Early writings on the Holocaust: French-Polish transnational circulations

Audrey Kichelewski

doi:10.18778/1231-1952.28.1.05

Authors

Audrey Kichelewski University of Strasbourg, Contemporary History Institute, Research Unit: ARCHE (Arts, Civilization and History of Europe), Institut Universitaire de France, Palais Universitaire 9, place de l’Université F - 67084 Strasbourg, France https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3518-1652

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1231-1952.28.1.05

Keywords:

historiography, Holocaust Remembrance, France, Poland, Jewish History, aftermath of Second World War

Abstract

This article analyses the differences and similarities between documentation centres active in the aftermath of the Holocaust both in France and in Poland. While in Poland the task was from 1945 assigned to the Central Jewish Historical Commission, in France, the Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation quickly overtook the lead on other minor centres established by Communist Jews or Bundists. The paper focuses on the links between those institutions, through contacts between members, exchanges of documentation, and parallel publications and exhibits. It shows that despite quite different political conditions, men and women working in these institutions shared a similar vision of transmission of history and memory of the Holocaust. They managed to implement their vision pa 19.03.2019 rtly thanks to their transnational links that helped transcend political and material difficulties.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

AJZENSZTAJN, B. (ed.) (1946), Ruch podziemny w ghettach i obozach (materiały i dokumenty), Warsaw–Krakow–Lodz, CŻKH.
Google Scholar

ALEKSIUN, N. (2007), ‘The Central Jewish Historical Commission in Poland 1944–1947’, Polin. Studies in Polish Jewry, 20, pp. 74–97. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv13qfv1t.8
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781904113058.003.0003

ALEKSIUN, N. (2012), ‘Philip Friedman and the Emergence of Holocaust Scholarship: A Reappraisal’, Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts, 11, pp. 333–346.
Google Scholar

AZOUVI, F. (2012), Le mythe du grand silence. Auschwitz, les Français, la mémoire, Paris: Fayard.
Google Scholar

BATH-AMI, M. (1946), Le droit à la patrie: témoignages sur les massacres en Pologne, translated from the Yiddish, Paris: Rodstein.
Google Scholar

BERG, N. (2008), ‘Joseph Wulf: a Forgotten Outsider Among Holocaust Scholars’, [in:] BANKIER, D. and MICHMAN, D. (eds.), Holocaust Historiography in Context. Emergence, Challenges, Polemics & Achievements, Jerusalem–New York: Berghahn Books, pp. 103–206.
Google Scholar

BLUMENTAL, N., KERMISZ, J. and EISENBACH, A. (eds.) (1946), Dokumenty i materiały z czasów okupacji niemieckiej w Polsce, 3, Krakow–Lodz–Warsaw, CŻKH.
Google Scholar

CDJC (1945), Bulletin du Centre de documentation juive contemporaine, 1, April 1945. https://doi.org/10.3917/bcdjc.001.0010
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/bcdjc.001.0010

CESARANI, D. and SUNDQUIST, E. J. (eds.) (2012), After the Holocaust. Challenging the Myth of Silence, London–New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar

COHEN, B. (2008), ‘Rachel Auerbach, Yad Vashem, and Israeli Holocaust Memory’, Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, 20, pp. 121–197. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv13qfv1t.13
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3828/liverpool/9781904113058.003.0008

DINER, H. R. (2009), We Remember with Reverence and Love. American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945–1962, New York: New York University Press.
Google Scholar

DORON, D.(2015), Jewish Youth and Identity in Postwar France: Rebuilding Family and Nation, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Google Scholar

FRIEDMAN, F. (1945), To jest Oświęcim, Warsaw: CŻKH.
Google Scholar

FRIEDMAN, P. (1980), ‘European Jewish Research on the Holocaust’, [in:] FRIEDMAN, A. J. (ed.), The Roads to Extinction. Essays on the Holocaust, New York–Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, pp. 500–524.
Google Scholar

FRITZ, R., KOVÁCS, E. and RÁSKY, B. (eds.) (2016), Before the Holocaust Had Its Name. Early Confrontations with the Nazi Mass Murder of the Jews / Als der Holocaust noch keinen Namen hatte. Zur frühen Aufarbeitung des NS-Massenmords an Jüdinnen und Juden, Vienna: New Academic Press.
Google Scholar

GEBIRTIG, M. (1946), Es brent, edited by Joseph Wulf, Krakow: CŻKH.
Google Scholar

GRUMBERG, Z. (2018), ‘«Je pense avoir fait mon devoir comme militant». David Diamant et le Centre de documentation auprès de l’Union des Juifs pour la résistance et l’entraide (UJRE), 1945–1956’, Archives Juives, 51 (2), pp. 18–38. https://doi.org/10.3917/aj1.512.0018
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/aj1.512.0018

HESCHELES, J. (1946), Oczyma dwunastoletniej dziewczyny, Krakow: CŻKH.
Google Scholar

HOCHBERG-MARIAŃSKA, M. and GRÜSS, N. (1947), Dzieci oskarżają, Krakow–Lodz–Warsaw: CŻKH.
Google Scholar

