Results found: 2

Search results

Sort By:

Limit search:

Szymona Wiesenthala rozważania o nazizmie i totalitaryzmie

100%

Stankowski W.

Studia nad Autorytaryzmem i Totalitaryzmem

2012

vol. 34

issue 2

119-132

Simon Wiesenthal does not belong to the circle of intellectuals or professional researchers of the age of the Nazi or the totalitarian period. However, this amateur’s reflections must not be ignored in a debate devoted to these issues. It is due to the fact that as a witness to history and a documentalist of the Second World War, as well as an observer of the events in the post-war period, he brings valuable input in the scholarly view of Nazism and totalitarianism. Simon Wiesenthal is the founder of the Jewish Documentation Center in Vienna, Austria. The Center’s main aim was to collect evidence to prove the guilt of Nazi war criminals who committed various kinds of atrocities during the Second World War. In the post-war period, during the time of the so-called Cold War, the Center monitored the level of awareness of societies regarding the times of Nazism and totalitarianism. Simon Wiesenthal was born in 1908 in the city of Buchach in present-day Ukraine. He dreamed of acquiring the profession of an architect, but the Second World War foiled these plans. Owing much to luck, Wiesenthal survived the liquidation of the ghetto in Lvov. He was imprisoned in several camps. His last concentration camp was Konzentrationslager Mauthausen in Austria. It was there that on 5 May, 1945 half-dying Wiesenthal regained freedom. When gathering information about his countrymen who survived the war or were killed, he mainly began to analyze the atrocious Nazi regime. Seeking the perpetrators of the Nazi war crimes and studying the structure of lawlessness during the war became his main task. Wiesenthal did not limit the scope of the crimes of Nazism only to Jewish victims. He believed that the Nazi system in its very nature was criminal and it made no distinction between Jews, Russians, Poles or representatives of other nationalities. Hence, he attached great importance to eradication of the evil of Nazism by confronting its past in court. In his documentary work and publications, Simon Wiesenthal emphasizes that Nazism would not have emerged without a specific foundation. The system arose gradually, subtly, creating a specific structure, which was tightening like a noose. During the Second World War, crimes against humanity and peace as well as genocide became the apogee of Nazism. They were preceded by certain actions that bore signs of the emerging crime. When assessing each crime, Wiesenthal pays special attention to its content. Then, the content gives way to the scope. Anti-Semitism was a determinant of Nazism. Thus, during his whole life, Simon Wiesenthal was sensitive to all forms of anti-Semitism. Wherever such actions occured, whether in the form of slogans or anti-Semitic views, they provoked Wiesenthal to anger and anxiety that the totalitarian state or the totalitarian ideology would return. Lack of reaction to even minor anti-Semitic opinions or behavior may be a prelude to the apogee of the threat to democracy. Wiesental linked condemnation of the Nazi crimes with the faith in justice. In his reasoning, it is indeed the foundation of life. He linked justice with the law. Similarly as for the philosopher Hegel, for Wiesenthal the law was an objective phenomenon. He did not concentrate solely on the past but was an active observer of the development of the international situation in the post-war world, in Europe. During the Cold War and the Iron Curtain, Wisenthal saw threats to democracy and violation of human rights. He criticized the Sovietization of Central and Eastern Europe after the Second World War. He pointed to the lack of democracy in the dependent countries which came under the influence of the Soviet Union. He defined Stalinism as totalitarianism, comparing it with the Nazi totalitarianism. When accusing the Soviet Union of the lack of democracy, Wiesenthal pointed at specific examples of persecution of the people who disagreed with the existing system. He demonstrated his negative attitude towards communism in various ways. From beginning to end, Simon Wiesenthal was consistent in his view on totalitarianism. He negatively assessed all forms and manifestations of it. He held on to the view that totalitarianism always arises with the participation of particular individuals: the individuals who, by means of ideology, create or build a specific structure.

