This issue of the journal presents a comprehensive selection of texts devoted both to key anniversaries and to the latest directions in Holocaust research. It opens with a tribute to Marian Turski and a thematic section, “Neighbors After 25 Years,” in which contributors examine the international reception of Jan T. Gross’s book and its impact on scholarship and public debate. The “Studies” section includes articles on the microhistory of the Holocaust and on the functioning of Jewish institutions in the Lublin district under German occupation. The “Materials” section features two edited source records, while “Holocaust Commemoration” focuses on reflections concerning memory of the Holocaust in Lublin. The volume concludes with reviews of recent publications and Piotr Forecki’s analysis of contemporary “anti-Zionist” narratives and their influence on current discussions about the Holocaust.

When the book Sąsiedzi [Neighbors] was published in Poland in 2001, only a few specialists in Germany were interested in it. The renowned publishing house C.H. Beck published a translation a year later, which sold rather well. Although reviews appeared in the culture sections, no debate ensued regarding the participation of individual parties in the Holocaust. One reason for this was that German Holocaust research was still in its infancy at the time. Similar to the heated discussions about Gross in Poland ????ive years earlier, the exhibition Vernichtungskrieg. Verbrechen der Wehrmacht [War of annihilation: crimes of the Wehrmacht] provoked significant controversy. It was clear even then that public knowledge of German crimes was negligible, and academic research had not contributed signi????icantly to the issue.

Since then, extensive Holocaust research has been conducted in Germany, primarily based on postwar investigations by various judicial authorities. Only in the last twenty years have German researchers systematically conducted queries in Polish and Eastern European archives. Particular attention has been paid to Jewish victims. More books have been published in Germany on Polish historical discourse than on Polish victims or non-German perpetrators. The debate on Jedwabne provides insight into the Polish culture of remembrance. References to Germany are rare; the issue of responsibility for crimes committed during World War II is not discussed in a family context, nor is the European dimension of perpetration the subject of academic debate.

Jan’s Gross’s pathbreaking book Neighbors: the Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, inspired a new generation of social scientific research on the Holocaust that highlighted the importance of local dynamics, the mix of German and non-German perpetrators, antisemitism, avarice, the breakdown of social norms, and pre-existing political divides in facilitating mass violence. Building on Gross’s work, our own book on the pogroms of 1941 sought to account for why pogroms occurred in roughly 200 out of 2000 communities in Eastern Poland after the outbreak of war in June 1941.  Why did pogroms occur in some communities but not in others? Acknowledging the importance of factors that others, including Gross, had stressed, we drew attention to one that others had ignored: the fact that pogroms (defined as neighbor-on-neighbor violence) were much more likely to occur in communities where Jews and non-Jews were already politically divided, and were especially likely to occur where Jews had been mobilized into their own nationalist politics: Zionism. Historians generally appreciated the question we asked but some doubted whether we were dealing exclusively with “neighborly” violence and others doubted our explanation because the available sources rarely discuss pre-existing political divides. In this short paper, we address both of these criticism, not in order to counter what are frequently perfectly appropriate scholarly disagreements but in order to highlight key methodological issues for the study of micro-level violence both in in Holocaust and beyond.  Zionism, we continued to insist, mattered a great deal and conditioned where Jews were deserving of protection or not among local Polish and Ukrainian majorities.  This of course raises a question of contemporary importance—the superficial similarity but deeper differences between contemporary "anti-Zionism" and its historical precursor. We turn to this in our conclusion.    

Jan Tomasz Gross’s book Sąsiedzi, published twenty-five years ago, provoked a significant debate on the Holocaust in Poland, with political fallout in Poland and throughout Central and Eastern Europe. This article examines similar debates over the Holocaust in Lithuania, provoked by the popular publications of Rūta Vanagaitė and Silvia Foti. Coming from outside academia, the non-fiction works of these authors have played an important role in bridging the gap between academic historical research and public reckoning with the past by squarely addressing the dark legacy of local collaboration with the Nazi administration, the participation of „ordinary” Lithuanians in genocide, and the plunder of Jewish property, along with the complex biographies of certain leaders of the anti-Soviet resistance.