JOCKUSCH, L. (2007), ‘Khurbn Forshung. The Jewish Historical Commissions in Europe 1943–1949’, Simon Dubnow Institute Year Book, 6, pp. 441–473.
Google Scholar

JOCKUSCH, L. (2012), Collect and Record! Jewish Holocaust Documentation in Early Postwar Europe, New York–Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199764556.001.0001
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199764556.001.0001

KASSOW, S. D. (2007), Who Will Write our History? Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Google Scholar

KICHELEWSKI, A. (2018), ‘Entre histoire et mémoire. Les publications des landsmanshaftn juives polonaises dans la France d’après-guerre’, Archives Juives, 51 (2), pp. 59–77.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/aj1.512.0059

KOPCIOWSKI, A. (ed.) (2011), Księga pamięci żydowskiego Lublina, Lublin: UCMS.
Google Scholar

KRAKOWSKI, S. (1990), ‘Memorial Projects and Memorial Institutions Initiated by She’erit Hapletah’, [in:] GUTMAN, Y. and SAF, A. (eds.), She’erit Hapletah 1944–1948. Rehabilitation and Political Struggle, Jerusalem, pp. 388–398.
Google Scholar

LYON-CAEN, J. (2018), ‘Michel Borwicz, homme de lettres, résistant et historien de la persécution et du témoignage. (Tarnów, 11 octobre 1911 – Nice, 31 août 1987)’, Archives Juives, 2 (51), pp. 157–161. https://doi.org/10.3917/aj1.512.0157
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/aj1.512.0157

LYON-CAEN, J. (2020), ‘Introduction’, Revue d’histoire de la Shoah, 211. https://doi.org/10.3917/rhsho.211.0013
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/rhsho.211.0013

MAZOR, M. (1955), La Cité Engloutie (Souvenirs de ghetto de Varsovie), Paris: Editions du Centre.
Google Scholar

PEREGO, S. (2010), ‘Les commémorations de la destruction des Juifs d’Europe au Mémorial du martyr juif inconnu du milieu des années cinquante à la fin des années soixante’, Revue d’Histoire de la Shoah, 193, pp. 471–507. https://doi.org/10.3917/rhsho.193.0471
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/rhsho.193.0471

PEREGO, S. (2012), ‘Breaking the Silence. The Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine in Paris and the Writing of Holocaust History in Liberated France’, [in:] CESARANI, D. and SUNDQUIST, E. J. (eds.), After the Holocaust, London–New York: Routledge, pp. 67–81.
Google Scholar

PEREGO, S. (2015), ‘Promoting Global Holocaust Memory in the Era of the Cold War. The Tomb of the Unknown Jewish Martyr in Paris’, History & Memory, 27 (1), pp. 116–153. https://doi.org/10.2979/histmemo.27.1.116
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/histmemo.27.1.116

PERSON, K. (2015), ‘Genia Silkes’s Reminiscences on the Fourth Anniversary of Ringelblum’s Death’, Kwartalnik Historii Żydów, 256 (4), pp. 673–678.
Google Scholar

POLIAKOV, L. (1946), La condition des Juifs en France sous l’occupation italienne, Paris: Éditions du Centre.
Google Scholar

POLIAKOV, L. (1951), Bréviaire de la haine. Le troisième Reich et les Juifs, Paris: Calmann-Lévy.
Google Scholar

POZNANSKI, R. (1999), ‘La création du Centre de documentation juive contemporaine en France (avril 1943)’, Vingtième Siècle. Revue d’histoire, 63, pp. 51–64. https://doi.org/10.3406/xxs.1999.3853
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3770700

REDER, R.(1946), Bełżec, Krakow: CŻKH.
Google Scholar

SCHULLER, J. (2013), ‘Genia Silkes: The Work of a Pedagogue in the Central Committee of Polish Jews and the Jewish Historical Institute in Post-War Poland’, Kwartalnik Historii Żydów, 246, pp. 381–390.
Google Scholar

SLUCKI, D. (2019), ‘«A Struggle Unparalleled in Human History»: Survivors Remember the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising’, American Jewish History, 103 (2), pp. 203–225. https://doi.org/10.1353/ajh.2019.0017
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/ajh.2019.0017

STACH, S. (2019), ‘The Central Jewish Historical Commission and the Jewish Historical Institute in Poland / Die Zentrale Jüdische Historische Kommission und das Jüdische Historische Institut in Polen’, [in:] JASCH, H. Ch. and LEHNSTAEDT, S. (eds.), Crimes Uncovered. The First Generation of Holocaust Researchers, Metropol: Berlin.
Google Scholar

UJRE (1949), Dos Vort fun vidershtand un zig: zamlung fun untererdishe tsaytungen, oyfrufn un broshurn, aroysgegebn durkh di yidishe progresive vidershtand-organizatsyes in Frankraykh in der tsayt fun der natsisher okupatsye 1940–1944, Paris: Oyfsnay.
Google Scholar

WEILL, J. (1946), Contribution à l’histoire des camps d’internement dans l’anti-France, Paris: Éditions du Centre.
Google Scholar

WIEVIORKA, A. (2006), The Era of the Witness, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
Google Scholar

ZAHRA, T. (2011), The Lost Children: Reconstructing Europe’s Families after World War II. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674061378
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674061378