Death Camps In Poland

Gustav Franz Wagner (1911-1980) was an Austrian SS-Oberscharführer and deputy commandant of the extermination camp Sobibór during Aktion Reinhardt. Beginning in 1940, he was a so-called "Brenner" at the Nazi killing center Hartheim, where he participated in the euthanasia program, the killing of handicapped people as part of Aktion T4.
Wagner is one of the best documented perpetrators from the extermination camps in East Poland.

Gustav Franz Wagner (1911-1980) was an Austrian SS-Oberscharführer and deputy commandant of the extermination camp Sobibór during Aktion Reinhardt. Beginning in 1940, he was a so-called "Brenner" at the Nazi killing center Hartheim, where he participated in the euthanasia program, the killing of handicapped people as part of Aktion T4. Wagner is one of the best documented perpetrators from the extermination camps in East Poland. His accommodation was located in the rear part of the Sobibór camp, next to the commander's house. He shared the "swallow's nest" house with his colleagues SS-Oberscharführer Karl Frenzel (1911-1996) and SS-Unterscharführer Hubert Gomerski (1911-1999). In the Johann Niemann photo albums published in 1920, Gustav Wagner can be seen in two pictures from early summer 1943, sitting on the terrace of the new casino in Sobibór. On his arm Wagner wears the insignia of the SS-Oberscharführers and on his lapel the insignia of the SS-Oberscharführers. On the sleeve of his uniform jacket he wears the double stripes of the "Spiess," who was responsible for keeping order in the camp.

Franz Reichleitner (1906–1944) war ein österreichischer Kriminalpolizist und SS-Führer aus Steyr. Während der Aktionen „T4“ und „14 f 13“ wurde er in der NS-Tötungsanstalt Hartheim eingesetzt und stieg später im Rahmen der „Aktion Reinhardt“ zum Kommandanten des Vernichtungslagers Sobibór auf.

Franz Reichleitner (1906-1944) was an Austrian criminal police officer and SS leader from Steyr. During the "T4" and "14 f 13" actions, he was deployed at the Nazi killing centre in Hartheim and later rose to become the commandant of the Sobibór extermination camp as part of "Aktion Reinhardt".

Franz Reichleitner (1906-1944) was an Austrian criminal police officer and SS leader from Steyr. During the "T4" and "14 f 13" actions, he was deployed at the Nazi killing centre in Hartheim and later rose to become the commandant of the Sobibór extermination camp as part of "Aktion Reinhardt".

The article indicates how the figure of Zofia Kossak has been recorded in the unpublished accounts by former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau female internees who during their internment came into contact with the famous writer and activist of the Polish Underground State. Their testimonies diverge from the hagiographic tone which has dominated the known stories of Kossak’s camp experiences, rather resembling Tadeusz Borowski’s infamous post-WWII article entitled Alicja w krainie czarów.

A new class of isoxazole-tethered diarylheptanoids having characteristic 1,3-syn-diol and 1,3-anti-diol chemophoric moieties, e.g. 4a-d and 5a-c respectively, have been designed and synthesized starting from d-glucose following a stereo-conserved general synthetic strategy. The isoxazole heterocycle was installed using our recently elaborated methodology deploying Magtrieve™ as a selective oxidizing agent. Two of these new analogs 4a and 5a exhibited significantly improved in vitro drug-like properties including solubility, metabolic stability, cell permeability and lack of nonspecific cytotoxicity when compared with curcumin-I. In a HEK293 cell-based intracellular calcium [Ca] release assay, 4a and 5a, when tested at 30 μM, inhibited the trypsin agonist induced protease-activated receptor-2 (PAR2) activity by 80% and 70% respectively. IC of 4a (SB70) has been determined as 6 μM which is in the same range of current benchmarks for PAR2 antagonists.

The implementation of the new ideological and artistic concept of the Museum and Memorial in Sobibór on the site of the former Nazi German death camp selected in the 2013 competition is discussed. The winning design is analysed; apart from the arranging of the area of the former camp, it also envisaged raising of a museum, the latter stage already completed with the building opened to the public in 2020. The concept of 'space of engagement' is proposed by the Author as best characterising a memorial site created on the premises of the former Nazi concentration camps and death camps for the people of Jewish descent. As a departure point, earlier examples of commemorating similar sites are recalled, beginning with the early monuments from the 1940s, through the 1957 competition for the International Monument to the Victims of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp, the latter of major impact on the process of the redefinition of monuments. The then awarded design of the The Road Monument by Oskar Hansen and his team, however unimplemented owing to the protest of former Auschwitz prisoners, became from that time onwards a benchmark for subsequent
concepts. Also the mentioned memorial design on the area of the former Belzec extermination camp from 2004 is related to James E. Young’s concept of a counter-monument.
The main subject of the paper’s analysis is, however, the reflection on means thanks to which the currently mounted Museum and Memorial in Sobibór, including the permanent display at the newly-raised Museum, become 'space of engagement' for contemporary public on different perception levels of their multi-sensual activity essential in the process of remembrance.

