scholarly journals Special Section: Conceptualizations of the Holocaust in Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine: Historical Research, Public Debates, and Methodological Disputes. Foreword

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-128
Author(s):  
Antony Polonsky
Keyword(s):  
Special Section ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Mass Murder ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
The Past ◽  
System A ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Many ◽  
Second World

This article is part of the special cluster titled Conceptualizations of the Holocaust in Germany, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine since the 1990s, guest edited by Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe. This special section examines how debates on local participation in the mass murder of the Jews during the Second World War have evolved in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. The comparative approach adopted in this collection has highlighted the common problems in these four countries in coming to terms with the “dark past”—those aspects of the national past that provoke shame, guilt, and regret. Like the contributors to this collection I believe it is debate among historians that offers the best chance to move forward and that the intervention of politicians has had a clearly deleterious effect. This debate needs to be conducted in an open and collegial manner although we may differ strongly in our conclusions. We should always remember that the past cannot be altered. We can only accept the tragic and shocking events that have occurred and try to learn from them. This is a process that could begin in northeastern Europe only after the collapse of the communist system—a coming to terms with the many neglected and taboo aspects of the past in all four countries. The first stage of approaching such issues has usually been from a moral point of view—a settlement of long-overdue accounts, often accompanied by apologies for past behaviour. It seemed that we were reaching a second stage, where apologetics would increasingly be replaced by careful and detailed research based on archives and reliable first-hand testimony.

“Product Not Available in Pre-War Quantities – but Quality Remains the Same”: Remarks on Advertisements as Historical Sources

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
World War ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
The Past ◽  
German Press ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

The article focuses on advertisements as visual and historical sources. The material comes from the German press that appeared immediately after the end of the Second World War. During this time, all kinds of products were scarce. In comparison to this, colorful advertisements of luxury products are more than noteworthy. What do these images tell us about the early post-war years in Germany? The author argues that advertisements are a medium that shapes social norms. Rather than reflecting the historical realities, advertisements construct them. From an aesthetical and cultural point of view, advertisements gave thus a sense of continuity between the pre- and post-war years. The author suggests, therefore, that the advertisements should not be treated as a source for economic history. They are, however, important for studying social developments that occurred in the past.

scholarly journals Machseh Lajesoumim

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaap Focke
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Young Woman ◽  
Second World War ◽  
City Centre ◽  
World War ◽  
Front Cover ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Many ◽  
Second World ◽  
Wednesday Evening

The Jewish Orphanage in Leiden was the last one of 8 such care homes to open its doors in The Netherlands before the Second World War. After spending almost 39 years in an old and utterly inadequate building in Leiden’s city centre, the inauguration in 1929 of a brand-new building, shown on the front cover, was the start of a remarkably productive and prosperous period. The building still stands there, proudly but sadly, to this day: the relatively happy period lasted less than 14 years. On Wednesday evening, 17th March 1943, the Leiden Police, under German instructions, closed down the Orphanage and delivered 50 children and 9 staff to the Leiden railway station, from where they were brought to Transit Camp Westerbork in the Northeast of the country. Two boys were released from Westerbork thanks to tireless efforts of a neighbour in Leiden; one young woman survived Auschwitz, and one young girl escaped to Palestine via Bergen-Belsen. The 55 others were deported to Sobibor, not one of them survived. Some 168 children lived in the new building at one time or another between August 1929 and March 1943. This book reconstructs life in the orphanage based on the many stories and photographs which they left us. It is dedicated to the memory of those who perished in the holocaust, but also to those who survived. Without them this book could not have been written.

scholarly journals Future In The Past: The Problem Of Values In Transatlantic Relations

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 9-29
Author(s):  
Ana-Maria Stoian
Keyword(s):  
Transatlantic Relations ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Comparative Approach ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Common ◽  
Second World ◽  
The Eu

