CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | Kartashova, Olga |
|---|---|
| Title | Holocaust History Between Liberation And Sovietization: The Publications Of The Central Jewish Historical Commission In Poland 1945-1947 |
| Summary | This thesis deals with the Central Jewish Historical Commission in Poland (1944-1947) – one of the first centers of the collection and publication of testimonies in postwar Eastern Europe. The achievement of the “survived historians” was underestimated for many years. I elaborate on the main features of their approach to Holocaust writing arguing on the originality and value of their work in contemporary Holocaust historiography, as well as the important role they played in the establishment of the Holocaust scholarship. A specific place among other Historical Commissions in postwar Europe was occupied by the Commission due to their non-precedent activeness and interdisciplinary research in the circumstances of the transition from Nazi occupation towards the Soviet political domination in Poland. I demonstrate the ideological and political background by drawing institutional connections and network ties to the institutions, schools, and political movements, which had an impact on the Commission’s work, which resulted in the series of publications. I analyze the selected examples from the Commission’s publications and methodological statements, using Polish-language published sources and archival material. In these materials I trace the preserved dilemmas and issues characterizing early postwar Jewish Holocaust documentation and memory creation and provide a detailed insight on how they were realized in the actual publications. As a result, I contribute to the field with an overview of how Jews in Poland pioneered historical writing about the Holocaust. In addition, the analysis of the ideological context of early postwar Holocaust memory creation in Poland during its transition into Soviet satellite will show tendencies which left their mark on the Holocaust historiography globally. |
| Supervisor | Wilke, Carsten; Iordachi, Constantin |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/kartashova_olga.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University