Zeitschrift für Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung / Journal of East Central European Studies (ZfO)
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Khurbn-Forshung. Documents on Early Holocaust Research in Postwar Poland. Hrsg. von Laura Jockusch. Mit einem Vorwort von Dan Diner
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Michal Korhel: Erinnerungskultur im Wandel? Tschechische Orte der Erinnerung an die antideutsche Nachkriegsgewalt
No full textIn the summer of 1945, following German occupation and the atrocities committed during World War II, the German minority living in the reestablished Czechoslovak state was ex-posed to violent acts of retribution. Despite the state authorities’ initial endeavors to prose-cute some of the acts of violence committed after the war, the Communist takeover in February 1948 rendered the post-war persecution of Germans taboo in Czechoslovakia. It was only the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that paved the way for both academic discussion and public commemoration of those tragic events. However, it was only at the turn of the millennium that the Czech society’s stance towards the post-war violence started to change. The initial taboo and resentment were partially replaced by public opinion assessing post–World War II anti-German violence more critically. Newly established sites of memory dedicated to post World War II violence are often seen as one of the signs of a changing culture of remembrance in Czech Republic. There is, however, a lack of rigorous research exploring these monuments and plaques. The aim of this study is to analyze various aspects of these sites as part of a social framework shaping public opinion in the Czech Republic on a local level. In doing so, it seeks to answer the question of how Czech society is coming to terms with the “negatives” of its past. Drawing on oral history interviews, the paper explores the process of establishing current sites commemorating anti-German violence in today’s Czech Republic, as well as the often grass-roots initiatives that lay behind them. Furthermore, the analysis will focus on the monuments’ inscriptions and the message they send to the public, shaping its historical awareness. Understanding society as a structure consisting of various memory communities, the paper contributes to the under-researched area of a Czech culture of remembrance at a local level.
Poland under German and Soviet Occupation 1939–1941: Approaches to a Comparison
No full textOn 1 September 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland. As Adolf Hitler had agreed with Stalin on the partition of the country, the Red Army invaded Poland on 17 September. Thus, until the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, Poland came under the synchro-nous rule of two extreme occupation powers. Within this context limited by time and space, Poland offers almost ideal conditions for a synchronic comparison of the Soviet and German occupation regimes.This article discusses the question of how a comparison of dictatorships can be designed in a meaningful way, namely within a synchronous sectoral comparison of the Soviet and German suppression of the Polish resistance. Numerous parallels emerge: Both occupiers set up task forces, which, in the wake of the armies, arrested potential political enemies. Mass murder, though, was in this early phase of the occupation only committed by the Ger¬man task forces of the security police. Both secret police apparatuses set up their surveillance systems and carried out preventive actions directed against certain social groups. At the same time, countless resistance initiatives emerged based on pre-war military, political and civil organizations. The Polish government-in-exile initiated the founding of the Union of Armed Struggle, which endeavored to unite the various resistance groups under its um¬brella.In its fight against opponents, the Soviet secret police—the NKVD—proceeded in a much more targeted and professional manner than the German security police. The NKVD, drawing on much greater human resources and experience, recruited agents and informers from all social classes into its surveillance apparatus.Poland under German and Soviet Occupation 1939–1941: Approaches to a Comparison
 
Catholic Church in Lower Silesia against Communism (1945–1974). Hrsg. von Kazimiera Jaworska
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Quarter Captains and Their Role in Prague’s Municipal Self-government in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
No full textIn the presented study, the author deals with the question of whether the division of late medieval Prague (or the towns of Prague) into quarters played a political role in addition to its administrative function of tax collection and organization of the militia. In other words, the author seeks to determine whether Prague’s neighborhoods also played a political role, which was the case in several western cities. In studying Prague’s roots, the author became interested in whether neighborhoods served to represent local communities vis-à-vis the town council. The oldest quarter regulations from Bohemian towns date from the beginning of the sixteenth century. The provisions of these regulations mainly concern fire protection, but two other important aspects also appear. The quarter captains also performed the task of social supervision in urban households, and their responsibility was to the burgomaster and not to the quarter’s community. Therefore, in the study, the author works with the hypothesis that quarter self-government in Central Europe was not representative of the residents of the quarter being in communication with the town council, but rather a tool through which the town council gained blanket control over the town’s spaces. A more intensive use of quarter organization headed by captains as well as sergeants and corporals (depending on the number of houses) enabled town councils to change political communication. A functioning quarter administrative network could better fulfil the will of the council than the permanent negotiation for consensus with guilds and other institutionalized communities. Similar terminology, familiar from the more western cities of the empire, thus, in fact, denoted an administrative structure which functioned in a significantly different manner.In the presented study, the author deals with the question of whether the division of late medieval Prague (or the towns of Prague) into quarters played a political role in addition to its administrative function of tax collection and organization of the militia. In other words, the author seeks to determine whether Prague’s neighborhoods also played a political role, which was the case in several western cities. In studying Prague’s roots, the author became interested in whether neighborhoods served to represent local communities vis-à-vis the town council. The oldest quarter regulations from Bohemian towns date from the beginning of the sixteenth century. The provisions of these regulations mainly concern fire protection, but two other important aspects also appear. The quarter captains also performed the task of social supervision in urban households, and their responsibility was to the burgomaster and not to the quarter’s community. Therefore, in the study, the author works with the hypothesis that quarter self-government in Central Europe was not representative of the residents of the quarter being in communication with the town council, but rather a tool through which the town council gained blanket control over the town’s spaces. A more intensive use of quarter organization headed by captains as well as sergeants and corporals (depending on the number of houses) enabled town councils to change political communication. A functioning quarter administrative network could better fulfil the will of the council than the permanent negotiation for consensus with guilds and other institutionalized communities. Similar terminology, familiar from the more western cities of the empire, thus, in fact, denoted an administrative structure which functioned in a significantly different manner
