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ABSTRACT
This article juxtaposes Anna Pawełczyńska’s writings with the works of Meir Dworzecki and Dov Levin. It will adopt a threefold analytical lens: first, using Pawełczyńska’s writings to reassess the conception of the early resistance that Dworzecki elaborated, second utilising Dworzecki’s viewpoint as a means to articulate Pawełczyńska’s perspective of Amidah, and then looking at Levin’s perspective on Pawełczyńska’s use of partisan testimony as a historical source. The main aims are to contribute to today’s debates on the Jewish resistance and the relevance of partisanship in Holocaust historiography. The article also highlights some debates on the relationship between history and memory, as well as the necessity of rethinking Catholic-Jewish relations in Poland before and after the war. It presses for a new discussion of Dan Michman’s discourse of Jewish resistance, or Yehuda Bauer’s conceptualisation of it, and underscores the originality of Levin’s thought on memory as an essential tool for history. By way of a conclusion, the reader is invited to rethink the Polish World War II historiography and to read Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik’s contribution about the blessings of the Amidah.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Research interests
Antisemitism and Racism, Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue, Judaism, Religious Pluralism, History of Holocaust Sociology
Education, academic and professional experience
From December 2021 she is Junior research fellow at FSCIRE and a member of the Pipeline Religion and politics Martyrology of People at Prayer
She held a ReIReS TNA Fellowship (Horizon 2020) at KU Leuven for the research “Reading R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s ‘Confrontation’ within the Context of De Libertate Religiosa” (20 June-11 July 2021) and EHRI Fellowship at the Wiener Library in London for conducting the research “Internet-based Holocaust Denial: Analysis of the (Pseudo) Sceptical Methodology in Bradley R. Smith’s Revisionist Texts” (September-October 2018).
From 2020 she is a member of the editorial team of Journal of Political Science and International Relations
From 2015 to 2022 she is a contract professor in Contemporary History at the University of Calabria (1st October-31st December 2015; in the academic years 2017-2018; 2019-2020); in History of Judaism in the Modern and Contemporary Ages at the University of Palermo (2021-2023), and in Talmud always at the University of Palermo (2022–2023).
She worked at the Scientific Research Program of relevant national interest (COFIN MURST 2008-2010) entitled “Ridefinire la Nazione: diritti di cittadinanza e minoranze nelle crisi dello Stato (1914–1999)”; Research Project 2009 EX MURST 60% “La storiografia della Shoah”; Research Project 2007–2008 “Modernità e Olocausto e Resistenza” at ANPI, Casa della Memoria e della Storia in Rome. She worked as intern at the Centro Telematico di Storia Contemporanea (ANPI) in the years 2007–2008.
She received her PhD in Politcs, Society and Culture in 2013 from the University of Calabria (Department of Political and Social Sciences) with a dissertation entitled “La distruzione degli ebrei e la sociologia dal 1933 a oggi”, published by Academic Studies Press (2017)
Notes
1 Amidah [עמידה] literally means standing and refers to a series of blessings ‘recited while standing before God.’ It is HaTefillah (The Prayer): the core of Jewish daily prayer. See Schartz, Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik on the Experience of Prayer, 164n1. See Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, and the Polish edition, Anna Pawełczyńska, Wartości A Przemoc.
2 Cohen, ‘Dr Meir (Mark) Dworzecki’, 35.
3 See endnote 20 below.
4 See Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, xiv, xviii–xix.
5 Ulatowska, ‘Journey through Narratives’, 135–47.
6 Cohen, ‘Dr Meir (Mark) Dworzecki’; Cohen, ‘Dov Levin-from Partisan to Researcher’, 11–20; Rogovin, ‘Between Meir Dworzecki and Yehiel Dinur’, 203–17.
7 See Messina, American Sociology and Holocaust Studies, 127.
8 Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, xiv.
9 My interview with Anna Pawełczyńska, Warsaw, December 20, 2011.
10 ‘Holocaust Scholarship and Politics in the Public Sphere’, 395–6.
11 See ‘Article by Dr. Mark Dvorzhetski titled, “Aspects of the Extermination of Estonian Jewry” published, November 1969, and testimony of Dr. Mark Dvorzhetski at the Eichmann Trial, published, July 1961’, Yad Vashem Documents Archive (hereafter YVDA), Baltic Countries Collection O.82, Item ID 3736222, f. 46, p. 24, accessed March 25, 2021, https://documents.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&search=global&strSearch=estonian%20camps%20dworzecki&TreeItemId=3687554&GridItemId=3736222.
