Getto bardzo miejskie, czyli raz jeszcze o określeniach warszawskiej żydowskiej dzielnicy zamkniętej

The article examines the specific linguistic expressions used to name the phenomenon of the Warsaw ghetto established in November 1940 and existing until May 1943. The common denominator of the terms analyzed here is their semantic components that directly refer to the urban character of the ghetto. The range of meanings of the expressions presented here and their simultaneous urban connotations reflect how Jewish and non-Jewish residents of Warsaw who were directly affected by the city’s division conceptualized the phenomenon of the ghetto. The article supplements the already known diagnoses concerning the metaphors of the Warsaw ghetto and provides a commentary on a more general level about ways of naming the space of oppression.

The life and music of André Tchaikowsky: A series of performances, an analytical survey of his compositional style, and a critical/performance edition of the Sonata for Piano

<p>This thesis focuses on André Tchaikowsky (1935–82) – a Polish émigré musician who was mostly recognised as a brilliant pianist, even though he considered himself primarily a composer. His traumatic childhood spent in bombarded Warsaw during World War II, losing his mother along with almost his entire family due to the Holocaust, and being hidden in several places after escaping the Warsaw Ghetto, made a great impact on creating his eccentric and complex personality as well as his artistic outcome. Tchaikowsky’s legacy of seven published works, including compositions for piano, two string quartets, a piano trio, and an opera, as well as several unpublished works, is a small but very significant body of 20th-century music. This research explores the evolution of Tchaikowsky’s compositional style throughout his lifetime, based on selected works with piano, and investigates the elements of war stigma in his compositions. Significant contributions to the existing body of knowledge are the analysis of the selected works and a critical/performance edition of the unpublished Sonata for Piano, written in 1958 by the 33-year-old composer. Some answers can be provided to three main research questions through this analytical survey. The questions are: How did Tchaikowsky’s compositional style evolve over his life? Why does he remain largely unknown even in music circles? How did the Holocaust affect his life and work as a composer and pianist? This thesis consists of two parts, with the first presenting the result of research into the stylistic development of Tchaikowsky’s compositional language and a critical/performance edition of the Sonata for Piano, while the second is a performance component comprised of five recitals, which is the prevailing element of this degree. Each recital includes one of the analysed Tchaikowsky compositions, which are connected with other composers and their works in various ways, shaping five concerts of engaging and under-performed music.</p>

The life and music of André Tchaikowsky: A series of performances, an analytical survey of his compositional style, and a critical/performance edition of the Sonata for Piano

<p>This thesis focuses on André Tchaikowsky (1935–82) – a Polish émigré musician who was mostly recognised as a brilliant pianist, even though he considered himself primarily a composer. His traumatic childhood spent in bombarded Warsaw during World War II, losing his mother along with almost his entire family due to the Holocaust, and being hidden in several places after escaping the Warsaw Ghetto, made a great impact on creating his eccentric and complex personality as well as his artistic outcome. Tchaikowsky’s legacy of seven published works, including compositions for piano, two string quartets, a piano trio, and an opera, as well as several unpublished works, is a small but very significant body of 20th-century music. This research explores the evolution of Tchaikowsky’s compositional style throughout his lifetime, based on selected works with piano, and investigates the elements of war stigma in his compositions. Significant contributions to the existing body of knowledge are the analysis of the selected works and a critical/performance edition of the unpublished Sonata for Piano, written in 1958 by the 33-year-old composer. Some answers can be provided to three main research questions through this analytical survey. The questions are: How did Tchaikowsky’s compositional style evolve over his life? Why does he remain largely unknown even in music circles? How did the Holocaust affect his life and work as a composer and pianist? This thesis consists of two parts, with the first presenting the result of research into the stylistic development of Tchaikowsky’s compositional language and a critical/performance edition of the Sonata for Piano, while the second is a performance component comprised of five recitals, which is the prevailing element of this degree. Each recital includes one of the analysed Tchaikowsky compositions, which are connected with other composers and their works in various ways, shaping five concerts of engaging and under-performed music.</p>

How rebel groups form in genocide: The Warsaw Ghetto fighters

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is emblematic of armed Jewish resistance to the Holocaust; it should also be emblematic of rebel organization formation and capacity building in the most extreme power asymmetry. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising happened because civilians who were directly experiencing a genocide formed rebel organizations that gained the capacity to hold territory. Drawing from video testimonies and memoirs of survivors, diaries of witnesses, and the work of historians, this study analyzes the formation and evolution of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ŻOB) to create and begin to validate a generalizable theory on how rebel organizations form in genocide, and how they create the capacity to hold territory from the genocidal opponent. The ŻOB evolved from a violent resistance organization to a rebel organization with a military infrastructure that could hold territory against the Nazis; further, it was this capacity to hold territory that allowed the ŻOB to win the survival of many Jews. These findings offer important insights on the possibility of rebel group mobilization against genocidal persecution, and can be used to understand contemporary genocide resisters.

