Encountering the 'ghetto'

In the history of Western perceptions of Jews and the ‘Jewish problem’, the First World War marks a period of change which was, among other things, influenced by the course of the war on the Eastern Front. The German occupation of large parts of Russian Poland in 1915 brought the difficult conditions of Eastern European Jewry closer to public attention in the West, not only in Central Europe, but also in neutral states. For the Scandinavian writers who travelled to occupied Poland in 1916 and 1917, the direct encounter with East European Jewry was a new and often disturbing experience. Their travelogues represent an illuminating and, so far, unused source for Scandinavian perceptions of Jews in Eastern Europe, focusing on the ‘ghetto’ as the physical embodiment of Eastern Jewish life. Analysing these accounts, the present article discusses the different depictions of Warsaw’s Jews thematically and identifies three interwoven perspectives of the ‘ghetto’: as a site of extreme poverty; as a foreign (‘oriental’) element in Europe; and as an archetype of Jewish life in general.

Three Publications about Archaeology of a Segment of the First World War's Forgotten Eastern Front

While the horrors of the trench warfare on the Western Front in Belgium and France are part of the European cultural memory, to some degree the much more extensive and mobile Eastern Front of the 1914–1918 conflict has become the forgotten front (Die vergessene Front). Although for just over eleven months in 1914/15, the central part of a major front, some 1000 km long on which three million people died ran through the middle of what is now Poland, for a number of reasons the memory of this has there been all but erased from memory and from the cultural landscape. The reviewed three volumes are the result of a project that has attempted to address the poor state of historical memory of the momentous events and human drama that took place a century earlier on the segment of the front, 55 km west of Warsaw. Here, from mid-December 1914, the Russian Imperial army tried to hold back the eastward advance of the German troops on defences built along the Bzura and Rawka rivers. For the next seven months, the fighting here took the form of the same type of prolonged static trench warfare more familiar on the Western Front (the only place in the eastern sphere of war that this happened). The German army made every effort (including mining and several major gas attacks), to advance on Warsaw but failed to break through. It was only after the Great Retreat of the Russian army in the summer of 1915 that these defences were overrun and Warsaw fell.

“The Sacrificed Army” – the Hungarian 2nd Army Between Memory and History

The fate of the Hungarian 2nd Army has a significant role in the Hungarian memory. The army was sent to the Eastern Front in 1942 suffered one of the great defeats of the Hungarian military history during the Soviet counter-offensive in January 1943. During the past almost 80 years, different narratives have emerged about it were evolved in the Hungarian public. In the paper the author shall analyse the most significant elements of these narratives. Firstly, there will be examined the genesis and underlying causes of the decision to send the 2nd Army to the Eastern front. The author counter a popular post-war myth that the Hungarian leadership sent out the Hungarian soldiers and labour servicemen with the intention of sacrifice that it could limit Hungary's involvement in the German war effort. Although the Hungarian military leadership discriminated against various social groups (primarily of individuals of Jewish descent, non-Hungarian nationalities) in military service, they did not aim to destroy them. Similarly, the higher proportion of reserve officers and lower social classes (peasantry, workpeople) in the army was misinterpreted. In the second part of the paper the author will examine the interpretations of the defeat in January 1943. As a part of this topic there will be shown how the public opinion and survivors overstated the loss data and the temperature conditions of “the Russian winter.” In addition, the author scrutinize the fighting and withdrawal in January 1943 from the viewpoint of the military discipline. Finally, he analyse the interpretations of two orders. The army commander, Colonel General Jány wrote in his order on 24 January that “the 2nd Army has lost its honour.” Although later he withdrew this order, it became the symbol of the barbarity and betrayal of the Hungarian military elite against the Hungarian soldiers. It received a different opinion on the order of the commander of the III Corps of 1 February 1943, in which Major General Stomm disbanded his formation - which was unprecedented in Hungarian history

Diversity and distribution of cytochrome oxidase I (COI) haplotypes of the brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys Stål (Hemiptera, Pentatomidae), along the eastern front of its invasive range in Eurasia

The arrival, establishment and pest status of Halyomorpha halys in Europe and non-native countries in Asia have been well-documented, with thorough characterisation of the genetic diversity and occurrence of cytochrome oxidase I (COI) haplotypes in Switzerland, France, Hungary, Italy and Greece. However, a number of gaps exist in terms of the characterisation of the haplotype diversity and occurrence of H. halys along the invasion front that covers eastern Europe, western and central Asia. To contribute towards filling this gap, the COI haplotype diversity and distribution were investigated for H. halys collected in Serbia, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and Kazakhstan. A total of 646 specimens were analysed and five haplotypes were found (H1, H3, H8, H33 and H80). Haplotype H1 was present in all five countries investigated and was the only haplotype detected amongst > 500 specimens collected from Ukraine, Russia and Georgia. H1 (82%) was the dominant haplotype found in Kazakhstan, alongside H3 (18%). In contrast to the low or no diversity observed in these four countries, Serbia had higher haplotype diversity and was represented by five haplotypes. Although H3 was dominant (47%) in Serbia, H1 was also prevalent (40%); the remaining haplotypes (H8, H33 and H80) were minor contributors (1–11%) to the haplotype composition. The results are discussed in context with other known populations in neighbouring countries and patterns of haplotype diversity indicate the movement of successful invasive populations in Europe to generate secondary invasions along the eastern front of the invasion in Eurasia. Possible scenarios regarding the spread of particular haplotypes in these regions are discussed, along with suggestions for future research to fill existing gaps.

The forgotten Eastern Front: dealing with the social and archaeological legacies of the Battle of the Rawka and Bzura Rivers (1914–1915), central Poland

While the Western Front of the Great (or First World) War is deeply engrained in the European historical consciousness, memories of the Eastern Front are less prominent. Here, events have been repressed, obscured by the subsequent experience of the Second World War and by heritage policy in the region. The authors present the results of archaeological investigations of a battlefield in central Poland, where static trench warfare was fought between December 1914 and July 1915. A unique landscape palimpsest was formed, the present neglected state of which is a material expression of contemporary attitudes to the legacy of the forgotten Eastern Front. The study illustrates the wider intersection of warfare, identity and memory.

The History from the View of the Founder Fathers of the Republic of Turkey: The War of Independence

This study aims to reveal how the Turkish War of Independence was told in the history textbooks in elementary schools to the Republic of Turkey’s first generation. The research has been carried out using the historical research method, one of the qualitative research methods. The data of the study have been collected through the primary school history textbooks published between 1924-1928. The data have been obtained through document review. According to the research findings, the subjects of Istanbul’s occupation, the occupation of Izmir, the resistance against invasions, the Battles of Inonu, the Eastern Front, the Battle of Sakarya and the Battle of Dumlupınar are included in the textbooks. In contrast, the Battle of Kütahya-Eskişehir is not included. It is understood that since the textbooks were written right after the War of Independence, this directly affected the content and the language used. It is possible to see the enthusiasm, emotion, excitement, and perspective of the Turkish War of Independence in the textbooks. This situation shows that the process and the atmosphere in the country affect the history education. Moreover, it has been observed that the subjects were told in the form of stories, taking into account the students’ cognitive levels. It is remarkable how the Republic’s fathers told and conveyed the Turkish War of Independence to the Republic’s children about the events that took place just recently. In conclusion, this study demonstrates how the present-day Turkish history textbooks have evolved from those entirely subjective textbooks of the early Republic era.