The article reflects on the significance of Jan Tomasz Gross’s Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland twenty-five years after its publication. Author represents the generation of scholars who came “after Neighbors”, i.e. started their research and career after the pivotal moment that reshaped Polish historiography, challenging the dominant narratives of “national innocence” and stimulating the development of a multidisciplinary Holocaust studies in Poland. Through personal reflection and institutional perspective, author highlights how Gross’s work fostered a new attentiveness – both scholarly and empathetic – to Jewish voices, silenced memories and neglected source materials. The article is based on a paper presented at a meeting, organized by Faculty of History, Warsaw University on 16 May 2025, marking the 25th anniversary of the publication of Jan Tomasz Gross’s Neighbors.

In his article, the author refers to the research project presented by Carlo Ginzburg in his essay Just One Witness to analyze two case studies. The first is a discussion of the account of the pogrom in Trzcianka on June 6, 1937, preserved in one of the competition peasant diaries. The other is an account about a gang of blackmailers published by Michał Borwicz in his work Arishe Papin (Aryan papers). Starting from a critique of narrativism based on microhistory, Laskowski attempts to categorize the challenges associated with the narrative nature of sources in his text. He also indicates how the microhistorical perspective allows us to grasp the relationship between text and reality with reference to specific materials and methodological debates.

The text discusses the reactions of the Związek Walki Zbrojnej [Union of Armed Struggle, ZWZ] and other underground organizations to incidents of anti-Jewish violence involving Poles from spring 1940 to summer 1941. It begins with reports and accounts of sentiment during the Soviet occupation, sent to the Polish government. These reports contained warnings about the deepening of anti-Semitism and possible outbreaks of revenge violence against Jews for their alleged support of the Soviet occupiers. The first part of the article discusses the response to the so-called Easter Pogroms in Warsaw, which were seen as inspired by the Germans and carried out with the help of collaborators from the Organizacja Narodowo-Radykalna [National Radical Organization, ONR]. The underground press reflected anti-Jewish violence, condemned its instigators, and passed on information to the government. The second part discusses reactions to the murders and pogroms that occurred after the outbreak of the German-Soviet war, particularly in the area around Łomża. As Jan Tomasz Gross pointed out, crimes involving Poles were not the subject of in-depth analysis, and no specific information was passed on to the government. The reasons for these omissions, however, were different. There was a lack of complete knowledge about the murders and pogroms; it was impossible to find ZWZ documents that would shed new light on the matter. There were also fears that it would complicate the image of Poland and its martyrdom in the free world. Additionally, there was consideration for the depth of anti-Semitic sentiments in society, which resulted from the perception of Jews as the perpetrators of the misery of Poles under Soviet occupation.

So far, little attention has been paid to the Judenrats and the Jewish Order Service in the historiography of the Holocaust, especially concerning small Jewish settlements in the GG. The author’s aim in this article is to fill this research gap to some extent, as it is the provincial towns in the Kreis Lublin-Land (occupation land district of Lublin) that will serve as the key for the analysis of these institutions. This will require answering questions about the time and rationale for their establishment, their structure, the origins of their members, their numbers, their embedding in local communities, their tasks, the choices they made and their relations with the remaining Jewish population, with particular reference to the entanglement of the Jewish administration in the anti-Semitic policies of the German authorities. The multifaceted analysis requires the use of various sources, mainly from the occupation period, often preserved in fragments, but in the case of some localities they are complete enough to reconstruct the operation of these institutions even up to the autumn of 1942, when the Operation Reinhardt entered its bloodiest phase. The core of the sources used comes from the State Archives in Lublin, mainly from the Lublin County Office collection, which contains a unique set of files on the Judenrats and the Order Service in the county. Other materials from Polish and foreign archives are an important supplement.

Rut’s diary is a moving, handwritten account by a Jewish teacher from Warsaw, covering the period from July 1942 to July 1944. Rut describes life in the Warsaw ghetto, the dramatic conditions of everyday existence, deportations, hiding from roundups, and the death of loved ones. After escaping to the Aryan side with her seriously ill husband, she experiences further difficulties, mistrust and threats from blackmailers, as well as problems with finding shelter. After her husband’s death, Rut hides alone for two years, living in constant fear and isolation. Her testimony is an important historical document, showing the fate of Warsaw Jews during the Holocaust and the psychological consequences of prolonged hiding.

