Życie kobiet — więźniarek w obozie Auschwitz-Birkenau

The book by Halina Rusek Koleżanki z Birkenau. Esej o pamiętaniu [Friends from Birkenau: An essay on remembering] published by the University of Silesia is a kind of diary about the life of women in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. The author describes the fate of her mother and her friends confined in one of the most horrific war camps. This publication, apart from descriptions and memories of female prisoners, contains original letters and photographs collected by families, which allows the reader to refer to the past more directly. The book was divided by the author into chapters which intensify the women’s experiences: from pre-war times through the war period to regaining freedom and returning to their family homes. Reading the book, one gets to know the early life of young girls who were unexpectedly captured and transported to the concentration camp. Their fates are intertwined with the struggle for existence, forced labour, camp experiences and the anticipated freedom. Important throughout the book is the documentation collected by the families of the prisoners. Post-war letters, mutual contacts, feelings and family memories make the reader feel close to the characters. The author tries to describe the lives of girls coming from different regions of Poland, whose fates were intertwined with each other. The book shows different ways in which the female prisoners were treated, based on their nationalities. In an attempt to make camp life more real for the reader, the author refers to prison correspondence. Halina Rusek’s publication shows young readers how important it is to remember the past and what concentration camps were.

Obraz dojrzewania w obozie Zagłady. Relacja Haliny Birenbaum To nie deszcz, to ludzie

The aim of this article is to illustrate the manner in which stories about the process of becoming mature in the reality of the labour camp are built, in the context of the findings of feminist criticism. The author of the story examined is Halina Birenbaum, known from her numerous previously published personal accounts on this subject. In an interview with Monika Tutak-Goll It's not the rain, it's people, she evokes previously undisclosed emotions related to her stay in Birkenau. The camp events she recalls provide a significant supplement to the existing image of girls and women, attracting attention to this aspect of life in the camp. They are also proof of the relationship, recognized by psychologists and psychiatrists, between the experiences of life in a concentration camp and the attempt to return to the post-camp normality.

The Mindful Act of Translating Poetry from the Shoah. “with love and gratitude for much that was beautiful and unforgettable”1 Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger

In spite of all the atrocities committed in the time of the Shoah the human spirit survived. It survived in various ways, one way in particular was through poetry. Poetry encapsulates the human experience and alongside has the power to give a voice to those who cannot speak. 2 This power is particularly important with regard to the victims of the Shoah. One such victim was the Czernowitz poet Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger, who perished at the age of eighteen in the Michailovca labour camp. A collection of her poetry has survived, and with that her voice and experiences survived.

THE COMPLEX OF MOTIVES OF HELL AND PARADISE IN MODERN RUSSIAN PROSE DEDICATED TO THE LABOUR CAMP THEME (BASED ON NOVELS «THE MONASTERY» BY Z.PRILEPIN AND «ZULEIKHA OPENS HER EYES» BY G. YAKHINA)

В статье рассматривается комплекс мотивов ада и рая в двух значимых произведениях 2014-2015 года - романе З. Прилепина «Обитель» и романе Г. Яхиной «Зулейха открывает глаза». В данной работе были выявлены общие тенденции данных романов. Оба произведения посвящены лагерной теме, ставшей особенно актуальной в современной литературе последних десятилетий. Центральным персонажем является молодой человек (около 30-ти лет), волею судьбы оказавшийся в трудовом лагере. В романах отмечается изолированность и условность созданного в нём мира, при этом у З. Прилепина мы видим очень противоречивое изображение Соловецкого лагеря особого назначения, как пограничного места, обители, вбирающей в себя не только традиционное изображение лагеря как «ада на земле», но и монастырские мотивы, а у Г. Яхиной - это утопический «райский» уголок, в котором героиня обретает долгожданное спокойствие. Безусловно, яркое отличие состоит в том, что Горяинов с первых страниц романа изображен в условиях СЛОН, Зулейха же проходит долгий путь от раскулачивания, до выживания в Тайге. Несмотря на то, что оба героя проходят важный этап становления личности, мы можем отметить существенную разницу в динамике этих образов, а также в том финале, к которому автор приводит обоих героев. В «Обители» герой преображается, обращаясь к Богу, обретая его внутри себя в сцене побега из лагеря. В романе «Зулейха открывает глаза» героиня, только спрятавшись от всевидящего Аллаха в Семруке и поборов свой страх перед языческими духами урмана, смогла обрести силу и свободу, при этом не отказавшись от Бога, а найдя его внутри самой себя. The article considers the complex of motives of hell and paradise in two significant works of 2014-2015 - the novel by Z. Prilepin "The Monastery" and the novel by G. Yakhina "Zuleikha opens her eyes." general trends of these novels were revealed in this work. Both novels are devoted to the labour camp theme, which has become very relevant in modern literature of recent decades. The central character is a young person (about 30 years old), who ended up in a labour camp. In both novels are noted the isolation and convention of the world created in it. Z. Prilepin images the Solovetsky special-purpose camp very contradictory as a border place, incorporating monastery motifs and the traditional image of the camp like "hell on earth". G. Yakhina makes a utopian "paradise", where the heroine take a peace and became person. In novel Goryainov's way was started in camp's conditions, but Zuleikha had a long way from dispossession, to survival in Taiga. Despite the fact that both go through an important stage of personality formation, we can note a significant difference in the dynamics of these images and their ending. In the "Monastery" Artem is transformed, because he finds God inside himself (in the scene of escape from the camp). In the novel "Zuleikha opens her eyes," the heroine makes it, when she hided her life from the all-seeing Allah and overcomed her fear of pagan spirits. After that she was able to find herself, her strength and her freedom, not giving up God, but finding him inside herself.

