Kaia, Heroine of the 1944 Warsaw Rising tells the story of one woman, whose life encompasses a century of Polish history. Full of tragic and compelling experiences such as life in Siberia, Warsaw ...before World War II, the German occupation, the Warsaw Rising, and life in the Soviet Ostashkov prison, Kaia was deeply involved with the battle that decimated Warsaw in 1944 as a member of the resistance army and the rebuilding of the city as an architect years later. Kaia’s father was expelled from Poland for conspiring against the Russian czar. She spent her early childhood near Altaj Mountain and remembered Siberia as a “paradise”. In 1922, the family returned to free Poland, the train trip taking a year. Kaia entered the school system, studied architecture, and joined the Armia Krajowa in 1942. After the legendary partisan Hubal’s death, a courier gave Kaia the famous leader’s Virtuti Militari Award to protect. She carried the medal for 54 years. After the Warsaw Rising collapsed, she was captured by the Russian NKVD in Bialystok and imprisoned. In one of many interrogations, a Russian asked about Hubal’s award. When Kaia replied that it was a religious relic from her father, she received only a puzzled look from the interrogator. Knowing that another interrogation could end differently, she hid the award in the heel of her shoe where it was never discovered. In 1946, Kaia, very ill and weighing only 84 pounds, returned to Poland, where she regained her health and later worked as an architect to the rebuild the totally decimated Warsaw.
This invaluable work traces the role of the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and SD, the core group of Himmler’s murder units involved in the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question,” during and ...immediately after the German campaign in Poland in 1939. In addition to relevant Einsatzgruppen reports, the book includes key documents from other sources, especially eyewitness accounts from victims or onlookers. Such accounts provide an alternative, often much more realistic, perspective on the nature and consequences of the actions previously known only through documentation generated by the perpetrators. With carefully selected primary sources contextualized by the authors’ clear narrative, this work fills an important gap in our understanding of a crucial period in the evolution of policies directed against Jews, Poles, and others deemed dangerous or inferior by the Third Reich. Supplemented by maps and photographs, this book will be an essential reference and research tool.
One of the deadliest phases of the Holocaust, the Nazi regime’s “Operation Reinhard”
produced three major death camps—Belzec, Treblinka, and Sobibor—which claimed the
lives of 1.8 million Jews. In ...the 1960s, a small measure of justice came for those victims
when a score of defendants who had been officers and guards at the camps were convicted
of war crimes in West German courts. The conviction rates varied, however. While all but
one of fourteen Treblinka defendants were convicted, half of the twelve Sobibor defendants
escaped punishment, and only one of eight Belzec defendants was convicted. Also,
despite the enormity of the crimes, the sentences were light in many cases, amounting to
only a few years in prison.
In this meticulous history of the Operation Reinhard trials, Michael S. Bryant examines
a disturbing question: Did compromised jurists engineer acquittals or lenient punishments
for proven killers? Drawing on rarely studied archival sources, Bryant concludes
that the trial judges acted in good faith within the bounds of West German law. The key
to successful prosecutions was eyewitness testimony. At Belzec, the near-total efficiency
of the Nazi death machine meant that only one survivor could be found to testify. At Treblinka
and Sobibor, however, prisoner revolts had resulted in a number of survivors who
could give firsthand accounts of specific atrocities and identify participants. The courts,
Bryant finds, treated these witnesses with respect and even made allowances for conflicting
testimony. And when handing down sentences, the judges acted in accordance with
strict legal definitions of perpetration, complicity, and action under duress.
Yet, despite these findings, Bryant also shows that West German legal culture was
hardly blameless during the postwar era. Though ready to convict the mostly workingclass
personnel of the death camps, the Federal Republic followed policies that insulated
the judicial elite from accountability for its own role in the Final Solution. While trial
records show that the “bias” of West German jurists was neither direct nor personal, the
structure of the system ensured that lawyers and judges themselves avoided judgment.