The documents presented here are the personal notes of six-year-old Bronisław Leider (after the war, Ledowski), which can be considered a diary and a letter to his mother. They were written between September 6 and 12, 1942, while children and he elderly people were deported from the Łódź ghetto to the Chełmno nad Nerem extermination center. Bronek, like over 2,000 other people, was officially excluded from deportation. He was placed in a shelter, that had previously been a hospital and had been emptied a few days earlier. The dozen or so words written by the six-year-old provide a backdrop against which the organization of the deportation and the efforts of the Jewish administration and parents to save their loved ones become apparent. These documents are also a unique evidence of family relationships during a period of immediate threat of death.

On April 28 and August 5, 1942, residents of nursing homes run by religious orders and municipal shelters in Włocławek were brutally loaded into cars and taken to an unknown destination. Correspondence between the city's occupation authorities and those of the Wartheland indicates that the municipal authorities initiated the liquidation of the institutions and subsequently took over their property. The April 28 transport was planned in connection with the liquidation of the Włocławek ghetto (April 30–May 2, 1942). Witnesses interviewed in 1945 recounted the events that transpired in the city. The extermination camp in Chełmno (German: Kulmhof) was identified as the execution site for inmates from the Włocławek institutions. Testimonies from a former prisoner of the Polish work command operating in the camp and from former camp staff interrogated in the 1960s are key to understanding these events.

The existence of a Jewish ghetto in Sosnowiec-Środula during World War II is largely unknown to the local community. With the vast majority of survivors now deceased and the district having undergone significant changes, opportunities to increase knowledge about the events of 1942–1943 seem limited. In recent years, however, the number of sources allowing for the formation of new threads of memory among the local community has increased. Narratives about the ghetto appear in books such as Salamandra by Ka-Tzetnik 135633, Paweł Wiederman's Płowa bestia, and Art Spiegelman's Maus: The Survivor's Tale, as well as in witness testimonies and memoirs. Most of these works and testimonies have not been translated into Polish and are difficult to access or poorly associated with Sosnowiec; however, they hold the greatest potential for memory creation. Evidence of this can be seen in the interest in initiatives organized to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the ghetto's liquidation, including a theatrical performance, a documentary film, excursions, lectures, and exhibitions. Literature was key to these activities, serving as inspiration and often as the only known trace of the characters, places, and events. In his article, the author provides an overview of texts concerning the ghetto in Środula, discussing their potential use in shaping the cultural memory of Sosnowiec's inhabitants. He also emphasizes the role of digital sources, archives, and publications in this process.

Artykuł jest poświęcony sytuacji Żydów z niepełnosprawnościami w getcie łódzkim. Jego bohaterowie to osoby niewidome, głuchonieme, sparaliżowane oraz z niepełnosprawnością intelektualną. W listach i podaniach o pomoc wysyłanych do Mordechaja Chaima Rumkowskiego opisywali swoją historię, sytuację i życie w getcie, trudności i nadzieję na ratunek. Fragmenty życiorysów autorów wybranych podań pozwalają bliżej poznać ich codzienność – niemal zawsze wyjątkowo wymagającą i ciężką. Wiele osób prosiło o umieszczenie ich w Domu Kalek, wierząc, że w tej instytucji będą mieli szansę przeżyć. Wybrane podania znajdujące się w łódzkim Archiwum Państwowym stały się podstawą do odszukania ich autorów i próby ustalenia ich losów. Opisywani w artykule Żydzi z niepełnosprawnościami niejednokrotnie żyli w podwójnej izolacji – uwięzieni w getcie i funkcjonujący poza obrębem społeczności pełnosprawnej. Często pozostawali bez jakiejkolwiek pracy, wsparcia finansowego czy rodziny. Artykuł służy przywołaniu i upamiętnieniu wyjątkowo bezbronnej, a wydaje się, że także zapomnianej, grupy osób żyjących w getcie łódzkim. Przytoczone w tekście cytaty ze sporządzonych przez nich podań dowodzą sprawczości, samostanowienia oraz niezwykłej woli przetrwania tych osób.

The word “Zionism,” used in various ways and contexts, has returned to public discourse in the face of Israeli policy, the war in Gaza, and attitudes toward Jews in general. The ways in which it is used show that it generally serves to stigmatize and obscures more than it explains. By whom and for what purpose is it used? To what extent does it currently resonate with the “March rhetoric” of 1967–1968? Why should it be demystified, reclaimed, and restored to its lost meanings? The author attempts to answer these and other questions.

