During the first months following Germany's attack on Poland, some members of the Jewish communit... more During the first months following Germany's attack on Poland, some members of the Jewish community managed to sneak away to the eastern frontiers of the country which had been invaded and annexed by the Red Army in the second half of September 1939. The tragic experiences of these refugees, heretofore somehow neglected by Holocaust scholars, have recently become the subject of profound academic reflection. One of the sources of knowledge about the fate of Jewish refugees from Poland are their memoirs. In this article the author reflects on three autobiographical texts written by Polish Jewish women, female refugees who survived the Holocaust thanks to their stay in Soviet Russia, namely Ola Watowa, Ruth Turkow Kaminska, and Sheyne-Miriam Broderzon. Each of them experienced not only the atrocities of war, but also, most of all, the cruelty of the Communist regime. All three of them suffered persecution by the oppressive Soviet authorities in different ways and at different times. While Ola Watowa experienced (in person, as well as through the fate of her family and friends) the bitter taste of persecution and deportation during WWII, Sheyne-Miriam Broderzon lived a relatively peaceful life in that period (1939-1945), and Ruth Turkow Kaminska even enjoyed the luxurious lifestyle reserved for the privileged members of the establishment, and it was not until the years immediately after the war that the latter two women would face the true image of Communism as its victims. The Wats managed to leave the USSR shortly after the war, whereas for the Broderzons and the Turkows the war would not end until the death of Stalin and their subsequent return to Poland in 1956. According to Mary G. Mason, the immanent feature of women's autobiographical writings is the self-discovery of one's own identity through the simultaneous identification of some 'other.' It is thanks to the rootedness of one's own identity through the connection with a cer
... Book Publishing House 111 Moshe Shklar The Newspaper Folks-shtime (People&#x2... more ... Book Publishing House 111 Moshe Shklar The Newspaper Folks-shtime (People's Voice), 1948-1968: a Personal Account 135 Joseph Sobelman Nasz ... Remarks 165 Magdalena Sitarz The image of Postwar Poland in the Works of Leyb Olitski 185 Thomas Soxberger God of Iron ...
This article is a short guide to selected Yiddish language sources which, to date, have been litt... more This article is a short guide to selected Yiddish language sources which, to date, have been little utilised in researching the history and culture of Częstochowa Jews in the first half of the 20th century. The author discusses briefly twenty one items from the press during the period of the Second Polish Republic, which are listed in A Preliminary Inventory of Yiddish Dailies and Periodicals Published in Poland Between the Two World Wars (ed. Y. Szeintuch, Jerusalem 1986). She specifically refers to the Czenstochower Cajtung (1929-1939), which, thanks to her efforts, have been made available online on the Jagiellonian Library website. In addition, she introduces seven Częstochowa Yizkor (Memory) Books, which cover the most important topics in the languages in which they were published. They are also available online through the New York City Public Library website, with translations into English
Prezentowana antologia ma przybliżyć nieobecną (lub obecną w niewielkim wymiarze) w świadomości p... more Prezentowana antologia ma przybliżyć nieobecną (lub obecną w niewielkim wymiarze) w świadomości polskiego (i światowego) czytelnika poezję jidysz, która powstawała i była publikowana w powojennej Polsce przez ponad dwadzieścia lat. Zasadniczym kryterium, które decydowało o doborze utworów umieszczonych w tym tomie, uczyniłam czas i miejsce powstania i/lub publikacji. Oznacza to, że zaprezentowałam tutaj jedynie te wiersze, które powstały w latach 1945-1968 w Polsce i tutaj zostały opublikowane. W antologii znalazły się też utwory napisane, a często również wydane wcześniej – w międzywojniu lub w czasie wojny, które wolą autorów zostały przypomniane w powojennej Polsce poprzez umieszczenie ich w zbiorach publikowanych po 1945 roku. W doborze tekstów uczyniłam jeden wyjątek od przyjętej zasady czasu i miejsca powstania i/lub publikacji. Dotyczyło to utworów odnoszących się do Polski i powstałych jeszcze w Polsce, ale w niej nieopublikowanych ze względów cenzuralnych, jak również utwor...
