away still dwelling on that research. He wore two faces. There was the placid, impassionate, and, even, obedient leader in public regard, and there was the eager intent of the original investigator whether in the field or the laboratory, bent on discovery and understanding. A boy, raised strictly in the aura of the one divinely to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne, found not respite so much as inspiration in studying the humblest orders of life. Surrounded with beauty and detesting conflict, he was led into the second and most frightful world war, to rescue his country, for the first time in its history, from shattering and abject defeat, by that very humility which his science had nurtured. A dual image has already been ascribed. Takeda compares an arrogant monarchy with the democratization of post-war and modem Japan. Others have contrasted the impassionate emperor with the endearing father who loved his children; and in both regards there is a profound chapter in one of the books of Elizabeth Vining (1970). Neither aspect, however, reveals the true personality which was manifested in that love of nature, respect for all living things, and confidence in the brotherhood of science. So far from being a side-issue, it is a cardinal consideration; it was the force that kept him going through troubled times. In the words of Professor Woodroofe, when we were conversing in Tokyo, Hirohito was a born naturalist who had to be the emperor. In the course of this memoir about one who was both botanist and zoologist, I have kept two questions in mind. What led the young Prince to biology and what was the scientific outcome? Perhaps, the nearest answers have already appeared in the charming reminiscences of Kanroji (1975), written at the age of 96 years after he had served the Imperial Court for 70 years. With Japanese text and splendid illustration, there are the book of the National Science Museum, Tokyo (Anonymous 1988) and those of the Asahi Publishing Company (Anonymous 1989 a ; Senzo 1989).

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Alex Dowdall
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
World War ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
Twentieth Century Europe ◽  
First World

The introduction sets out the main lines of argument of the book, and introduces the four case studies—Nancy, Reims, Arras, and the coal-mining region of the Pas-de-Calais. It provides relevant historical context and situates the work within the existing historiography. It pays particular attention to the new cultural history of the First World War, and the literature surrounding the relationships between local communities and nation states in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe. It introduces the main civilian experiences of war discussed in the book—artillery bombardment, military occupation, and forced displacement. It concludes by outlining the main aims of the book, which are to explore how, on the one hand, war placed these civilian populations at the forefront of a broad process of militarization and how, on the other, it shaped their attitudes towards their bombarded home towns and the wider national community.

British defence policy: the breakdown of inter-party consensus

1987 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Labour Party ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Major Party ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Defence Policy ◽  
The One ◽  
First Time ◽  
Second World

In 1983, for almost the first time since the end of the Second World War, defence became a major party political issue at a general election. In that year it was one of the major campaign issues between the political parties and, according to one poll, ranked second only to unemployment as an issue influencing voter behaviour. Indeed, poll evidence indicated that the Conservatives held an unprecedented and overwhelming 54 per cent lead over Labour on the question of British retention of nuclear arms. Furthermore, of those who thought of defecting from the Labour Party, 42 per cent gave defence as the main reason. Such figures as these suggest strongly that by 1983 the inter-party consensus which had governed defence issues since 1945 had broken down, particularly in view of the fact that the question of defence had not been raised as an issue affecting voting intentions in the 1979 election. The breakdown of consensus may thus be judged by the emergence of defence as a party political issue. It might even be said that in 1983 it was an electiondeciding issue, especially when one set of policies could be represented by opponents as being contrary to the continuation of British membership of NATO, the one issue on which all parties were agreed. Defence thus moved from being a peripheral issue to one at the centre stage of the election campaign and it had a major impact on the outcome of the election. However, the.demise of inter-party consensus was not reflected in the electorate as a whole, which chose to continue to support the tried, and trusted policies of the past rather than adopt the radical alternative presented by the Labour Party, If a new consensus is to emerge—and it is beyond the limits of this particular paper to consider whether a consensus in defence policy is desirable—then all parties will have to review their present policies. However, before turning to the reasons for the breakdown, it is instructive to consider the nature of the post-1945 consensus and the origins of its apparent demise.

Genocide: Clarifying Concepts and Causes of Cruelty

2010 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 513-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernesto Verdeja
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
World War Two ◽  
World War ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Holocaust

In the decades after World War Two, most scholars working on genocide focused on particular cases, providing historically detailed descriptions of the causes and patterns of mass violence but rarely branching out beyond a specific case. The study of the Holocaust is typical of this; the vast majority of works on the Nazi genocide had little comparative dimension and instead examined the ways in which anti-Semitism and certain policies condemned disfavored minorities to persecution and extermination. These earlier works are particularly important because they gave us rich understandings of the origins, sequencing, and dynamics of mass violence, as well as the roles of dehumanizing cultural views and ideologies that facilitated extermination. Nevertheless, multi-case studies were the exception, and generally received little attention in the social sciences.

scholarly journals World War Two in the Cinema of the Late 1950s

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 20-30
Author(s):  
Lydia Alexeyevna Zaitseva
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
World War Two ◽  
World War ◽  
Ordinary Person ◽  
The One

The article explores the theme of the war in the cinema of the late 1950s as exemplified by the landmark films of the period: «Soldiers» (dir. A. Ivanov) and «The Cranes Are Flying» (dir. M. Kalatozov) with the protagonist as an ordinary person poorly suited for warfare on the one pole of the conflict, and the tragic character of the alien situations on the other.