12 Hilberg, The Destruction of the Jews, 41–156.
13 Encyclopaedia Judaica, 26, 201.
14 Piotrowski, Poland’s Holocaust, 337n250.
15 Zimmerman, ‘The Polish Underground Home Army (AK) and the Jews’, 194–220.
16 Cesarani, Final Solution, xxix.
17 IWM, ‘What Was the Holocaust?’, https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-was-the-holocaust.
18 Berenbaum, ‘The Uniqueness and Universality of the Holocaust’, 85. See Simon Wiesenthal’s position (ibid., 85–6), and ‘Introduction to the Holocaust’.
19 Encyclopaedia Judaica, 9.
20 Berenbaum, ‘The Uniqueness and Universality of the Holocaust’, 89.
21 Bauer, ‘Whose Holocaust?’
22 Berenbaum, ‘The Uniqueness and Universality of the Holocaust’, 87. Our approach fosters Berenbaum’s point. Namely, the diatribe between Bauer’s assertion of the uniqueness of the Holocaust and the reluctance (to it) of Ismar Schorsch can be used by Holocaust scholarship to sharpen and ‘secure … [a] responsible’ research from any reduction or trivialization: see Berenbaum, ‘The Uniqueness and Universality of the Holocaust’, 92.
23 Bauer, They Chose Life; Paucker, Jewish Resistance in Germany; Geyer, ‘Resistance as Ongoing Project’, 217–41; Michman, Pour une historiographie de la Shoah.
24 Rings, Life with the Enemy; Marrus, ‘Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust’, 94–5.
25 About the origins of this concept and the kind of connection with Kiddush ha-Shem see endnotes 41 and 84 below.
26 Dworzecki, ‘The Day-to-Day Stand of the Jews’, 153.
27 Ibid., 152–80; Dworzecki, ‘Shonim hayu darkhei hama’avak [There Were Different Ways of Struggle]’, 51–6.
28 Dworzecki, ‘Greetings’, 22.
29 Cohen, ‘Dr Meir (Mark) Dworzecki’, 34.
30 See Rogovin, ‘Between Meir Dworzecki and Yehiel Dinur’, 203–4.
31 Pawełczyńska, ‘Values and Violence Sociology of Auschwitz’, 17.
32 See endnote 2 above.
33 Rogovin, ‘Between Meir Dworzecki and Yehiel Dinur’, 212, 215n80. The reference is to Cohen, Israeli Holocaust Research, 214, 218.
34 Ibid. The reference is to Cohen, Israeli Holocaust Research, 213–4.
35 Kohn, ed., Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust, 13–14. See also Mann, Yerushe; Suhl, They Fought Back; Ainsztein, The Warsaw Ghetto Revolt; Arad, The Partisan; Gutman, The Jews of Warsaw, 1939–1943; Krakowsky, The War of the Doomed.
36 Poznanski, Etre juif en France pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale; Lazare, Rescue As Resistance; Benshalom, We Struggled for Life.
37 Kohn, ed., Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust, 285.
38 Dworzecki, ‘The Day-to-Day Stand of the Jews’, 174; Kohn, ed., Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust, 153.
39 Rozett, ‘Jewish Resistance’, 341–63.
40 Arad, Gutman, and Margaliot, eds., Documents on the Holocaust, 433, no. 196. It is the ‘Proclamation by Jewish Pioneer Youth Group in Vilna, Calling for Resistance, January 1, 1942’. According to other sources, the original manifesto was read out by Kovner on 31 December 1941 in Yiddish: see Porat, ‘Kovner, Abba’, https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Kovner_Abba.
41 Gottlieb, ‘The Concept of Resistance’, 34; Esh, ‘The Dignity of the Destroyed’, 107. See Eck, Hatoim bedarkhei hamavet [Straying on the Paths of Death]; Blumental, ‘Sources for the Study of Jewish Resistance’. See endnote 25 above and endnote 84 below.
42 Cohen, ‘Dr Meir (Mark) Dworzecki’, 28.
43 ‘Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide’, http://www.preventgenocide.org/law/convention/text.htm#II (accessed December 13, 2020).