Samuel Jakub (Shmuel Yankev) Imber (1889-1942), a Yiddish and Polish poet and critic, can be rega... more Samuel Jakub (Shmuel Yankev) Imber (1889-1942), a Yiddish and Polish poet and critic, can be regarded as the spiritual father of modern Yiddish poetry in Galicia. He wrote also for Polish-Jewish press, trying to improve the image of Jews in the eyes of their Polish fellow citizens. This matter was a major concern already in his long poem Esterke (1911), one of the high points of Imber's oeuvre in which he called for a harmonious coexistence of Jews and Poles. In the 1930s, when antisemitism was on the rise in Poland, Imber published two collections of articles in Polish: Asy czystej rasy [The Purebred Aces; 1934] and Kąkol na roli [The Weed in the Fields; 1938], in which he sought to counteract the ways in which Jews had been portrayed by the Polish nationalist press. The article discusses the significance of the poem Esterke and of selected texts from both collections of articles.
The extermination of more than 90% of the pre-war Jewish population, the destruction of their mat... more The extermination of more than 90% of the pre-war Jewish population, the destruction of their material culture, the impoverishment of all survivors and the lack of clear prospects for their future, as well as political changes and the prevalent Polish anti- Semitism had a major impact on the lives of Jews in Poland in the first years after World War II. The article discusses numerous examples of the literary works of Yiddish poets such as: Khayim Grade, Binem Heller, Hersh Volf Ivan, Moshe Knaphays, David Sfard, Avrom Sutskever, Yeshaye Shpigel, Avrom Zak, Moshe Zaltsman, and Reyzl Zhykhlinski. The works testify both to the trauma of the majority of the survivors which resulted in their emigration, as well as to the hope of some of them for a good future in their Polish homeland. In conclusion, the author of the article maintains that the idea of nusekh Poyln, which meant the willingness to stay in communist Poland and build a secular Jewish culture within the framework of a very li...
During the first months following Germany's attack on Poland, some members of the Jewish communit... more During the first months following Germany's attack on Poland, some members of the Jewish community managed to sneak away to the eastern frontiers of the country which had been invaded and annexed by the Red Army in the second half of September 1939. The tragic experiences of these refugees, heretofore somehow neglected by Holocaust scholars, have recently become the subject of profound academic reflection. One of the sources of knowledge about the fate of Jewish refugees from Poland are their memoirs. In this article the author reflects on three autobiographical texts written by Polish Jewish women, female refugees who survived the Holocaust thanks to their stay in Soviet Russia, namely Ola Watowa, Ruth Turkow Kaminska, and Sheyne-Miriam Broderzon. Each of them experienced not only the atrocities of war, but also, most of all, the cruelty of the Communist regime. All three of them suffered persecution by the oppressive Soviet authorities in different ways and at different times. While Ola Watowa experienced (in person, as well as through the fate of her family and friends) the bitter taste of persecution and deportation during WWII, Sheyne-Miriam Broderzon lived a relatively peaceful life in that period (1939-1945), and Ruth Turkow Kaminska even enjoyed the luxurious lifestyle reserved for the privileged members of the establishment, and it was not until the years immediately after the war that the latter two women would face the true image of Communism as its victims. The Wats managed to leave the USSR shortly after the war, whereas for the Broderzons and the Turkows the war would not end until the death of Stalin and their subsequent return to Poland in 1956. According to Mary G. Mason, the immanent feature of women's autobiographical writings is the self-discovery of one's own identity through the simultaneous identification of some 'other.' It is thanks to the rootedness of one's own identity through the connection with a cer
... Book Publishing House 111 Moshe Shklar The Newspaper Folks-shtime (People&#x2... more ... Book Publishing House 111 Moshe Shklar The Newspaper Folks-shtime (People's Voice), 1948-1968: a Personal Account 135 Joseph Sobelman Nasz ... Remarks 165 Magdalena Sitarz The image of Postwar Poland in the Works of Leyb Olitski 185 Thomas Soxberger God of Iron ...