„Bayreuthiana” jako źródło do badań nad historią drugiej wojny światowej w świetle sprawozdania urzędnika niemieckiego o getcie łódzkim jako case study

100%

Stankowski W.

Przegląd Nauk Historycznych

2020

vol. 19

issue 1

263-278

Presented article describes material, source resources as Eastern Dokumentation (Ost-Dokumentation). In the light of relations deposited in the team, author presents the living conditions of Jewish community in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto during the Second World War which was reported by the one of German clerk. This report was written after the end of the war and was placed in archival collection storaged in German city named Bayreuth. From the name of this city, author has implemented a term „Bayreuthian” for archival collections which were placed in Bundesarchiv – Federal Archive in Bayreuth in Bavaria in Federal Republic of Germany. „Bayreuthiana” is the term which had been not functioning in previous times in a Polish and German historiography. Archival collections which are there located, they are rich source of information about social history, interpersonal relations, German-Polish relations during interwar period, also Second World War, and after 1945. Undoubtedly the „Bayreuthiana” in the form of written reports, they are subjective. However, they are a still specific source of information. One of this kind of report has three pages and is about ghetto in Łódź. Friedrich Prager is the author and what is more, he was a clerk of higher administrative level during war. After war he was living in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and in 1955 his report was made. In his report, he shows Litzmannstadt Ghetto, daily conditions there, daily life, and behaviors of Jewish community. He has tried to present normal living conditions of Jews and also to show functioning of different institutions such as grocery stores, pharmacies or hospitals.

Prezentowany artykuł opisuje zasoby materialne, źródłowe pod nazwą Ost-Dokumentation (Dokumentacja Wschodnia). W świetle zdeponowanych w tym zespole relacji autor przedstawia warunki życia ludności żydowskiej w getcie łódzkim podczas drugiej wojny światowej w świetle zachowanego sprawozdania jednego z niemieckich urzędników. Relacja ta została spisana po zakończeniu wojny i umieszczona w zespole archiwalnym przechowywanym w niemieckim mieście Bayreuth. Od nazwy tego miasta autor wprowadził określenie „Bayreuthiana” dla zespołów archiwalnych znajdujących się w tamtejszym Bundesarchiv – Archiwum Federalnym w Bayreuth, w Bawarii, w Republice Federalnej Niemiec. „Bayreuthiana” to pojęcie niefunkcjonujące wcześniej w historiografii polskiej i niemieckiej. Zespoły archiwalne tam zdeponowane stanowią bogate źródło informacji o historii społecznej, stosunkach międzyludzkich, relacjach polsko-niemieckich w okresie międzywojennym, także w czasie drugiej wojny światowej i po 1945 r. Niewątpliwie „Bayreuthiana” w formie relacji pisemnych osób mają charakter bardzo subiektywny. Są jednak pewnym, specyficznym źródłem informacji. Jedna z takich relacji, sprawozdań liczy trzy strony i dotyczy getta łódzkiego. Autorem jest Friedrich Prager, który był urzędnikiem wyższego szczebla podczas wojny. Po wojnie osiadł w Garmisch-Partenkirchen i w 1955 r. sporządził swoją relację. W relacji przedstawia getto łódzkie, warunki w nim panujące, życie codzienne, zachowania ludności żydowskiej. Próbuje przedstawić warunki życia Żydów w getcie jako w miarę normalne, pokazując funkcjonowanie różnych instytucji, takich jak sklepy, apteki, szpitale.

Refine search results

1 Przegląd Nauk Historycznych

1 Studia nad Autorytaryzmem i Totalitaryzmem

2 Stankowski W.

1 2020

1 2012

Search results

Szymona Wiesenthala rozważania o nazizmie i totalitaryzmie

„Bayreuthiana” jako źródło do badań nad historią drugiej wojny światowej w świetle sprawozdania urzędnika niemieckiego o getcie łódzkim jako case study