Texts Buried in Oblivion. Testimonies of Two Refugees from the Mass Grave at Poniatowa
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. 1 (2005), pages: 73-95
Publication date: 2005-12-01
Abstract
This article contains an analysis and extensive quotations from accounts of two Jewish women, the only survivors of prisoners' execution at the Poniatowa compulsory labour camp. This execution was part of a large-scale operation to physically liquidate Jewish prisoners, the so-called “Operation Harvest” (Erntefest), carried out in the first week of November 1943 at the camps in Trawniki, Poniatowa and Majdanek (in Lublin). Both women survivors,. Due to a number of coincidences, managed to get to Warsaw and, helped by the "Żegota” – Council to Aid the Jews, lived to see the liberation. In this article I also analyse the circumstances of both accounts, reasons for withholding their publication as early as war time, and the importance, for our knowledge, not only of the executions, but also for the nature of complicated Polish–Jewish relations during World War II, because it was the Poles' help that the fate of escaped prisoners hinged upon.
License
Copyright (c) 2005 Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Other articles by the same auhtor(s)
- Andrzej Żbikowski, Texts Buried in Oblivion. Testimonies of Two Refugees from the Mass Grave at Poniatowa , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: 2008: Holocaust Studies and Materials
- Andrzej Żbikowski, August Grabski (red.), Pogromy Żydów na ziemiach polskich w XIX i XX wieku, t. 4: Holokaust i powojnie (1939–1946) , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 16 (2020)
- Andrzej Żbikowski, Lidia Zessin-Jurek, Katharina Friedla (red.), Syberiada Żydów polskich. Losy uchodźców z Zagłady [Andrzej Żbikowski] , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 17 (2021)
- Andrzej Żbikowski, Timothy Snyder, Skrwawione ziemie. Europa między Hitlerem a Stalinem, tłum. Bartłomiej Pietrzyk, Warszawa: Świat Książki, 2011, 544 s. , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 7 (2011)
- Andrzej Żbikowski, Christopher Browning, The Origins of the Final Solution , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 1 (2005)
- Andrzej Żbikowski, Goetz Aly, Hitlers Volksstaat. Raub, Rassenkrieg und nationaler Sozialismus , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 1 (2005)
- Andrzej Żbikowski, Joanna Beata Michlic, Poland’s threatening other. The image of the Jew from 1880 to the present , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 4 (2008)
- Andrzej Żbikowski, Marcin Urynowicz, Adam Czerniaków 1880–1942. Prezes getta warszawskiego, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, Warszawa 2009 , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 6 (2010)