Wyświetl 2008: Holocaust Studies and Materials

2008: Holocaust Studies and Materials

ISSN:
1895-247X
eISSN:
2657-3571

Data publikacji:
2008-11-02

Dział: Od Redakcji

Understanding the Holocaust. A Task for Generations

Jacek Leociak

jleociak@gmail.com

profesor zwyczajny w Instytucie Badań Literackich PAN, kierownik Zakładu Badań nad Literaturą Zagłady IBL PAN, członek Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów przy IFiS PAN, redaktor rocznika „Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały”. Wraz z Barbarą Engelking jest opiekunem naukowym galerii Zagłada w Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich Polin w Warszawie Zajmuje się różnymi formami zapisu doświadczeń granicznych (w tym doświadczenia Zagłady). W ostatnich latach wydał nowe, zmienione, poprawione i rozszerzone wydanie książki Getto warszawskie. Przewodnik po nieistniejącym mieście (2013, wspólnie z Barbarą Engelking), Tekst wobec Zagłady. O relacjach z getta warszawskiego
(wyd. 2 2016), Biografie ulic. O ulicach Warszawy od narodzin po Zagładę (2017), Młyny boże. zapiski o Kościele i Zagładzie (2018).

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1471-6926

Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, 2008: Holocaust Studies and Materials, strony: 11-20

Data publikacji: 2008-12-01

https://doi.org/10.32927/ZZSiM.58

Abstrakt

The Holocaust destroyed virtually the entire Jewish community in Poland. Zusman Segałowicz, the pre-war chairman of the Jewish Union of Writers and Journalists of 13 Tłomackie Street, Warsaw, managed to leave Warsaw in 1939 and via Vilna, Kaunas, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Syria reached Palestine, where, under the beating Tel-Aviv sun, he pondered on the burning ruins of the ghetto. His memoirs, published in 1946 in Argentina (the author died in New York in 1949), contain the following passage: I pass conflagration sites. I dig in the ashes. For the time being, these are the ashes of 13 Tłomackie St. All that is left of the entire Jewish world in Poland is a cemetery. Sometimes our pain leads us to divide this great cemetery into individual, smaller cemeteries: the cemetery of the Hassidic world, the cemetery of Jewish workers, merchants, entrepreneurs and industrialists, the cemetery of Jewish children who were to be our future. Finally, our thoughts run toward the cemetery of the Jewish spirit: the theatre, music, art, journalism and literature. We cannot depart from any of these cemeteries, but, at the same time, we should not come too close, for it could drag one into its endless abyss. What are we to do then? Shout? The dead won't hear us, and the world of the living is more dead than the world of the dead.
The Holocaust happened on our soil, in full view of Polish society, and it is an integral part – whether one wants it or not – of Polish history. For the Poles, the experience of the Holocaust remains a unique event and carries extraordinary responsibilities. Nevertheless, in terms of social awareness, the Shoah seems to belong to Jewish rather than to Polish history. Even today many Poles feel ill at ease, threatened or outright disappointed by the Jewish perceptions of the Holocaust and oftentimes the Jews are seen as rivals in the martyrology competition. Despite the recent historical research and public debates, culminating with the discussion around the Jedwabne crime, Polish society largely ignores the issues related to the Holocaust. Still too many myths and lies find their way to the public sphere and enter public circulation. This state of affairs is related, to a certain extent, to the sad legacy of decades of censorship and neglect under the communist rule. We believe that this should change. This is why we shall link research with educational activities in order to foster the knowledge of issues related to the Holocaust.

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Statystyki

Leociak, J. (2008). Understanding the Holocaust. A Task for Generations. Zagłada Żydów. Studia I Materiały, 11-20. https://doi.org/10.32927/ZZSiM.58

Udostępnij

                            Wyświetl 2008: Holocaust Studies and Materials

2008: Holocaust Studies and Materials

ISSN:
1895-247X
eISSN:
2657-3571

Data publikacji:
2008-11-02

Dział: Od Redakcji