scholarly journals O dziecięcej tożsamości (tragicznie) zerwanej – gdy przemoc symboliczna może życie ocalić

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 20-29
Author(s):  
Maria Szczepska-Pustkowska ◽  
Małgorzata Lewartowska-Zychowicz ◽  
Longina Strumska-Cylwik
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Symbolic Violence ◽  
World War ◽  
Human Identity ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The One

The presented text aims, on the one hand, to recall people’s lives that should not be forgotten, and on the other hand, it is an attempt to mark in their context the borderline of the validity of contemporary pedagogical reflection on symbolic violence. The former concerns the analysis of Polish Jews’ childhood experiences from the World War II period, connected with the breaking of the primary national and religious identity and re-integration into a new Polish identity. The latter aim is related to the embedding of the indicated problem on the background of contemporary pedagogical reflection, and in particular critical pedagogy, for which one of the key categories has become symbolic violence, aimed at changing the human identity. The goal is to analyze the children’s testimonies of the Holocaust, in which the theoretical concept of the enslaved childhood of Wiesław Theiss was used. It allowed to capture the field of enslavement of Jewish children in its various dimensions.

scholarly journals The power of memory and the heritage of the World War Two in When You Return by Anna Mitgutsch

2021 ◽  
Vol 145 ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
Aneta Jurzysta
Keyword(s):  
Family History ◽  
Sudden Death ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Jewish American ◽  
World War Two ◽  
World War ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

The article is devoted to the image of World War Two in When You Return (Wenn du wiederkommst) (2010) by Anna Mitgutsch, a moving story of love, trust and betrayal, devoted to the protagonist’s response to the sudden death of her Jewish-American ex-husband Jerome. The article discusses the attitude to Jewish roots and the problem of remembering past events, especially memories of World War Two. In her novel the author combines family history with the history of the country, refers to the issue of cultural and collective memory, and especially to the specific Austrian memory of the events of the Holocaust and the long-standing tendency to diminish the guilt and to negate the participation of Austrians in war crimes.

scholarly journals Disordine internazionale e identità nazionale. Storia e favola = International disorder and national identity. History and fable

2019 ◽  
pp. 119
Author(s):  
Massimo La Torre
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Monetary System ◽  
World War Two ◽  
World War ◽  
Bretton Woods ◽  
Monetary System ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Made In

ABSTRACT: After World War Two a gigantic effort was made in order to build a viable and stable international order, beginning with the Bretton Woods agreement that was aimed to stabilize the international monetary system, and with the United Nations, that were intended to restore legality in interstate affairs and somehow initiate a cosmopolitan conversation among Nation States. This order is now slowly crumbling down, paradoxically through globalization, and a triumphant neoliberalism. A new, but indeed quite old narrative, rather a myth, of what a national identity means is again getting the upper hand.KEYWORDS: international relations, international law, European Union, globalization, national identity

scholarly journals Water and Warfare: The Evolution and Operation of the Water Taboo

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 84-125
Author(s):  
Charlotte Grech-Madin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
International Conflict ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Process Tracing ◽  
Human History ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
Nation States ◽  
The Future ◽  
Research And Policy

Abstract For much of human history, water was a standard weapon of war. In the post–World War II period, however, nation-states in international conflict have made concerted efforts to restrain the weaponization of water. Distinct from realist and rationalist explanations, the historical record reveals that water has come to be governed by a set of intersubjective standards of behavior that denounce water's involvement in conflict as morally taboo. How did this water taboo develop, and how does it matter for nation-states? Focused process-tracing illuminates the taboo's development from the 1950s to the 2010s, and indicates that (1) a moral aversion to using water as a weapon exists; (2) this aversion developed through cumulative mechanisms of taboo evolution over the past seventy years; and (3) the taboo influences states at both an instrumental level of compliance, and, in recent decades, a more internalized level. These findings offer new avenues for research and policy to better understand and uphold this taboo into the future.

“No One is Ever Ready for Something Like This.” – On the Dialectic of the Holocaust in First-Person Shooters as Exemplified by Wolfenstein: The New Order

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugen Pfister ◽  
Felix Zimmermann
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Serious Games ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
New Order ◽  
First Person ◽  
World War ◽  
Nazi Regime ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The One ◽  
First Person Shooter

Abstract For almost three decades, the depiction of the Holocaust was considered taboo in digital games. While World War II became a popular historicizing setting for digital games, the crimes of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust in particular remained conspicuously absent. In this article we show that discussions about the fundamental suitability of specific media or media forms for dealing responsibly with the memory of the Nazi regime’s crimes have already taken place several times and that similar arguments can now be applied to the digital game. With this in mind, we pursue the question of whether only so-called serious games are suitable for this purpose, or whether, on the contrary, mainstream blockbuster games – here specifically the first-person shooter Wolfenstein: The New Order – can find ways to maintain the memory of the Holocaust without trivializing it. We approach this question by analyzing chapter 8 of Wolfenstein: The New Order, in which protagonist William “B.J.” Blazkowicz allows himself to be deported to a Nazi concentration camp. We discuss this camp scene dialectically, on the one hand, as an encouragement to rethink the first-person shooter and, on the other hand, as a reproduction of a superficial iconography of the Holocaust.

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