44 Marrus, ‘Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust’, 99. See Trunk, Judenrat; Steinberg, Not as a Lamb; Kowalski, ed., Anthology on Armed Jewish Resistance.
45 See also Rozett, ‘Jewish Resistance’, 353–5. See Cohen, The Halutz Resistance in Hungary; Kaplan, Between Dignity And Despair.
46 Bauer, The Jewish Emergence from Powerlessness, 27; Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust, 119–20.
47 Rogovin, ‘Between Meir Dworzecki and Yehiel Dinur’, 204. About the scholarship reconsidering Bauer’s positions see Henry, ed., Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis.
48 Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 12.
49 Marrus, ‘Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust’, 83.
50 Rozett, ‘Jewish Resistance’, 352. See also Michel, Histoire de la Résistance.
51 Trouillot, Silencing the Past, 73.
52 Spohnholz, ‘A Polyphonic Microhistory’, 227.
53 Dworzecki, ed., Bein Ha-Betarim, 72.
54 Du Bois, ‘The Negro and the Warsaw Ghetto’, 14–15.
55 Ibid., 15.
56 See the case of Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz and Irena Sendler, for instance, in Atwood, Women Heroes of World War II, 33, 42–48, 240, 262–5. About this approach see also Phayer and Fleischner, Cries in the Night.
57 See endnote 20 above.
58 Dworzecki, ed., Bein Ha’btarim, 72.
59 See ‘Documentation: Congratulations on the inauguration of the Chair in History of European Jewry and Holocaust Research at Bar-Ilan University, 1959–1960, YVDA, Dr. Mark Dworzecki Archive P.10, Item ID 3687554, f. 11, Letter’. https://documents.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&search=advance&tl_value=%20Congratulations%20on%20the%20inauguration%20of%20the%20Chair%20in%20History%20of%20European%20&tl_type=literal&GridItemId=3687554 (accessed March 25, 2021).
60 See endnote 61 below.
61 Cohen, ‘Dr Meir (Mark) Dworzecki’, 26.
62 My interview, see endnote 9 above. During the interview she accounted for the destruction of Crematorium IV.
63 Dworzecki, ed., Bein Ha’btarim, 72–80.
64 Ibid., 72. See Cohen, ‘Dr Meir (Mark) Dworzecki’, 26.
65 See ‘Research articles about teaching the Holocaust, including a Bibliography and article, “Teaching the Holocaust as study material in Jewish history”’, YVDA, Dr. Mark Dworzecki Archive P.10, Item ID 3688614, f. 103, accessed March 25, 2021, https://documents.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&&TreeItemId=3688614; ‘Correspondence with the Committee for Research and with lecturers regarding Holocaust research and education, 1955–1975,’ YVDA, Dr. Mark Dworzecki Archive P.10, Item ID 3688589, f. 85, accessed March 25, 2021, https://documents.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&&TreeItemId=3688589; ‘Documentation: Study days on the subject of teaching the Holocaust in high schools including protocols, curriculum plans and bibliographies, 1970–1975,’ YVDA, Dr. Mark Dworzecki Archive P.10, Item ID 3688593, f. 87, accessed March 25, 2021, https://documents.yadvashem.org/index.html?language=en&&TreeItemId=3688593.
66 Dworzecki, ‘Ha’adam vehahevra nokhah hashoah [Man and Society Facing the Holocaust]’, 10–12; Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 24–5. See the Polish terms Przestrzeń do życia, baraków i budynków, W domu in the Polish edition: Pawełczyńska, Wartości A Przemoc, 26, 31.
67 Pawełczyńska, ‘Values and Violence Sociology of Auschwitz’, 14.
68 See endnote 50 above.
69 Rozett, ‘Jewish Resistance’, 345.
70 Dworzecki, ‘The Day-to-Day Stand of the Jews’, 174; Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 127.
71 Ibid; Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 12, 102.
72 Ibid. See Edelman. C’era l’amore nel ghetto.
73 Pawełczyńska, ‘Values and Violence Sociology of Auschwitz’, 17.
74 Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 144.
75 Ibid., 13n10.
76 Dworzecki, ed., ‘Hamaavak Al Hakiyum VeHabriut BaGetaot Bimei Hakibush Hanatzi [The Struggle for Existence and Health in the Ghettos during the Nazi Occupation]’, 23–5.
77 Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 2.