The article discusses the image of the city presented in the novel Smutna Wenecja by Wacław Kubacki, an outstanding literary historian, and how the writer’s interests and experiences influenced the topic and the character of the work (he utilised his journals). The city depicted by Kubacki seems to possess a dichotomous nature. The Venetian garden of the arts and the mecca of academics was contrasted with the Venice of poor and foul recesses. The author contrasted the Venice of tourists’ “unbridled excess” with the reality of the life of Venice’s proletariat. The article indicates the linguistic and compositional means which the writer used to reflect that duality, beauty, and ugliness. The article also indicates the dominant features of the novel, i.e. intellectualism and sensoriness.

This article shows how the ecology and nature of the Rzuchów Forest (in the Rzuchów district of the Koło forestry inspectorate in Greater Poland) was indirectly affected by the extermination of the Jewish population as a result of it being used to camouflage evidence of the crimes. Tracing the environmental history of commemoration in the forested part of the former death camp at Chełmno on the Ner (Chełmno nad Nerem/ Kulmhof an der Nehr) will give an indication of the ecological consequences of efforts to preserve the material traces of the camp and its natural surroundings. These efforts continued into the late 1980s. The ecology of commemoration and environmental commemoration form the two poles of this ecological continuum. It is possible to bring them closer together by furthering debates on the relationship between genocide and ecocide, while also expanding existing narratives on the Holocaust by turning to environmental aspects. This research is guided by the idea that it is necessary to rethink existing (and planned) forms of commemoration of crimes against humanity in the context of environmental ethics, with this approach leading to forms of commemoration at killing sites that give more consideration to the environment.

This publication is an edition of a historical source, a whole original war memories of Wiktoria Foltarz. This woman and her entire family was a victim of the Nazi regime. The historical period is 1940-1945 in occupied Poland. Her story begins in Pomerania in Toruń under Germany rule. Her peaceful life was suddenly interrupted by the Gestapo. Soon, her whole family was arrested and separated, some were murdered.
Wiktora spent long weeks in special camps for polish prisoners. The Germans turned former Polish military forts into prisons. Next Wiktoria was sent to the Concentration Camps – first Ravensbrück, then Majdanek. This long and bloody journey was depicted with amazing details. The author presented the luck of female prisoners, German sadism and general horror. It is worth paying attention to the female experience of the Concentration Camp. The feminine point of view broaden the understanding of the Camp reality.
The author describes not only her suffering but also the war reality changing around her. Life conditions dependent on the variables at the front. Wiktoria tells how the world of the Third Reich crumbled around her. The great success is her return to the home sides and town.
The historical source has been presented in the original version. This document has not beed previously published.

The subject of our analysis, conducted with the use of linguistic tools, is the phrase "Polish concentration camps." Our task is to place this phrase in the emotionally charged lexicon, i.e. among language stereotypes, and to suggest actions in the framework of so-called language policy. I will try to make the point that efforts to change this phrase, and even eliminate it from circulation, should not be limited to countering its automatic (conscious or unconscious) reproduction in the media, but need to be accompanied by a policy of eliminating the notion of Polish anti-Semitism (regardless of the elimination of all manifestations of anti-Semitism from Polish public life). This conclusion is drawn from a linguistic, especially lexicological, analysis of the discussed expression and its semantic field (lexical context). I will also propose semiotic methods of conducting language policy regarding the analysed expression, treated as a "pseudo-cognitive" category that distorts the flow of communication.

Wywiady z mieszkańcami Chełmna przeprowadzone przez the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Od roku 1996, czyli dwa lata po otwarciu Muzeum dla zwiedzajacych, jeden z jego działów " Oral History " , co jest tłumaczone na język polski jako " historia mówiona " , zapoczątkował wyjątkowy projekt przeprowadzenia i zarejestrowania wywiadów z nieżydowskimi świadkami Zagłady, w tym z ofiarami nazistowskich represji, z ratującymi Żydów, a także z kolaborantami i bezpośrednimi sprawcami zbrodni. Projektem objęto kraje europejskie, w tym Polskę, Litwę, Estonię, Czechy i Słowację. Jak nam wiadomo jest to jedyny tego typu projekt na świecie, bowiem inne instytucje skupiają się bądź na gromadzeniu relacji od uratowanych z Zagłady, bądź od osób które były ofiarami konkretnych obozów koncentracyjnych i obozów pracy. Muzeum realizuje projekt poprzez nagrywanie wywiadów techniką video, a tam gdzie to niemożliwe, techniką audio. Zależy nam szczególnie na tym, aby zebrany materiał był dostępny dla badaczy na taśmie filmowej, ponieważ obraz przekazuje nam pełne bogactwo informacji o osobie zdającej relację. Wiemy skądinąd jak wiele informacji w komunikacji międzyludzkiej przekazywanych jest różnymi sposobami niewerbalnymi – gestem, mimiką, wymową, akcentem, milczeniem, całą tak zwaną mową ciała. Dlatego chcemy, aby odbiorca mógł nie tylko czytać lub słyszeć relację, ale także widzieć tego, który ją zdaje. Naszym celem jest uzupełnienie wiedzy o okupacji hitlerowskiej i o samej Zagładzie poprzez zgromadzenie materiałów które pokazywałyby jak przeciętni ludzie obserwowali to co się wokół nich wydarzało, skąd czerpali o tym wiedzę, jak rozległa była to wiedza, jak reagowali na fakty zbrodni, czy w jakikolwiek sposób w nich uczestniczyli, wreszcie – co zapamiętali z tamtego okresu, jakie momenty i zdarzenia pozostały wyłącznie w ich indywidualnej pamięci, a jakie stały się częścią zbiorowej pamięci Polaków. Innymi słowy chcemy dowiedzieć się, co ludzie wówczas widzieli, wiedzieli, czuli i co czynili, oraz jak dziś swe przeżycia i doświadczenia przekazują innym. Na drugim planie pozostaje chęć uzupełnienia w oparciu o wywiady naszej wiedzy o tzw. faktach obiektywnych, ponieważ zdajemy sobie sprawę, że po kilkudziesięciu latach zabieg ten jest bardzo trudny, jeśli wręcz nie niemożliwy. Nie miejsce tu na to by dowodzić ważności wywiadów w badaniu historycznym i socjologicznym. Oczywistym jest bowiem dla każdego, że obraz przeszłości pozbawiony relacji naocznego świadka byłby obrazem nieprawdziwym,

