Academic literature on the topic '1939-1945 Jewish resistance'

ILLUSORY NON-ENTANGLEMENT: THIRD REICH IN ANTIFASCIST NARRATIVE THE CASE OF GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAntifascism, a historiographical doctrine formulated in the 30s of the twentieth century by G. Dimitrov, as aresult of the Soviet victory over the Third Reich acquired the status of official narrative in countries of the Communist Bloc. It played aparticular role in GDR as a primary source of state’s legitimization, especially in the early postwar years. Relating on selected historical sources and extensive literature on this subject to mention, among others, D. Diner, J. Herf, S. Kattago, A. Wolff-Powęska, K. Wóycicki, J. McLellan, M. Fulbrook Iintend to capture the disingenuous­ness of East German antifascism. Making use of lies, illusion or denial, applying selectiveness on facts or specific way of their interpretation, the GDR authorities managed to integrate the society around apositive yet erroneous myth of victorious mass resistance of the German working class against fascism. What is more, such antifascism played adefensive supervisory function: „univer­salizing” the period of 1939–1945 as another stage of long-term rivalry between the proletariat and capitalists it discursively blurred the historical continuity between the GDR and the Third Reich, and sustained the illusion of lack of guilt for the Holocaust which actual i.e. Jewish specificity remained unrecognized.

Although the Soviet partisan movement in the Second World War was one of a kind, in the sense that it was far more substantial than any comparable phenomenon in the West, the Jewish role within it had its own historical peculiarities. If Jewish motives for taking up arms against the occupying forces of the Third Reich were much the same as those of other partisans, they were forced to come to terms with the anti-Semitism not only of their Axis foes, but of so-called collaborators, anti-Nazi but anti-Soviet nationalists, and anti-Nazi but anti-Semitic Soviet partisans. This subject has not been explored by Soviet historians for obvious ideological reasons and the scant literature in English so far is limited largely to eye-witness accounts and insufficient statistics, which this thesis makes use of. Its purpose is to attempt to ascertain the Jewish contribution to the Soviet partisan movement and the circumstances, some of them unique, that defined it.

I analyze the behavior of Jews imprisoned in the Treblinka, Sobibór, and Birkenau extermination camps in order to illustrate a systematic process of deception and psychological conditioning, which the Nazis employed during World War II to preclude Jewish resistance to the Final Solution. In Chapter I, I present resistance historiography as it has developed since the end of the war. In Chapter II, I delineate my own argument on Jewish behavior during the Final Solution, limiting my definition of resistance and the applicability of my thesis to behavior in the extermination camp, or closed, environment. In Chapters III, IV, and V, I present a detailed narrative of the Treblinka, Sobibór, and Birkenau revolts using secondary sources and selected survivor testimony. Finally, in Chapter VI, I isolate select parts of the previous narratives and apply my argument to demonstrate its validity as an explanation for Jewish behavior.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2006.
Title from title screen. Jared Poley, committee chair; Alexandra Garbarini , Hugh Hudson, committee members. Electronic text (169 p.). Description based on contents viewed Apr. 30, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-169).

Published in 1985, Marguerite Duras' La Douleur is a collection of six autobiographical and semi-autobiographical short stories written during and just after the German Occupation. Echoing the French national sentiment of the 1970s and 1980s, these stories examine Duras' own capacity for good and evil, for forgetting, repressing, and remembering. The first of these narratives, the eponymous "La douleur," is the only story in the collection to take the form of a diary, and it is this narrative, along with a posthumously published earlier draft of the same text, that will be the focus of this thesis. In both versions, Duras recounts her last tortuous months of waiting for her husband, Robert Antelme, to return from a German concentration camp after he was arrested and deported for his participation in the French Resistance. Though Duras claims in her 1985 preface to "La douleur" that she has no memory of having written this diary and that it has "nothing to do with literature," when it is compared to the original version it becomes clear that substantial changes in style and tone were made to the 1985 version before publication. Though many of Duras' peers disregarded this rewritten version of "La douleur" as a shameful distortion of the truth, it is my contention that historical accuracy was never Duras' primary goal. Instead, what manifests in these two versions of the same story is Duras' path toward understanding and closure in the wake of a traumatic event. Using a combination of psychoanalytic and post-structuralist theory, I will show that Truth and History are essentially incompatible when narrating trauma. Instead what is central to these two texts is their emotional accuracy: the manner in which the feelings and impressions associated with a traumatic event are accurately portrayed.