The Warsaw Ghetto Workshops: Perspectives of Space and Time in Emanuel Ringelblum and Reuven Ben Shem's Diaries

"In this paper, I analyze the notion of time and space in the small factories of the Warsaw Ghetto, commonly known as shops, through a close reading of the diaries written in the Ghetto by Emanuel Ringelblum and Reuven Feldschu Ben Shem. In the Warsaw Ghetto of July 22, 1942, there were but two options for Jews: being deported to Treblinka or ""postponing"" the death sentence by becoming a shop worker. As long as one worked in a shop, one's life ー and only one's life, not his family's ー was spared for a while. The authors of the diaries who will be presented, both worked in the shops, and in their writings, they exposed how space and time became significant oppressing factors. As I will show, every familiar perception was challenged in this space of an imposed slave-like existence. Keywords: Jews, 2nd World War, Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka. "

Bronisława Fejgin (1883–1943): Forgotten Important Contributor to International Microbiology and Phage Therapy

Bronisława Brandla Fejgin was a Polish-born Jewish female physician. Among Fejgin’s numerous articles in the field of microbiology, her later work was almost entirely devoted to phage research. Although not equally famous as the phage pioneers from Western Europe, F.W. Twort and F. d’Herelle, Fejgin’s contribution to phage research deserves proper recognition. Her studies on phages resulted in the publication of numerous original scientific reports. These articles, published mostly in French, constitute an important source of information and expertise on early attempts towards therapeutic use of phages in humans. The interwar period marks the most intense years in Bronisława Fejgin’s research activity, brutally interrupted by her death in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. Her microbiology contributions have not been analyzed so far. Thus, the aim of this article is to fill the existing gap in the history of microbiology and phage therapy.

“Were I not here to record it, there would be no trace”: Chava Rosenfarb's “In the Boxcar” and Patrick Modiano's Dora Bruder

Patrick Modiano’s Dora Bruder and Chava Rosenfarb’s “In the Boxcar” – an excerpt from the as-yet not fully translated novel Letters to Abrasha – rely on original and creative methods in their responses to events and memory associated with the Holocaust. In contrast with these works, this article also considers the approach taken in Michal Glowinski’s memoir The Black Seasons, as well as in Barbara Engelking and Jacek Leociak’s The Warsaw Ghetto: A Guide to the Perished City. These texts convey, in a new light, pre-war and wartime sites: Paris, Auschwitz, Lodz, Warsaw, and the ghettos installed by the Germans in the latter two cities. Dora Bruder de Patrick Modiano et «In the Boxcar» de Chava Rosenfarb - un extrait du roman Letters to Abrasha, qui n’a pas encore été entièrement traduit - s’appuient sur des méthodes originales et créatives dans leurs réponses aux événements et à la mémoire associés à l’Holocauste. En contraste avec ces oeuvres, cet article examine également l’approche adoptée dans les mémoires de Michal Glowinski, The Black Seasons, ainsi que dans The Warsaw Ghetto : A Guide to the Perished City de Barbara Engelking et Jacek Leociak. Ces textes présentent, sous un jour nouveau, des sites d’avant-guerre et de guerre: Paris, Auschwitz, Lodz, Varsovie, et les ghettos installés par les Allemands dans ces deux dernières villes.

Lice in War and Peace

This chapter considers human lice, which have been parasites of humans throughout all human history and transmit a deadly bacteria that has killed millions. Analyzing lice genetics tells of divergence of humans from other apes and when humans began to wear clothing. Human body lice live in clothing and infest people only to feed. Lice spread easily among people in crowded situations and transmit bacteria causing diseases, such as typhus. The chapter relates how lice-transmitted typhus caused jail fever in early England, resulting in the deaths of more prisoners than the death penalty. Lice and typhus worsened the Irish Great Famine, as the disease killed thousands of Irish emigrating to the United States on “coffin ships.” Epidemics of typhus were prevalent in wartime, killing troops in both World War I and World War II as well as civilians in Nazi concentration camps and the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II and immediately after. Post-war use of DDT averted typhus epidemics in Europe and Japan.