The Origin of Labour Camp Theme in A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s Works: from Poetry to The Gulag Archipelago

In the present article A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s poetic works and The Gulag Archipelago are analyzed, their proximity and thematic kinship are revealed. The authors appeal to the creative history of these works, remark that poems and parts of the Archipelago are arranged according to a certain pattern. Both in poetry and prose, Solzhenitsyn reveals the path taken by Soviet convicts. Camps for political prisoners and I.V. Stalin’s death take significant place in his works. A.I. Solzhenitsyn is particularly interested in the unity of heroes with nature, communion with it as with an attribute of free people’s life. The writer claims that the camp may become a starting point for spiritual resurrection of a human being. Metaphorization as one of the artistic elements is used for the first time in lyrics to reveal the image of Russia. The authors conclude that the camp theme arose during Solzhenitsyn’s imprisonment and was first expressed in lyrics and the narrative poem Dorozhen’ka. The Gulag Archipelago was formed later not only from the personal experience of the author but also from numerous materials and evidence of eyewitnesses.

The Origin of Labour Camp Theme in A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s Works: from Poetry to The Gulag Archipelago

In the present article A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s poetic works and The Gulag Archipelago are analyzed, their proximity and thematic kinship are revealed. The authors appeal to the creative history of these works, remark that poems and parts of the Archipelago are arranged according to a certain pattern. Both in poetry and prose, Solzhenitsyn reveals the path taken by Soviet convicts. Camps for political prisoners and I.V. Stalin’s death take significant place in his works. A.I. Solzhenitsyn is particularly interested in the unity of heroes with nature, communion with it as with an attribute of free people’s life. The writer claims that the camp may become a starting point for spiritual resurrection of a human being. Metaphorization as one of the artistic elements is used for the first time in lyrics to reveal the image of Russia. The authors conclude that the camp theme arose during Solzhenitsyn’s imprisonment and was first expressed in lyrics and the narrative poem Dorozhen’ka. The Gulag Archipelago was formed later not only from the personal experience of the author but also from numerous materials and evidence of eyewitnesses.

Integrated Archaeological Research: Archival Resources, Surveys, Geophysical Prospection and Excavation Approach at an Execution and Burial Site: The German Nazi Labour Camp in Treblinka

This article presents the results of multidisciplinary research undertaken in 2016–2019 at the German Nazi Treblinka I Forced Labour Camp. Housing 20,000 prisoners, Treblinka I was established in 1941 as a part of a network of objects such as forced labour camps, resettlement camps and prison camps that were established in the territory of occupied Poland from September 1939. This paper describes archaeological research conducted in particular on the execution site and burial site—the area where the “death pits” have been found—in the so-called Las Maliszewski (Maliszewa Forest). In this area (poorly documented) exhumation work was conducted only until 1947, so the location of these graves is only approximately known. The research was resumed at the beginning of the 21st century using, e.g., non-invasive methods and remote-sensing data. The leading aim of this article is to describe the comprehensive research strategy, with a particular stress on non-invasive geophysical surveys. The integrated archaeological research presented in this paper includes an analysis of archive materials (aerial photos, witness accounts, maps, plans, and sketches), contemporary data resources (orthophotomaps, airborne laser scanning-ALS data), field work (verification of potential objects, ground penetrating radar-GPR surveys, excavations), and the integration, analysis and interpretation of all these datasets using a GIS platform. The results of the presented study included the identification of the burial zone within the Maliszewa Forest area, including six previously unknown graves, creation of a new database, and expansion of the Historical-GIS-Treblinka. Obtained results indicate that the integration and analyses within the GIS environment of various types of remote-sensing data and geophysical measurements significantly contribute to archaeological research and increase the chances to discover previously unknown “graves” from the time when the labour camp Treblinka I functioned.

Rosyjskie. Europejskie. Oświecone. Rozumne. O obecności Rosji w Azji Środkowej (i nie tylko)

The author of the paper, using tools developed by postcolonial researchers, discusses the works of twentieth-century Russian writers. The setting of these texts is in the territory of Central Asia, Siberia or the Caucasus, constituting one of the factors defining them as the so-called Eastern text of Russian literature. Although most of the writers come from the other parts of Russia and – in most cases – are of Slavic descent, they know these regions quite well. These writers, however, are little interested in the problems of indigenous peoples, as long as they are not related to nationwide issues such as industrialization, collectivization or the labour camp system. The issues of destruction and loss of cultural identity, subordination, enslavement and exploitation of the local population are often omitted. The main characters in the works of Russian writers are invariably Russians, and their reference point is the Russian (Soviet) state.

Leopold Kozłowski

This chapter offers an obituary for Leopold Kozłowski. It describes Leopold as the last klezmer, who died at the venerable age of 100 on 12 March. It recalls how Leopold spent several months in the labour camp at Kurowice, recounting how he taught a Nazi officer the accordion in exchange for food, and how the Nazis forced him to compose a “death tango” and play while other Jews were led to their deaths. It also mentions Leopold's survival from the labour camp and resettlement in Kraków, where he studied conducting at the Higher State Music School. The chapter notes Leopold's composition of music for films and the theatre, even acting in the film Schindler's List while serving as an adviser on the music of the ghetto. It highlights his performances in Poland, Europe, the United States, and Israel, which he continued until the end of his life.