This article is a short guide to selected Yiddish language sources which, to date, have been litt... more This article is a short guide to selected Yiddish language sources which, to date, have been little utilised in researching the history and culture of Częstochowa Jews in the first half of the 20th century. The author discusses briefly twenty one items from the press during the period of the Second Polish Republic, which are listed in A Preliminary Inventory of Yiddish Dailies and Periodicals Published in Poland Between the Two World Wars (ed. Y. Szeintuch, Jerusalem 1986). She specifically refers to the Czenstochower Cajtung (1929-1939), which, thanks to her efforts, have been made available online on the Jagiellonian Library website. In addition, she introduces seven Częstochowa Yizkor (Memory) Books, which cover the most important topics in the languages in which they were published. They are also available online through the New York City Public Library website, with translations into English
Prezentowana antologia ma przybliżyć nieobecną (lub obecną w niewielkim wymiarze) w świadomości p... more Prezentowana antologia ma przybliżyć nieobecną (lub obecną w niewielkim wymiarze) w świadomości polskiego (i światowego) czytelnika poezję jidysz, która powstawała i była publikowana w powojennej Polsce przez ponad dwadzieścia lat. Zasadniczym kryterium, które decydowało o doborze utworów umieszczonych w tym tomie, uczyniłam czas i miejsce powstania i/lub publikacji. Oznacza to, że zaprezentowałam tutaj jedynie te wiersze, które powstały w latach 1945-1968 w Polsce i tutaj zostały opublikowane. W antologii znalazły się też utwory napisane, a często również wydane wcześniej – w międzywojniu lub w czasie wojny, które wolą autorów zostały przypomniane w powojennej Polsce poprzez umieszczenie ich w zbiorach publikowanych po 1945 roku. W doborze tekstów uczyniłam jeden wyjątek od przyjętej zasady czasu i miejsca powstania i/lub publikacji. Dotyczyło to utworów odnoszących się do Polski i powstałych jeszcze w Polsce, ale w niej nieopublikowanych ze względów cenzuralnych, jak również utwor...
Samuel Jakub (Shmuel Yankev) Imber (1889-1942), a Yiddish and Polish poet and critic, can be rega... more Samuel Jakub (Shmuel Yankev) Imber (1889-1942), a Yiddish and Polish poet and critic, can be regarded as the spiritual father of modern Yiddish poetry in Galicia. He wrote also for Polish-Jewish press, trying to improve the image of Jews in the eyes of their Polish fellow citizens. This matter was a major concern already in his long poem Esterke (1911), one of the high points of Imber's oeuvre in which he called for a harmonious coexistence of Jews and Poles. In the 1930s, when antisemitism was on the rise in Poland, Imber published two collections of articles in Polish: Asy czystej rasy [The Purebred Aces; 1934] and Kąkol na roli [The Weed in the Fields; 1938], in which he sought to counteract the ways in which Jews had been portrayed by the Polish nationalist press. The article discusses the significance of the poem Esterke and of selected texts from both collections of articles.
The extermination of more than 90% of the pre-war Jewish population, the destruction of their mat... more The extermination of more than 90% of the pre-war Jewish population, the destruction of their material culture, the impoverishment of all survivors and the lack of clear prospects for their future, as well as political changes and the prevalent Polish anti- Semitism had a major impact on the lives of Jews in Poland in the first years after World War II. The article discusses numerous examples of the literary works of Yiddish poets such as: Khayim Grade, Binem Heller, Hersh Volf Ivan, Moshe Knaphays, David Sfard, Avrom Sutskever, Yeshaye Shpigel, Avrom Zak, Moshe Zaltsman, and Reyzl Zhykhlinski. The works testify both to the trauma of the majority of the survivors which resulted in their emigration, as well as to the hope of some of them for a good future in their Polish homeland. In conclusion, the author of the article maintains that the idea of nusekh Poyln, which meant the willingness to stay in communist Poland and build a secular Jewish culture within the framework of a very li...
Without Jews? Yiddish Literature in the People's Republic of Poland on the Holocaust, Poland and Communism, 2017
In previous decades, studies on history and culture o f Polish Jews and Polish-Jewish relations h... more In previous decades, studies on history and culture o f Polish Jews and Polish-Jewish relations have developed in Poland, Israel, the U S as well as several other coun tries. The series, "Studies in Jewish Civilization in Poland", has been established by the Jagiellonian University Press to prom ote achievements in these fields o f research. One very im portant issue is also to introduce research o f Polish scholars to the in ternational academ ic world. This series is supported by the The Marcell and M aria Roth Center for the H istory and Culture o f Polish Jews and Polish-Jewish Relations at the Institute o f Jewish Studies o f the Jagiellonian University.
Serdecznie podziękowania za wyrażenie zgody na publikację tekstów literackich zechcą przyjąć: Moj... more Serdecznie podziękowania za wyrażenie zgody na publikację tekstów literackich zechcą przyjąć: Mojsze Szklar, Irene Kupferszmidt, Ita Segal, Iwona Słucka, Elżbieta Ficowska, Menachem (Michael) Fox, Marek Kanter, Tomasz Lec, Zvi Mann oraz Leon Sfard.
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