In 2015, Tomasz Pietrasiewicz, the director of the Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre Centre, wrote the poem Miasto odchodzi (The City is Departing), dedicating it to the victims of the Holocaust in Lublin. Eight years later, in 2023, the poem appeared as a mural on the inner wall of the gate under Zamkowa Street. This street connects Podwale with Zamkowy Square, i.e. the former Christian part of the city with the former Jewish one, both symbolically and historically. In the article, the author interprets the poem as an original form of artistic commemoration of the former residents of the Jewish district in Lublin and the various public institutions established by its residents. In his poem, Pietrasiewicz engages in poetic dialogue with important Lublin artists: Jakub Glatsztejn, Julia Hartwig, Paul Celan, and Józef Czechowicz. He also dialogues with authors who commemorated the victims of the Holocaust in their poetry: Antoni Słonimski, Zbigniew Herbert, Czesław Miłosz, and Tadeusz Różewicz.

The article discusses issues related to the commemoration of Roman Dmowski, leader of the nationalist camp in interwar Poland. A roundabout in the former Jewish district of Lublin was named after him, which sparked the discussion. The author begins with the description of the procedure by which the City Council adopted the decision to name the roundabout after Dmowski and voted on it. The author discusses the reactions to Dmowski’s death in 1939, considering the local context, Dmowski’s anti-Semitism, and the conspiracy theories he espoused. The author also discusses the reactions of Polish nationalists to the Holocaust and their ideological justifications. Subsequent sections address the postwar fate of the Jewish district in Lublin during the Polish People’s Republic and the period following the fall of communism. They also examine the circumstances surrounding the erection of a flagpole bearing the national flag at the Dmowski roundabout in 2018, which heightened the significance of the site. Finally, the author considers the consequences of Dmowski’s presence in this location in the context of commemorating the history of Jewish Lublin and the possibility of changing this situation.

In her article, the author discusses the temporary exhibition, “1945: Not the End, Not the Beginning,” which was presented at the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews from March 7 to September 15, 2025. The exhibition was curated by Zuzanna Schnepf-Kołacz, Zuzanna Benesz-Goldfinger, and Justyna Majewska and was conceived by Anna Bikont and Kamil Kijek. The author analyzes the exhibition’s narrative and relates it to Bikont's book, Not the End, Not the Beginning. The Postwar Choices of Polish Jews

This article reviews Elżbieta Depta’s play, Auschwitz Tour, performed at the Ludwik Solski Theater in Tarnów. The author analyzes the performance, which is inspired by guided tours of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. The author takes a comparative approach: she refers to Maria Kobielska’s concept of “devices for remembering” and Marvin Carlson’s “theater as a memory machine.” The performance attempts to combine a critical meta-narrative on commemoration and a didactic tool addressed  by the theater at students of local schools.

This article focuses on the potential shift in Holocaust historiography towards oral history archives, examining how the Holocaust was experienced by non-Jewish inhabitants of Polish villages and provincial towns. For over a decade, we have observed the development of innovative research breaking with the traditional historiography of the folk movement during the war. This research is devoted to the third phase of the Holocaust, which actually took place in the Polish provinces. The author summarizes what we have learned from studies based on indirect sources, such as materials from wartime and postwar trials, Jewish diaries, memoirs, and accounts. It also suggests ways to find “first-person” sources in oral history archives to transcend the paradigm of “peasant witnesses' silence.” This potential is revealed in Piotr Sadzik’s article, “We Saw with Our Own Eyes. Polish Witnesses to the Liquidations of Ghettos in the Provinces: An Analysis of Oral History Sources,” which appeared in the volume Oto widać i oto słychać [Here You Can See and Here You Can Hear: Witnesses to the Holocaust in Occupied Poland] (2024). This revelatory analysis of audiovisual testimonies paves the way for developing the folk history of the Holocaust, as it is virtually impossible to collect biographical and ethnographic interviews from Holocaust witnesses.

The author presents several works published under the auspices of Instytut Dziedzictwa Myśli Narodowej im. Romana Dmowskiego i Ignacego Jana Paderewskiego [The Roman Dmowski and Ignacy Jan Paderewski Institute of National Thought Heritage], an institution established in 2020 to renew interest in nationalist heritage in Polish historiography. The author considers how much of this represents new trends and how much represents a refreshed past.

The subject of this review is Sławomir Buryła's book "March and the Holocaust. Points of Encounter." The discussion concerns the content of the book, its structure, methodology, and above all, the author's point of view, which is focused on reckoning.