YEAR 2025

The Holocaust and Contemporary Issues

The central theme of the 21st issue of the yearbook "The Holocaust Studies and Materials" will be the broadly understood connections between scholarly reflection on the Holocaust and contemporary issues. We are interested in this topic in three ways.

First, to what extent does the era of digitization affect research: what kinds of materials can be subjected to more thorough analyses than before, and how does their accessibility change or supplement the existing image of the past? What does the digitization of an increasing number of sources scattered in archives and libraries, along with better access to testimonies and interviews, change in the "era without witnesses"? What research perspectives open up as a result?

The second aspect of contemporary relevance are current political events: how do the refugee crisis, the war in Ukraine, and especially the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, against Israel and its citizens, and the Israeli military intervention in Gaza that has claimed thousands of civilian lives, affect scientific research, education, and public discourse regarding the memory of the Holocaust in Europe and the USA?

Thirdly, there is a need for discussion and summary regarding the situation in Holocaust studies (and more broadly, studies of World War II) and education after eight years of populist and nationalist rule in Poland. What impact have the actions of state institutions taken over or newly created by the authorities, as well as actions of the media under their control, on the funding and promotion of certain thematic areas, and conversely, the intimidation of academic communities? What are/will be the short- and long-term effects? What mechanisms and solutions can prevent the production and dissemination of nationalist narratives in the fields of research and education?

We invite proposals for articles on the following topics:

• Digitization: new methods of source analysis in Holocaust studies
• "New" sources, new questions, new research areas
• "The Era without Witnesses" – challenges and opportunities
• The Holocaust in the shadow of the fight against terrorism and military intervention in Gaza
• Politics and Holocaust studies in Europe and the USA
• The effects of nationalist historical policies in Poland regarding World War II in the fields of scientific research and education
• Cases of abuse and instrumentalization of the Holocaust

We also invite you to submit your own proposals.

Text submission calendar and procedure

November 31, 2024 –deadline for sending in article proposals containing:

• an overview of the article comprising: the title, main theses, methodology, and sources; up to 1,800 characters,
• a short biographical note about the author with information about his/her academic career, current affiliation, research interests and achievements, and a list of significant publications.

The article proposal should be sent by email to the editorial staff: justyna.majewska@holocaustresearch.pl

December 10, 2024 – deadline for the editorial staff’s decision as to which proposals are accepted and which texts are commissioned

April 30, 2025 – deadline for submitting articles through the editorial system at -  https://zagladazydow.pl/index.php/zz/about/submissions

The Holocaust. Studies and Materials’ editorial staff follows review procedures which are in accord with the review guidelines prepared by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the brochure “Dobre praktyki w procedurach recenzyjnych w nauce” [good practices in review procedures in science], particularly:

• The texts undergo a preliminary review by the editorial staff. The assessment criteria are the subject scope of the article sent in (whether it fits the periodical’s profile), fulfillment of the formal criteria of a scholarly text, and the author’s following the manual of style. Basing on the preliminary recommendation by at least two members of the editorial staff, the texts are either qualified for further review procedure or rejected. In either case, the author is notified about the editorial staff’s decision.

The editorial staff applies the double-blind review principle, which means that the reviewers do not know the author’s identity and vice versa.

A full description of the review procedure and the reviewers’ list are available on our annual’s website.

Text requirements

Text lenght

• Studies section — up to 40,000 characters with spaces and footnotes
• remaining sections — up to 20,000 characters with spaces and footnotes,
• reviews — up to 15,000 characters with spaces and footnotes.
• Going beyond these limits is possible only in special cases and only after prior contact with the editorial staff and its consentdział „Studia” – maks. 40 000 znaków łącznie ze spacjami i przypisami

Graphic materials

• It is possible to include photographs, artwork, graphs, and maps. In the paper edition, they are printed in greyscale.
• It is necessary to specify their source and provide a caption in the form compliant with the copyright holder’s requirements. The text author is also required to specify the kind of copyright and obtain it.
• Graphic materials are to be submitted in separate files in the jpg format (photographs, illustrations) or pdf format (graphs, maps) in resolution no lower than 300 dpi.

Text formatting and technical requirements

• file format – MS Word (doc or docx) / OpenOffice (odt),
• font: Times New Roman, size 12, adjusted, 1.5 interspaces,
• headings and subheadings: in bold, adjusted to the left,
• margins: 2.5 centimeters,
• footnotes: continuous, font size 10, single line spacing,
• file title: surname and the first two words of the title divided by underscores (without Polish diacritic marks), for instance, Surname_First_Words.doc

Additional requirements

• On the title page adjusted to the left:
• full name
• affiliation
• ORCID
• e-mail
• summary of the article (up to 600 words) containing general information about the text and a description of the issues brought up, main theses, and conclusions.
• list of up to 8 keywords.
• In case of a review below the author’s data please insert the bibliographic details of the book reviewed in this format: “Review: author or editor, title, place of publication, publisher, publication year, number of pages.”

• At the end of the text please include:
• The bibliography of the works cited (Archival Sources, followed by Studies, and Websites). Important: both in the footnotes and in the Bibliography please insert the author’s/editor’s full name and the publisher.
• Note about the author.
   
• Optional:
• In the first footnote, you can include information about the work’s financing from a grant within the framework in which it was written

All guidelines regarding detailed rules of formatting articles and bibliography can be found in our periodical’s manual of style.

Guide for the Author in OJS