The article discusses the literary representations of the Polish (communist) concentration/labour camp in Jaworzno (1945–1956), particularly the short story by Seweryna Szmaglewska entitled "Amnestia zastukała do bram" (1956), a novel by Kazimierz Koźniewski entitled "Bunt w więzieniu" (1968), and a short story by Sławomir Mrożek entitled "Jaworzno" (1985). The discussion also applied to the problem of ideological entanglement of Polish literature and Polish writers (particularly during the Stalinist period), and the reasons for their (and the society’s) “overlooking” the obvious manifestations of communist terror. Its alleged “invisibility” was analogous to the “invisibility” of the crimes committed by the Nazis, allegedly not noticed by the citizens of the Third Reich. Among Polish writers, that analogy between Nazism and communism was indicated by Mrożek, while the similarities of both totalitarian systems were identified also by Szmaglewska and Czesław Miłosz.

This article includes a terminological discussion regarding the notion of camp literature. Within Polish literary science, it is usually applied to literature raising the topic of German Nazi camps, particularly concentration camps and death camps, and, though less often, to Soviet camps, particularly forced labour camps. Yet the definition has proved to be excessively narrow. It should also cover, previously less studied, works of Polish literature regarding, i.a. the Polish concentration
camp in Bereza Kartuska, the communist labour camps established in post-WWII Poland, and the Spanish concentration camp in Miranda de Ebro. The notion camp literature could also be applied to works devoted to internment camps, POW camps, or even ghettoes.

My doctoral dissertation examines the experiences of the Italian volunteers in the Waffen-SS troops using in-depth interviews with former volunteers as the main primary source. This phenomenon, even if significant in size (depending on the source, some 15 000-20 000 Italian men volunteered in the Waffen-SS), has been hitherto largely unknown to historical research. The available literature on the Italian volunteers, mainly written by military history enthusiast journalists and methodologically weak, concentrates mainly on the combat operations and military organization, and offers a rather stereotypical profile of the volunteers.

My dissertation does not aim to reconstruct the military history of the different divisions of the Waffen-SS in which Italian volunteers operated but instead to examine the subjective, private and intimate experience of the volunteers in order to understand the motivations, attitudes, beliefs and cultural and family background, as well as their political ideas. The main objective of my doctoral dissertation is to discover the ideological precepts of the volunteers’ political credo. As the last phase of fascism and its ideology, often defined as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascism, is still the object of wide academic debate, a better understanding of the volunteers’ ideology also contributes to deepening overall knowledge of the nature of this last phase.

The theoretical frame of my dissertation lies in oral history, in particular in the postmodernist approach to oral history, through which I reconstruct the volunteers’ ideology. In-depth interviews with former volunteers are the main primary source, but multiple data collection methods have been adopted. Phone interviews and correspondence with the volunteers have also been considered as primary sources. In addition to interviews and correspondence, family archives consisting of diaries, correspondence with the volunteers’ relatives and photographic material have also been collected and examined. An ethnographic observation of the volunteers’ domestic spaces has been conducted during the in-depth interviews, and photo self-elicitation techniques have been used in cases where the volunteers were willing to share their photographs.

An exhaustive portrait of the ideological structure of the volunteers has been obtained, as well as of the cultural and social origins of the values that contributed to the rise and adoption of this ideology. Further, the volunteers’ motivations to enlist have been clearly reconstructed, together with their cultural, political, social and military backgrounds. The results of the research are particularly relevant both for comprehension of the Italian phenomenon of volunteering in the Waffen-SS and for the reconstruction of the ideological dynamics of the last phase of fascism. The volunteers’ political and ideological system, which can be defined as the Italian SS-fascist ideology, disagrees strongly with the vaguely described ideological profile offered by previous studies that describe volunteers as generically “super-fascist”. The research also offers the opportunity for a deeper understanding of the final fascist ideological trajectory, currently defined, not without a certain level of approximation, as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascist ideology.