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ABSTRACT
This article seeks to reconstruct the biography of Artur Eisenbach, who was both a prominent historian of the nineteenth century and one of the first historians to study the Holocaust. Born in Poland, Eisenbach survived the war in the Soviet Union. Upon his return to Poland, he joined the Jewish Historical Institute (ŻIH) in Warsaw, where he wrote many works on the Holocaust. During the course of the antisemitic campaign of 1968, he resigned as director of the institute. His subsequent research, carried out with colleagues at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), focused on Polish Jewry in the nineteenth century. He is a pivotal figure precisely because he remained on the borderline between Jewish and Polish identities.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Połomski, “Nowosądeckie rodowody historyków,” 594.
2 Eisenbach, “Vegn zayn lebnsveg,” 29.
3 Ibid., 30.
4 Archiwum Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego (AŻIH), 310/897, 6.
5 Manteuffel, “Marceli Handelsman.”
6 Eisenbach, “Vegn zayn lebnsveg,” 31–32; AŻIH, 310/897, 9; Eisenbach, “Yidn in varshever firshtntum.”
7 Kassow, Who Will Write Our History? 58–62.
8 Eisenbach, “Tsentrale reprezentants-organen”; idem, “Dokumentn tsu der geshikhte.”
9 AŻIH, 310/897, 6.
10 AŻIH, 310/897, 5–6 and S.339/133. Eisenbach, introduction in: Ringelblum, Kronika getta warszawskiego, 11.
11 AŻIH, ARG II 522h; Megargee and Dean (eds.), The USHMM Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 2:763.
12 Aleksiun, “The Central Jewish Historical Commission.”
13 See Stephan Stach's article in this issue.
14 Finder and Prusin, Justice behind the Iron Curtain, 45, 204–206.
15 AŻIH, S.339/3.
16 Eisenbach, “Forshungen vegn yidisher literatur,” 12–13.
17 Eisenbach, “Oyf ven vart men?” 4.
18 AŻIH, 310/897.
19 AŻIH, S.339/145, 310/800.
20 This edition was not complete; certain controversial passages were deleted by the censor, and the editors added a number of comments that were essentially Communist propaganda. The publication was severely criticized by Nachman Blumental and Josef Kermisz, historians from ŻIH who had already left Poland. See Nalewajko-Kulikov, “Introduction,” xvii–xlvi.
21 AŻIH, S.339/6; Finder and Prusin, Justice behind the Iron Curtain, 204–206.
22 Biuletyn ŻIH 2 (1952): 3–72.
23 Part 1: Biuletyn ŻIH 6–7 (1953): 197–227; part 2: ibid., 9–10 (1954): 90–131.
24 Eisenbach, “Vegn zayn lebnsveg,” 32; AŻIH, S.339/134, 310/897.
25 AŻIH, 310/897.
26 Eisenbach, “Di rol fun bafrayte farbrekher”; idem, “O roli hitlerowskiego Ministerstwa Spraw Zagranicznych.”
27 Eisenbach, “O naukowe podejście do badań nad ostatnim okresem dziejów Żydów,” 5–6.
28 Eisenbach, Hitlerowska polityka zagłady Żydów, 5–6.
29 Biuletyn ŻIH 13–14 (1955): 73–121.
30 Eisenbach, “Vegn zayn lebnsveg,” 32–33.
31 Kołodziejczyk, “Artur Eisenbach,” 166–167.
32 Kula (ed.). Społeczeństwo Królestwa Polskiego, vols. 1–3.
33 AŻIH, S.339/141.
34 Kołodziejczyk, “Artur Eisenbach,” 168–169.
35 Nalewajko-Kulikov, “Introduction,” xliii–xlvii.
36 AŻIH, 310/897, 7, 10–12.
37 AŻIH, 310/897, 21.
38 Rutkowski, “Kierunki, cele i rezultaty działań Służby Bezpieczeństwa,” 162–175.
39 AŻIH, 310/720.
40 Rutkowski, Nauki historyczne w Polsce 1944–1970, 491–498.
41 AŻIH, 310/720.
42 Eisenbach, “Vegn zayn lebnsveg,” s. 33.
43 Szulkin, “Profesor dr Artur Eisenbach,” 67–76. Horn, “Profesor doktor Artur Eisenbach,” 205–209.
44 Eisenbach, “Vegn zayn lebnsveg,” 33.
45 Interview with Z. Borzymińska (19 May 2021).
46 AŻIH, S.339/143.
47 AŻIH, S.339/138.
48 AŻIH, S.339/139, Letter to A. Cała (24 July 1992).
49 Borzymińska, Żebrowski, Polski słownik judaistyczny, 372.
50 Gutman, “Artur Eisenbach,” 226.
51 University of Tel Aviv, Diaspora Research Institute, Artur Eisenbach Bequest.
52 Gutman, “Artur Eisenbach,” 226. Kołodziejczyk, “Artur Eisenbach,” 165; Borzymińska and Żebrowski (eds.), Polski słownik judaistyczny, 1:372; interview with Borzymińska.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Aleksandra Bańkowska
Aleksandra Bańkowska is a historian of the Shoah in Poland, and the editor or co-editor of four volumes of documents from the Ringelblum Archive. Her doctoral dissertation dealt with Jewish social welfare in the Warsaw Ghetto, and she has written numerous articles concerning the social life of Jews under Nazi occupation. Currently she works at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences.