Italian Jews Who Survived the Shoah: Jewish Self-Help and Italian Rescuers, 1943-1945
In the vast majority of cases, Jews who survived the Holocaust in Italy did so in one (or more) of three ways: by blending in with the non-Jewish population; by fleeing over the border into Switzerland; or by taking refuge in private homes, church dormitories or convents, or medical institutions. The author of this article presents the preliminary results of research based on archival documents, autobiographical works, and hundreds of survivor interviews. The aims of this extensive, ongoing research project are, first, to further examine Jews' survival strategies; and second, to analyze rescuers' demographic characteristics, with the ultimate goal of better understanding their motivations.
Quelle: http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/30/1/20?rss=1
A Closer Look at Alfred Radok’s Film Distant Journey
Daleká cesta (Distant Journey, Czechoslovakia, 1949) is one of the most important and explicit early feature films about the Holocaust. The authors draw upon different versions of the script, censorship records, newspaper clippings in five languages, and other archival records to follow the film's genesis, authorship, production history, distribution, and reception, both in Czechoslovakia and abroad. The story both reflects and elucidates the shifting political landscape in liberated, and then Communist, Czechoslovakia.
Quelle: http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/30/1/53?rss=1
Stone-Cold Killers or Drunk with Murder? Alcohol and Atrocity during the Holocaust
In many testimonies on mass murders of Jews by SS and German police units in the East, witnesses and perpetrators mention that alcohol was present or that the killers were intoxicated. In fact, it is clear from available evidence that alcohol—normally in the form of vodka or schnapps—was often available at murder sites. Despite the ubiquity of its presence, however, there has been little scholarly analysis concerning the use of alcohol or its role in the process of mass murder. This article examines the ways in which SS and police leaders used alcohol in the occupied Eastern territories, as well as the role played by alcohol in genocide. In offering insights into the use of alcohol by perpetrators during the Shoah, the study may provide insight into the role of alcohol in the conduct of other atrocities.
Quelle: http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/30/1/1?rss=1
Rostov-on-Don 1942: A Little-Known Chapter of the Holocaust
Over the course of just two days in August 1942, Sonderkommando 10a of Einsatzgruppe D murdered 27,000 men, women, and children in Rostov-on-Don—some 15,000 to 18,000 of them Jewish. The number of victims approaches that of the infamous Babi Yar massacre of September 1941, yet the case of Rostov has received little scholarly attention to date. The author of this article demonstrates that a tradition of privileging "official" perpetrator sources has worked to the detriment of research on this particular chapter of the Holocaust. The author argues that, while historians need to correlate different categories of sources, the absence, incompleteness, or inaccuracy of some need not inhibit the exploitation of others.
Quelle: http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/30/1/105?rss=1
The Plan to Rescue Finnish Jews in 1944
Finnish memory politics has long been invested in an exceptionalism that presents World War II Finland as a safe haven for Jewish refugees and for Finnish Jews themselves. In fact, Finnish Jewry did perceive grave danger during the war, and geopolitical happenstance rather than deliberate policy alleviated it. The Jewish leadership was aware of the Holocaust and took precautions; when the Ryti-Ribbentrop Agreement strengthened Finland's ties with Germany in June 1944, Jewish leaders formulated plans to evacuate Jews to Sweden. In the event, Germany's worsening military situation allowed Finland to abandon cooperation with the Axis and the Jewish community to call off its plans. The author addresses the freighted silence surrounding this story, along with the complicated situation of Finnish Jewry in the war's aftermath.
Quelle: http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/30/1/81?rss=1