Laurence Prempain consacre sa thèse de doctorat d’histoire aux Polonais-es et Juif-ve-s polonais-es venu-e-s vivre à Lyon (France) entre 1935 et 1945. Dans une première partie, elle présente le cadre géographique (Lyon) ainsi que sa méthodologie (approche par le genre, choix de la microhistoire, le silence comme source) et sa volonté de donner à entendre leurs voix afin de les placer au coeur de sa démarche. Pour cela, suite au dépouillement de quelque 600 dossiers administratifs constitués par le bureau de contrôle des étrangers (préfecture du Rhône), les lettres qu’ils-elles ont écrites ont été collectées pour ce qu’elles mettent au jour de la lutte de leurs auteur-e-s pour vivre et survivre. L’historienne part du postulat que les Polonais-es et Juif-ve-s polonais-es venu-e-s en France composent une population hétérogène n’ayant en commun qu’un rattachement à une citoyenneté, mais qu’ils-elles n’en demeurent pas moins des réfugié-e-s économiques, politiques ou de guerre. Ainsi, un temps considéré-e-s comme les bienvenu-e-s, les ressortissant-e-s polonais-es sont tous-tes, à un moment de leur parcours de vie, considéré-e-s comme indésirables. Aussi, la deuxième partie est consacrée à l’exploration des procédés auxquels la Troisième République, puis le régime de Vichy ont recours : expulsions, refoulements, exclusions, internements sinon déportation. Par ailleurs, l’auteure s’intéresse aux sorties de guerre et démontre l’existence d’une dimension genrée de l’épuration, comme expression d’une tentative de réappropriation de l’autorité. L’attention est également portée sur l’organisation du rapatriement des étranger-ère-s déporté-e-s raciaux et politiques. Enfin, dans une troisième partie, elle affirme que loin de subir, ces hommes et femmes agissent et développent des stratégies évolutives. Au travers des lettres qu’ils-elles ont écrites, de ce qui est dit mais aussi passé sous silence, elle établit que ces stratégies semblent relever de ce qu’elle choisit de nommer esquive et transgression. L’une s’accommode des limites quand l’autre s’y oppose délibérément. Esquive et transgression se complètent. Il est montré qu’à l’arbitraire sans cesse croissant du régime de Vichy, répondent des stratégies de plus en plus transgressives, dont relèvent notamment le passage de frontière, l’entrée en clandestinité et en résistance. Le passage d’une forme de stratégie à l’autre dépend de l’individu, du contexte, de ses habiti, de son parcours et de son identité. L’historienne conclut qu’en 2016, la crise des réfugié-e-s qui secoue l’Europe résonne des mêmes voix, de celles et ceux qui cherchent à protéger leurs vies et à vivre dans la dignité
Laurence Prempain dedicates her PhD (History) to the study of the Poles and Polish Jews who came to live in Lyon (France) between 1935 and 1945. In the first part, she presents the geographical framework (Lyon), her methodology (Gender approach, microhistory and silence as a source) and her will to understand their voices and place them to the heart of her work. For that purpose, upon the examination of approximately 600 administrative files amassed by the « bureau des étrangers » (préfecture du Rhône), the letters they wrote have been then systematically collected to shed light on their authors’ struggle to live and survive. The historian starts from the postulate that Poles and Polish Jews in France make up a heterogeneous population, only sharing a common citizenship, nonetheless they remain economic, political and war refugees. Thus, once considered welcomed, all Polish nationals are , at their life, considered as unwanted, « indésirables ». Therefore, the second part investigates the processes used by the Third Republic and then the Vichy Regime to get rid of them: expulsions, driving back, exclusions, internments or deportation. Moreover, the author raises the question of the war ends and demonstrates that purges have a gendered dimension, which can be seen as an attempt of reappropriation of the authority. She also focuses on the foreign deportees repatriation’s organisation. Finally, in a third part, she asserts that far from being subjected, these men and women have acted and developped evolutive strategies. Through the letters they wrote, through what is said and what is silenced, she establishes that those strategies are a matter of what she names sidestep and transgression. The first one adapts itself with the limits while the other is deliberately opposed to it. Sidestep and transgression complete each other. It is also showed that to the arbitrary of the richy regime respond strategies more and more transgressive, such as clandestinity, cross borders and resistance. The moving from a strategy to another one, depends on the person, the context, the habits, the life course and the identity. The historian concludes that in 2016, the refugees crisis that shakes Europe resonates of the same voices, of those who are looking for protecting their lives and to living in dignity