The labyrinth of dangerous hours Trzcinska-Croydon, Lilka
The labyrinth of dangerous hours,
c2004, 20041028, 2004, 2000, 2004-01-01
eBook
Lilka Trzcinska was fourteen years old when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. The daughter of an architect, Lilka was a high school student at the time. When schools were closed by the occupier, she, ...along with her siblings, continued their education in secret classes, and joined the Polish Home Army– the secret resistance force.
Lilka and her family were arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and sent to the political prison Pawiak, then to Auschwitz. There, Lilka's mother died and her younger sister was sent off to another camp. The rest of the family was put to work in the camp building offices. After being transported to a number of other camps (in one instance by a way of a three-day march), the three sisters were reunited in 1945, and shortly thereafter liberated by the British. Lilka later went to Italy to continue her education, moving to Canada in 1948.
The Labyrinth of Dangerous Hoursis the memoir of a survivor. Lilka Trzcinska-Croydon narrates her adolescence and that of her sisters and brother in a way that binds poetry and history together seamlessly. It describes the strength of the family ties and solidarity that help them emerge from their horrific ordeal with their dignity intact.
As many as 150,000 Polish political prisoners were taken during the war, half of whom died in the camps. This memoir is a testament to their struggle.
Estland, Lettland und Litauen konnten sich nur in der kurzen Zeitspanne von 1918 bis 1940 staatlicher Unabhängigkeit erfreuen. Am Vorabend des Zweiten Weltkriegs gerieten die drei Ostseestaaten ...wieder unter die Räder der Großmachtpolitik ihrer Nachbarn, der Pakt zwischen Hitler und Stalin besiegelte ihr Schicksal. Im August 1940 wurden sie dem sowjetrussischen Staatsverband einverleibt. Die baltischen Staaten wurden daher bisher fast ausschließlich als Objekte der Großmächte betrachtet, das Interesse konzentrierte sich auf ihre Rolle im Kalkül deutscher und sowjetischer Politik. Die Untersuchung des finnischen Historikers Myllyniemi stellt dagegen die Aktionen und Reaktionen der baltischen Staaten selbst in den Mittelpunkt. Dabei werden die Versuche, sich den Verschiebungen im internationalen politischen Kräftefeld anzupassen, um dadurch die staatliche Existenz zu retten, von Station zu Station - Neutralitätspolitik, Beistandspakte, Finnischer Winterkrieg, baltische Entente - bis zum Anschluss an die Sowjetunion verfolgt. Neben Quellen aus deutschen, britischen, schwedischen und finnischen Archiven stützt sich der Autor auf sowjetisches und amerikanisches Material. Ihm ist erstmals ein Gesamtbild gelungen, das die eigene Politik der baltischen Staaten vor dem Hintergrund europäischer Großmachtpolitik gegenüber den Randstaaten an der Ostsee zeigt.
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- artykuł z : Res Historica : czasopismo Instytutu Historii UMCS Nr 35 (2013), s. 239-252- od 2011 podtyt.: czasopismo Instytutu ...Historii UMCS- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- p. 91-107- Reviewed book : Nevežin Vladimir A., Tajne plany Stalina : propaganda sowiecka w przededniu wojny z Trzecią Rzeszą ...1939-1941. Kraków 2001 s. 202- s. 91-107- Zawiera rec. książki : Nevežin Vladimir A., Tajne plany Stalina : propaganda sowiecka w przededniu wojny z Trzecią Rzeszą 1939-1941. Kraków 2001 s. 202- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
Provider: - Institution: - Data provided by Europeana Collections- Iniţiative româneşti privind problema schimbului de populaţie în primii ani ai celui de al Doilea Război Mondial (1939-1941). - In: ...România şi relaţiile internaţionale în secolul XX, p. 90-116.- All metadata published by Europeana are available free of restriction under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. However, Europeana requests that you actively acknowledge and give attribution to all metadata sources including Europeana
