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“A Dark Enormous Cloud is Hanging Above Us and It Is Bound To Fall...” The Reaction of Jews in Large and Small Towns in the General Government to News about Operation Reinhardt
Maria Ferenc-Piotrowska
maria.ferenc@gmail.com Author Biographydoktorantka w Instytucie Socjologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. Pod opieką prof. Barbary Engelking przygotowuje rozprawę o źródłach i znaczeniach wiadomości w getcie warszawskim. Uczestniczka projektu pełnej edycji Archiwum Ringelbluma w Żydowskim Instytucie Historycznym, redaktorka tomów dotyczących nasłuchów radiowych w getcie warszawskim oraz Żydowskiej Samopomocy Społecznej. Koordynatorka Galerii „Zagłada” w Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich, obecnie pracuje w ŻIH.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4937-9563
Jewish Historical Institute
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. 13 (2017), Pages: 295-324
Submission Date: 2020-10-17Publication Date: 2017-12-03
https://doi.org/10.32927/ZZSiM.361
Abstract
This article regards the existential experience of Holocaust victims and the psychological and cognitive mechanisms in confrontation with the first news about the functioning of the death camps. It analyzes the testimonies of Jews from over 40 towns and small towns in the General Government regarding the gradual influx of news about the Holocaust and the consequent reactions. Initially, the hearsay came mostly from afar, and then from increasingly close localities. The Poles were the source of that (imprecise) information about the lot of the deported Jews, while in certain localities appeared escapees from the death centers who gave accounts of what they had witnessed. That hearsay and those testimonies met with different reactions – from despair, through denial, suppression, and resignation, to attempts to save one’s life. This article devotes special attention to a reflection on the possibility of death of oneself and one’s family as well as the phenomenon of denial and pushing the news about the Holocaust away from oneself.
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