English
Język Polski
Jewish Letters to Hans Frank (1940): Opposition or a Survival Strategy?
Jerzy Kochanowski
j.p.kochanowski@uw.edu.pl Author BiographyJerzy Kochanowski, professor of history of the Department of 20th-Century History of the Institute of History, Warsaw University. During 2000–2005 he worked in the German Historical Institute, Warsaw; visiting professor at the University of Mainz in 2007. Editor-in-chief of Przegląd Historyczny. Recent publications: Tylnymi drzwiami. „Czarny rynek” w Polsce 1944–1989 (2010, German edition 2013), O jaką wojnę walczyliśmy? Teksty z lat 1984–2013 (2013) and Polska– Niemcy. Wojna i pamięć (co-author with Beate Kosmala, 2013, also published in German).
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6654-6204
Institute of History, Warsaw Uniwersity
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. Holocaust Studies and Materials (2013), Pages: 486-498
Submission Date: 2020-12-13Publication Date: 2013-02-20
https://doi.org/10.32927/zzsim.835
Abstract
In Warsaw’s Central Archives of Modern Records, in a collection of documents known as the General Government Administration set, there are dozens of letters and petitions sent between October 1939 and May 1940 by residents of occupied areas to the new German authorities, including the Governor General Hans Frank. In the collection there are also several letters (presented in Polish translation) sent by the Jews. While the Polish, Ukrainian and Russian authors represented a wide range of professions and social positions, and the petition themselves – a variety of issues, all Jewish letters were sent by members of the social elite, and the majority of them voiced their objection to the compulsory armbands with the Star of David, as the order to wear them accentuated the social exclusion of Jews in both practical and symbolic sense. Asking for permission not to wear an armband, the authors of letters referred to their service in the Austrian or German army, their lack of association with Judaism, etc. However, regardless of the arguments, the very act of sending those letters can be seen as a form of spontaneous opposition, described by the Polish historian and sociologist Marcin Kula as “rebellious action”.
Keywords
occupation , General Government , Hans Frank , letters , petitions , exclusion of Jews , armbands , resistance , assimilation
License
Copyright (c) 2013 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)
- Jerzy Kochanowski, Jewish Letters to Hans Frank (1940): Opposition or a Survival Strategy? , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 9 (2013)
- Jerzy Kochanowski, Silent Heroes („Stille Helden”) , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 9 (2013)
Similar Articles
- Marcin Przegiętka, What did Adolf Gerteis, president of the Eastern Railway, know about the Holocaust? , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 20 (2024)
- Bob Moore, In the Shadow of Anne Frank: The survival of Jews from the Nazi-occupied Netherlands , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 10 (2014)
- Tal Bruttmann, Anti-Jewish Policy, ‘Final Solution’, and Help Provided to Jews in Vichy France During 1940–1945 , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 11 (2015)
- Gabriel Finder, The Trial of Shepsl Rotholc and the Politics of Retribution in the Aftermath of the Holocaust , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 2 (2006)
- Jan Grabowski, Barbara Engelking, Warsaw Jews Expelled from Switzerland to the General Government , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: 2008: Holocaust Studies and Materials
- Adam Puławski, The Last Mail , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 3 (2007)
- Przemysław Czapliński, The Holocaust as a Horror. A Handful of Comments on Polish Literature during 1985–2015 , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 12 (2016)
- Zuzanna Schnepf-Kołacz , Polish Help to Jews in the Countryside during the German Occupation. A Sketch Using the Example of the Righteous among the Nations , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. Holocaust Studies and Materials (2013)
- Marta Witkowska, Michał Bilewicz, Will the Truth Set Us Free?. Breaking the resistance in the education about Holocaust , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 10 (2014)
- Polish Center for Holocaust Research of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Polish Literature on Organized and Individual Help to the Jews (1945–2008) , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 4 (2008)
<< < 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 50 > >>
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
