English
Język Polski
“How would you explain…?” Jewish Intelligentsia on Polonisation and Assimilation in the Warsaw Ghetto
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. 11 (2015), Pages: 325-346
Submission Date: 2020-10-21Publication Date: 2015-12-01
https://doi.org/10.32927/ZZSiM.475
Abstract
In the first half of 1942 pollsters of Oneg Shabbat’s underground archive of the Warsaw ghetto conducted interviews with eight Jewish intellectuals on the inffluence of the ghetto reality on the Jews’ social life and identity. Among the many topics discussed in those questionnaires, the author focuses on the respondents’ opinions on acculturation, which she presents in three contexts: the respondents’ personal experiences, their political views (almost all of them were Doikeit ideology supporters), and the pre-war discussion on the role of the Yiddish language and culture information of Jewish national identity. The respondents gave the acculturation in the ghetto a new dimension. Even though before the war Polonisation was not perceived as a definitely negative phenomenon, in the ghetto it began to be interpreted as a conscious decision to reject Jewish identity. Acculturation, which according to the respondents was not imposed by the Germans, became the main form of pathology in the Jewish intelligentsia milieus. In their critical interpretation of the ghetto reality the respondents perceived those processes as a danger to their nation’s identity comparable to the destructive activity of the Germans.
License
Copyright (c) 2015 Author&"Holocaust Studies and Materials"
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The journal is published under the Diamond Open Access Standard, CC-BY-4.0 Deed - Attribution 4.0 International - Creative Commons
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Justyna Majewska, “The Witnesses Testified as Follows…” Records of Interrogations of Polish Railways Employees who Worked at the Stations near the Operation Reinhardt Camps , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 13 (2017)
- Justyna Majewska, Final Solution’s Technicians. Topf & Söhne – Auschwitz Ovens Constructors , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 13 (2017)
- Justyna Majewska, Krystyna Radziszewska, Ewa Wiatr, Adam Sitarek, Jacek Walicki, Monika Polit (red.), Encyklopedia getta. Niedokończony projekt archiwistów z getta łódzkiego , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 11 (2015)
- Justyna Majewska, Alvin H. Rosenfeld, Kres Holokaustu , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 12 (2016)
Similar Articles
- Karolina Panz, The Destruction of shtetl Grice , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 3 (2007)
- Marta Janczewska, Research on Starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto – Ethical Problems , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 5 (2009)
- Maria Ferenc, “Understandably, we are staying put.” He-Chalutz activists faced with the prospect of escaping from occupied Poland , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 19 (2023)
- Jacek Walicki, The Archive Department of the Łódź ghetto and the Ringelblum Archive , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 16 (2020)
- Anka Grupińska, Dariusz Libionka, Interview with Józef Grynblatt, member of the Betar and the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW) during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 3 (2007)
- Sharon Geva, Underground fighters, mothers and daughters. Jewish women in the Warsaw Ghetto during the uprising (April–May 1943) , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 19 (2023)
- Adam Kopciowski, Pinkes Warsze - Warsaw Chronicle , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 10 (2014)
- Aleksandra Bańkowska, Between responsibility and powerlessness, generosity and temptation. Social care workers in the Warsaw ghetto in the face of their charges and petitioners , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 20 (2024)
- Piotr Rypson, Album of Drawings by Teofila Langnas-Reich in the Ringelblum Archive , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 18 (2022)
- Ewa Koźmińska-Frejlak, A Testimony of Silence… Interview with Jerzy Lewiński, a former functionary of the Order Service in the Warsaw ghetto , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: 2008: Holocaust Studies and Materials
<< < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 > >>
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