La thèse propose d’éclairer les trajectoires et les œuvres d’artistes survivants des camps nazis, français ou installés en France après la guerre, leur tentative de transmettre l’expérience de la déportation et du génocide ou au contraire leur volonté de fuir ces thématiques, les langages plastiques et l’iconographie empruntés, les déclencheurs mémoriels et les éventuelles mutations des choix de chacun pour témoigner, représenter, remémorer durant cinquante ans. Quelques rares artistes ont eu l’opportunité de créer in situ : nous étudions également les motivations, les conditions de création et les spécificités de ces dessins des camps. Après 1945, entre mémoire, révolte et résilience, les artistes de ce corpus, déportés pour faits de résistance ou au titre des persécutions et de la mise en œuvre de la solution finale, ont dû mener une lutte intérieure contre les douloureuses réminiscences des camps et parfois un combat militant pour diffuser leur message face aux offensives antisémites et négationnistes. La complexité de la transfiguration en termes plastiques du traumatisme a suscité doutes et réflexions : transmettre sans trahir, témoigner sans renoncer à l’art. Les peintres, sculpteurs et graveurs de ce corpus n’ont en en effet jamais cessé de se définir prioritairement comme des artistes : l’essence et la portée universelle de la création, ainsi que les références tutélaires de l’histoire de l’art ont épaulé les artistes dans ce processus cathartique. Si les cadavres, corps anonymes et suppliciés, peuplent l’univers visuel de l’après-guerre, les artistes rescapés convoquent les disparus et réinsufflent chair et individualité aux êtres aimés, figurés souffrants, combattants ou tendres, mais dignes et debout. Notre objet d’étude se concentre également sur les modalités et les formes évolutives de la rencontre entre ces œuvres liées à la mémoire de la déportation et la France, de l’après-guerre aux commémorations du cinquantième anniversaire de la libération des camps : la diffusion auprès du public français à l’occasion d’expositions individuelles, collectives ou de salons ; la communication autour de ces problématiques dans les catalogues, les cartons d’expositions et les publications ; la réception des œuvres à travers la presse, les acquisitions publiques et les décorations honorifiques, ainsi que l’accueil spécifique des associations de déportés et de la communauté juive avec notamment la création du premier Musée d’art juif français
The thesis attempts to shed light on French artists and artists who lived in France after the war after surviving the Nazi camps, and the life they lead after the camps and their work. It also looks at their efforts to pass on their experience of the deportation and the genocide, or on the other hand their desire to flee the themes, esthetic language and the iconography used. The triggers to the memory and the eventual mutation of choices by each person to be witness, to represent, to recollect during fifty years will also be addressed. A few rare artists had the opportunity to create in situ: we will also study the motivation, the conditions of creation and the particularities of the drawings in the camps. After 1945, between memory, revolt and resilience, the artists of this group, deported for their activities in the resistance or due to persecution and the installation of the final solution, had to lead an interior struggle against the painful reminiscences of the camps and sometimes an activist’s fight to spread their message in opposition to anti-Semite attacks and Holocaust deniers. The complexity of the transfiguration in terms of visual representations of trauma brought up doubts and reflections: transmitting without betraying, witnessing without giving up art. The painters, sculptors and engravers of this group have never really stopped defining themselves mainly as artists: the essence and the universal scope of creation, as well as the custodians of art history having placed this cathartic process on the shoulders of the artists. If the corpses, the anonymous and tortured bodies, inhabit the visual universe after the war, the artists that escaped, summoned those that disappeared and gave flesh and individuality to loved ones, represented as suffering, fighting or tender, but dignified and standing. The study also concentrates on the terms and changing forms of the reception in France of the works linked to the memory of the deportation, post-war to the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of the camps: the distribution to the French public via individual or group exhibitions and art fairs ; the promotion concerning these issues in the literature about the exhibitions and the artists ; the press reactions, the public acquisitions and the public decorations, including the specific reception by the associations of those deported and the Jewish community especially with the creation of the French Jewish art museum

The task of this diploma thesis is to describe events in years 1939-1945 which took place in Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and which had also specific impacts on the central-Bohemian town of Příbram. The thesis is based on written sources of information held in State Regional Archive in Příbram, accessible literature and at last but not least memories of personal observers who lived through the war when they were children. In this work I concentrate on the impacts of the war on lives of ordinary people who suffered their personal tragedies and experienced encounters that completely changed their lives. The thesis is divided into 7 chapters. First chapter deals with the history of Příbram beginning with prehistory and finishing with contemporary days. This chapter also mentions Svatá Hora and Březové Hory because these places create an important part of the location. Second chapter describes the situation right before the war and feelings of people towards the declaration of the protectorate. The next chapter talks about the history of Mining Technical University which was a part of the town nearly for 100 years. The university, as well as many other schools of this type, was closed and some of its students were arrested and deported to the concentration camp Sachsenhausen. Fourth charter is about Jewish and Gipsy question which is a quite popular topic even today. Fifth chapter includes description of the atmosphere of everyday life during the war through children´s eyes but also cultural life of the town. Sixth chapter focuses on the period of the great terror after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, which influenced also people in Příbram. The last chapter speaks about the fight of Czech people to re-establish the independent state in which people from Příbram and its surroundings participated as well. This chapter also deals with the last fight in the central Europe which took place near the town of Příbram. The thesis combines general context and particular events happening in Příbram and it tries to look closely at the period of the Second World War full of anxiety, worries and hope.