This paper discusses the importance of norms and values in the transatlantic relations. Beginning with the values that shaped the transatlantic partnership at the end of the Second World War, the analysis questions the redefinition of transatlantic values at the beginning of the 21st century, emphasizing patterns of convergence and divergence. Using a comparative approach, the article presents values, norms and principles explaining the domestic and international behaviour of the US and the EU. The main argument of the paper is that there are not two different sets of values, a European and an American one, but a single transatlantic set of values (a Western one), with some distinct elements and approaches. There is not a great departure from the common matrix of values so that to endanger the US-European relationship indefinitely.

scholarly journals Discourse of the postgeneration: Remembrance and identity of the descendants of the perpetrators and the victims of the holocaust

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 78-90
Author(s):  
Julija Matejic
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Temporal Distance ◽  
World War ◽  
Professional Literature ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Family ◽  
Perpetrators And Victims ◽  
Second World

By analyzing the role of the family in the process of inter/transgenerational inheritance of trauma and memory (remembrance), the paper is an attempt at providing an answer to how the un-experienced past affects the lives of the descendants of the direct perpetrators and victims of the Holocaust, or rather, how it affects the identity forming of the so-called postgeneration. As the temporal distance from the Second World War increases, and as the number of those with immediate experiences and memories decreases, the expressions like memory and remembrance begin to lose their conventional meaning. As the research shows, even with the lack of first-hand experience, the descendents of those who survived mass traumatic events are subjectively deeply attached to the memory of the previous generation (so much so that they label that attachment as remembrance, and they feel their parents? traumas as their own). Given the fact that it is not possible to physically transfer the trauma and memory to descendants, the paper analyzes and compares the terminology that the professional literature has adopted so far, i.e. secondary traumatization (in case of a child), tertian traumatization (in case of a grandchild), as well as echoes of the trauma and postmemory. The main thesis of this paper is that echoes of the memory and echoes of the trauma cause the so-called identity crisis of the Holocaust postgeneration, that is, only facing the past leads to postgeneration?s coming to terms with it.

What if a girl in the Holocaust had Instagram? Éva’s Story as a case of indirect translation

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayelet Kohn ◽  
Rachel Weissbrod
Keyword(s):  
General Framework ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Unique Case ◽  
Written Text ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Second World

This article deals with the adaptation of a written text – the diary of 13-year-old Éva Heyman who died in the Holocaust – into a series of Instagram stories, joined to create a 50-minute film. We employ translation studies and the concept of ‘indirect translation’ to investigate this unique case in which a genre characterized by its ephemerality is used to commemorate and perpetuate the past. The project, which caused a furore because Instagram was considered inappropriate for dealing with such a grave subject, was motivated by the desire to transmit the diary to contemporary audiences and retain its relevance for them. We have found that the diary served as a general framework, but its contents and the character of Éva that emerges from it were overshadowed by two factors: turning Éva into a contemporary youngster, so as to attract today’s youth; and relying on Hollywood traditions of filming the Second World War and the Holocaust.

The Memory of Europe’s Age of Catastrophe, 1914–2014

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Mercer
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
National Narratives ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Cultural Struggle ◽  
Nazi Past ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

The enormous death toll of the twentieth-century world wars created a cultural struggle over their meaning. States, institutions, and individuals developed conflicting memories, which shifted with the political trends of the post-war eras. After the First World War nationalist narratives promoted by states did not automatically win unanimous adherence, but the apparently apolitical language of loss and mourning was most successful where the war was least controversial or where national narratives were unavailable. While memory of the Second World War and the Holocaust has often been discussed in terms of forgetting, there was no amnesia but rather a selective appropriation of the past. Myths of victimhood and resistance proved popular across Europe and persisted despite periodic engagements with the past. Germany’s acknowledgement of the Nazi past is the most thorough, while most Europeans states now more easily remember the Second World War than their colonial heritage.

scholarly journals Returning to the Past: The Germans as a Historical Trauma in Contemporary Czech Prose

Porównania ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-76
Author(s):  
Alena Šidáková Fialová
Keyword(s):  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Novel ◽  
World War ◽  
The Past ◽  
Family Saga ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Second World