78 Ibid., 35.
79 Ibid., 101. Pawełczyńska stressed this concept during the 2011 interview: see endnote 9 above.
80 Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 40.
81 Ibid., 127.
82 Rogovin, ‘Between Meir Dworzecki and Yehiel Dinur’, 208–9.
83 Ibid., 209, 215n58. The reference is to Esh, ‘The Dignity of the Destroyed’, 356.
84 Kiddush ha-Shem means to live a concretely Jewish life made of abnegation, observation, awareness, devotion, will, as the three youths, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, who santificated the Divine Name instead of idolising Nabuchodonosor, risking of being burned to death (cf. Daniel 3, 51–90). About the differences between Kiddush ha-Shem and Kiddush ha-Haim/ha-ha(y)yim/hahaim see Ben Sasson, Perakim Betoldot Ha-Yehudim Bimei Ha-Beiayim [Chapters in the history of the Jews in the Middle Ages].
85 Eck, Hatoim bedarkhei hamavet [Straying on the Paths of Death], 37.
86 Dworzecki, ‘The Day-to-Day Stand of the Jews’, 174.
87 Neurath, The Society of Terror.
88 Pawełczyńska, ‘Values and Violence Sociology of Auschwitz’, 14.
89 Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 120.
90 See endnote 9 above.
91 Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 120.
92 Schartz, Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik on the Experience of Prayer, 231, 231n26, 235, 241, 251.
93 Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 121–2.
94 Messina, American Sociology and Holocaust Studies, 128, 128n15.
95 Bar-On and Levin, ‘Problems Relating to a Questionnaire on the Holocaust’, 102.
96 Marrus, ‘Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust’, 85, 106n10.
97 Hawes and White, eds., Resistance in Europe.
98 Smith, The Yiddish Historians and the Struggle for a Jewish History of the Holocaust, 183.
99 Cohen, ‘Dov Levin-from Partisan to Researcher’, 13.
100 Ibid., 19 and see footnote 23.
101 Funkenstein, ‘Collective Memory and Historical Consciousness’, 5–26.
102 Cohen, ‘Dov Levin-from Partisan to Researcher’, 19, 19n24.
103 Funkenstein, ‘Collective Memory and Historical Consciousness’, 12.
104 Crane, ‘Writing the Individual Back into Collective Memory’, 1375.
105 Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, xviii.
106 Cohen, ‘Dr Meir (Mark) Dworzecki’, 24.
107 Kater, Book review of Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 153–4.
108 Ibid.
109 Wandycz, ‘Historiography of the Countries of Eastern Europe: Poland’, 1011.
110 Todorova, ‘Bulgaria’, 1108.
111 Mazower, ‘Changing Trends in the Historiography of Postwar Europe, East and West’, 275. See also Gutman and Krakowski, Unequal Victims.
112 Todorova, ‘Bulgaria’, 110517.
113 Gross, Neighbors; Grabowicz, ‘The Soviet and Post-Soviet Discourses of Contemporary Ukraine’, 61–81.
114 Jedwabnego, T. 2, Dokumenty; Wrzesiński, ‘The Need to Look Anew at the Polish Programme for German Studies,’ 183–93.
115 Mazower, ‘Changing Trends in the Historiography of Postwar Europe’, 275. 280.
116 Wandygz, ‘Historiography of the Countries of Eastern Europe: Poland’, 1019.
117 Du Bois, ‘The Negro and the Warsaw Ghetto’, 15.
118 Messina, American Sociology and Holocaust Studies, xxxv–xxxvi.
119 Wandygz, ‘Historiography of the Countries of Eastern Europe: Poland’, 1011, 1019nn29.31.
120 Signer, ‘Jewish-Christian Relations in Poland’, 93–100; Libionka, ‘The Catholic Church in Poland and the Holocaust’, 74–8; Gross, Fear anti-semitism in Poland after Auschwitz.
121 Kater, Book review of Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 154.
122 Pawełczyńska, Values and Violence in Auschwitz, 138.
123 Cohen, ‘Dr Meir (Mark) Dworzecki’, 33.
124 Ibid., 34, and endnote 2 above.
125 See the ‘Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust’, exhibition at the Wiener Library. Open from August 6, 2020 to January 8, 2021, it has been curated by Barbara Warnock.
126 See endnote 104 above.
127 Ralph White, ‘Introduction’, 4.