Periodic Reporting for period 1 - transnat (Search for retribution as an aspect of community building among Polish Jews in the post-war world. National and transnational aspects.)
Período documentado: 2020-09-01 hasta 2022-08-31
Post-conflict retribution and functioning of post-conflict communities are among the most relevant issues in the current world. The aim of this project was to contribute in a timely manner to fill a gap in research on formation of national identities of refugees and migrant communities, their memories of conflict and its impact on ties to their former homelands. This was achieved this by looking at the cross-border aspect of individual search for retribution for crimes committed during the Second World War in East-Central Europe, focusing specifically on the immediate post-war response of Jewish pre-war Polish citizens to wartime norm-violating behaviours. In the project I claim that the notion of attempting to carry out both retribution and physical revenge was a key element of the emotional landscape of the immediate postwar world and included also Holocaust survivors.As Polish Jews left Poland and settled abroad, it thus crossed the traditional historiographical post-war divide between “West” and “East”, showing how people moved between the two zones just before the Iron Curtain came down, how they dealt with their memories and how they would go on to build what we refer to, following the conceptual framework developed by Barbara Rosenwein, as emotional communities defined by social affiliation and shared memories. As such, this project contributed both to writing an integrative, multi-ethnic history of post-war Poland and to the global history of rebuilding of shattered society post-conflict.
The Overview Research Objective of the project was to understand the transnational qualities of post-war history of pre-war Jewish citizens of Poland and the formation of migrant communities using their search for justice and revenge as a prism. Through this, I looked at formation of national identities of refugees, their memories of conflict and its impact on ties to their former homelands. In order to reach this goal, I established the following objectives:
To examine affective forecasting and plans for revenge during the war (1939-1945);
To study the individual search for justice in the immediate post-war years (1945-1950) in three layers, specifically: regional in Poland, in transit, and after migration;
To use data from post-war trials to analyse social and spatial networks among migrant community.
This was the first research project to discuss in depth how in the immediate post-war years, the search for justice was linked to the trans-territorial quality of the post-war Polish Jewish community. It thus filled an important gap in scholarship on both transnational and transitional justice, developing a new methodology integrating legal history and history of emotions with digital humanities into research on the micro level of community building and the history of migration.
The Overview Research Objective of the project was to understand the transnational qualities of post-war history of pre-war Jewish citizens of Poland and the formation of migrant communities using their search for justice and revenge as a prism. Through this, I looked at formation of national identities of refugees, their memories of conflict and its impact on ties to their former homelands. In order to reach this goal, I established the following objectives:
To examine affective forecasting and plans for revenge during the war (1939-1945);
To study the individual search for justice in the immediate post-war years (1945-1950) in three layers, specifically: regional in Poland, in transit, and after migration;
To use data from post-war trials to analyse social and spatial networks among migrant community.
This was the first research project to discuss in depth how in the immediate post-war years, the search for justice was linked to the trans-territorial quality of the post-war Polish Jewish community. It thus filled an important gap in scholarship on both transnational and transitional justice, developing a new methodology integrating legal history and history of emotions with digital humanities into research on the micro level of community building and the history of migration.
The objective of the project was fulfilled through carrying out archival research in nine archives and publication of one book chapter.A draft of book manuscript and book proposal, one more book chapters and one article (open access) have been prepared and will be published in 2023 and 2024. In terms of reaching the academic community, the results of the project were disseminated at three conferences six workshops (one organised)
Communication was a crucial part of the project and complemented the research activities, with a potential of making contact with members of the public who may have documents and experiences linked to my research. This project
had a very significant potential for dissemination and to awake interest among wider public and contribute to the ongoing discussion regarding ethnicity as an aspect of post-war Polish national-identity as well as Polish-Jewish
relations. To this end, I have delivered two public lectures and two articles aimed at general public are to be published on the basis of the project.
Communication was a crucial part of the project and complemented the research activities, with a potential of making contact with members of the public who may have documents and experiences linked to my research. This project
had a very significant potential for dissemination and to awake interest among wider public and contribute to the ongoing discussion regarding ethnicity as an aspect of post-war Polish national-identity as well as Polish-Jewish
relations. To this end, I have delivered two public lectures and two articles aimed at general public are to be published on the basis of the project.
The project looks at how justice was understood in the aftermath of war, going beyond existing research by:
1) Focusing on the transnational and trans-territorial;
2) Incorporating into the narrative Jews who stayed within pre-1939 Polish borders, alongside those who emigrated;
3) Looking at female as well as male role in the search for retribution;
4) Linking post-war justice sought outside court rooms to that within the official legal system;
5) Involving tools of digital humanities in the discussion of post-war search for retribution.
Research on transitional search for justice from a transnational perspective explores how concepts and stories crossed borders in the immediate post-war period, how they changed in transfer and how they linked people to their country of origin.
By adding this dimension, the project fills the gap in the literature not only on the post-war construction of Jewish refugees and diaspora, but will contribute more broadly to migration studies.
As the aim of the project was to give voice to various groups of Jews, it forms a significant contribution to gender sensitive research on the post-war migrant experience. It demonstrates how the war survivors, both male and female, perceived appropriate gender roles and which particular qualities they saw as not corresponding with the values of the re-born society. In case of females facing trials, gendered norms as applied by the post-war honour courts governed issues of “collaboration through the body” but also the perception of caring for others, in particular children and being part of the “sisterhood” of concentration camp female prisoners. Both male and female witnesses proved to be inclined towards gender stereotyping, leaning in their testimonies toward the pattern of women as nurturing and caring, in particular towards children, and stigmatizing “collaboration through the body”. As a result, the project contributes to the still insufficiently explored area of the self-representation of women’s experience during the war and its immediate aftermath, and, just as importantly, women’s communal expression as a group of survivors
1) Focusing on the transnational and trans-territorial;
2) Incorporating into the narrative Jews who stayed within pre-1939 Polish borders, alongside those who emigrated;
3) Looking at female as well as male role in the search for retribution;
4) Linking post-war justice sought outside court rooms to that within the official legal system;
5) Involving tools of digital humanities in the discussion of post-war search for retribution.
Research on transitional search for justice from a transnational perspective explores how concepts and stories crossed borders in the immediate post-war period, how they changed in transfer and how they linked people to their country of origin.
By adding this dimension, the project fills the gap in the literature not only on the post-war construction of Jewish refugees and diaspora, but will contribute more broadly to migration studies.
As the aim of the project was to give voice to various groups of Jews, it forms a significant contribution to gender sensitive research on the post-war migrant experience. It demonstrates how the war survivors, both male and female, perceived appropriate gender roles and which particular qualities they saw as not corresponding with the values of the re-born society. In case of females facing trials, gendered norms as applied by the post-war honour courts governed issues of “collaboration through the body” but also the perception of caring for others, in particular children and being part of the “sisterhood” of concentration camp female prisoners. Both male and female witnesses proved to be inclined towards gender stereotyping, leaning in their testimonies toward the pattern of women as nurturing and caring, in particular towards children, and stigmatizing “collaboration through the body”. As a result, the project contributes to the still insufficiently explored area of the self-representation of women’s experience during the war and its immediate aftermath, and, just as importantly, women’s communal expression as a group of survivors