This study describes reflections of wartime and postwar historical trauma in contemporary Czech prose, taking into account the issues surrounding Central Europe, which entirely overlap with the traditional confrontation between the Czechs and Germans. It also includes the changing reflections on Germany and the Germans, the Second World War and the subsequent expulsion found in the prose work of the new millennium, the unifying topic being deemed to be the issue of the ambiguous national identification of the protagonists, the detabooization of previously hushed-up subjects and the subject of the Holocaust, particularly in the family saga genre. It also takes into account groups of texts focusing on reflections of anti-German resistance activities, both in the genre of the novel (with detective elements) and in output on the boundaries between fiction and factographic prose.

scholarly journals Kustode – et essay om skønhed og udyr i Europas erindring

2018 ◽  
pp. 16-27
Author(s):  
Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Mass Violence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Narrow Focus ◽  
Memory Culture ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Second World

During the past two decades, memory culture surrounding the Second World War has developed from a narrow focus on “when we were at war” to the current broader focus on complex and universal issues such as human rights, reconciliation, justice, and atonement. This development has given the war and Holocaust museums a dynamic position within the current political culture of Europe. But what do we actually remember when we insist on keeping alive the memory of the Holocaust, genocide, and political mass violence: The lives which were lost during these atrocities? Or the violence that created the losses? In this essay, the author presents a series of reflections on memory culture around the Holocaust and other mass atrocities that has developed in Europe since the fall of communism.

Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry Volume 20

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Jewish Studies ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
World War ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

Although the reconciliation of Jewish and Polish memories of the Holocaust is the central issue in contemporary Polish–Jewish relations, this is the first attempt to examine these divisive memories in a comprehensive way. Until 1989, Polish consciousness of the Second World War subsumed the destruction of Polish Jewry within a communist narrative of Polish martyrdom and heroism. Post-war Jewish memory, by contrast, has been concerned mostly with Jewish martyrdom and heroism. Since the 1980s, however, a significant number of Jews and Poles have sought to identify a common ground and have met with partial but increasing success, notwithstanding the new debates that have emerged in recent years concerning Polish behaviour during the Nazi genocide of the Jews that Poles had ignored for half a century. This volume considers these contentious issues from different angles. Among the topics covered are Jewish memorial projects, both in Poland and beyond its borders, the Polish approach to Holocaust memory under communist rule, and post-communist efforts both to retrieve the Jewish dimension to Polish wartime memory and to reckon with the dark side of the Polish national past. An interview with Henryk Grynberg touches on many of these issues, as do the three poems by Grynberg reproduced here. The 'New Views' section features innovative research in other areas of Polish–Jewish studies. A special section is devoted to research concerning the New Synagogue in Poznan, built in 1907, which is still standing only because the Nazis turned it into a swimming pool.

The Control of the Past: Herbert Butterfield and the Pitfalls of Official History

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Salmon
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
British Government ◽  
World War ◽  
Colonial Legacy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Selective Approach ◽  
Official History ◽  
The Many ◽  
Second World

Herbert Butterfield (1900–1979) was one of the earliest and strongest critics of what he saw as the British government’s attempts to control the past through the writing of so-called, ‘official histories’. His famous diatribe against the ‘pitfalls’ of official history first appeared in 1949, at a time when the British government was engaged in publishing official histories and diplomatic documents on an unprecedented scale following the Second World War. But why was Butterfield so hostile to official history, and why do his views still matter today? Written by one of the few historians employed by the British government today, this important new book details how successive governments have applied a selective approach to the past in order to tell or re-tell Britain’s national history, with implications for the future. Providing a unique overview of the main trends of official history in Britain since the Second World War, the book details how Butterfield came to suspect that the British government was trying to suppress vital documents revealing the Duke of Windsor’s dealings with Nazi Germany. This seemed to confirm his long-held belief that all governments would seek to manipulate history if they could, and conceal the truth if they could not. At the beginning of the 21st century, official history is still being written and the book concludes with an insider’s perspective on the many issues it faces today– on freedom of information, social media and reengaging with our nation’s colonial legacy. Governments have recently been given many reminders that history matters, and it is Herbert Butterfield above all who reminds us that we must remain vigilant in monitoring how they respond to the challenge.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document