World War II

This paper is a biography of a Royal Hungarian Air Force pilot, Imre Hennyey. His career was extraordinary, because he was Jewish in his mother's side, but despite of the anti-Jewish laws during WWII, he remained  in active service as a commissioned officer until the end of the war. In 1945, he was a deputy commander of a radar-equipped night fighter squadron (flying a Bf 110 G-4). Since he had excelled himself in epée fencing, he took part in the 1948 and 1952 olympic games as a member of the Hungarian male epée team, ending in 5th place in both events. After the fall of the Hungarian revolution of 1956 he immigrated to Canada, where he became a successful fencing coach. During the 1968 olympic games, he was the coach of the Canadian fencing team. This paper was published in the 4/2012 issue of Katonaújság, pp. 42-46. The footnotes are available here: https://web.archive.org/web/20160407150554/http://www.hkhermanos.hu:80/kiadványok/katonaújság-20124-szám-2012-augusztus

Quartered Safe Out Here is the personal account of George Macdonald Fraser on his time as a rifleman in Slim’s 14th Army during the Burma Campaigni. This most excellent memoir brilliantly recounts the frontline action he saw while serving as a young soldier during the British army’s savage campaign against the Japanese. The authenticity of his story, merged with the talents of a gifted novelist, result in an unforgettable read. There is little doubt that soldiers of all ranks and experiences will find great resonance with the humor, horror and camaraderie described.

Dans ses prises de position au cours de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Denis de Rougemont donna une définition du rôle de « neutralité » de la Suisse en Europe et apporta par là même une réponse à la question du rôle et de la responsabilité sociale des intellectuels. Dans la situation difficile de la guerre, une valeur unificatrice était acceptée et respectée par tous les hommes de lettres et, à première vue, elle ne pouvait qu’entrer en contradiction avec le modèle de l’intellectuel engagé : la « neutralité ». Les écrivains de Suisse francophone éprouvèrent d’autant plus fortement cette contradiction qu’ils étaient, dans leur grande majorité, soumis aux valeurs du champ littéraire français – même s’ils revendiquaient l’existence d’une littérature proprement romande. Leur modèle de référence était par suite l’idéal de l’intellectuel engagé : celui qui, sur la base de la reconnaissance dont il jouit dans le champ littéraire, se réclame de valeurs supérieures pour se placer du côté des opprimés et des persécutés dans des luttes qui se déroulent hors du champ littéraire au sens étroit. Dans ce qui va suivre, la question centrale sera donc de savoir comment Denis de Rougemont parvint à dépasser l’apparente contradiction entre « neutralité » d’un côté et « engagement » de l’autre.

This article sets out to present a biography of Second Lieutenant Mikhail Aleksandrovich Gubanov, a Russian White emigrant. After surviving the Civil War in Russia, Gubanov spent many years in exile in Czechoslovakia, where he played an active role in the Gallipoli Union in Prague. After completing higher military-technical courses, he served as one of the lecturers. Following the attack by Nazi Germany on the USSR, Gubanov enlisted in the Wehrmacht as a translator and set off for the German-Soviet front, where he took part in the Battle of Rzhev. After the war, he lived in Germany and published in military-historical journals of the Russian emigration.

The biography of this unremarkable "small man" brings together general tendencies that characterised a whole group of people in the White military emigration. Gubanov's life can serve as a collective example, a standard image of the fate of such White émigré "defeatists" – of people who considered that in the struggle against the USSR any means were justified, including collaboration. It has been possible to reconstruct his life using materials from various Russian and German archives: the bulk of the documents came from the State Archive of Russian Federation (GARF), with additional important pieces from Stadtarchiv Göttingen, as well as Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv and others. Gubanov himself was a prolific author: various articles penned by him in Russian military émigré journals and bulletins were also used.

The present work also provides for the first time a historical account of the establishing, in Prague, of courses for foreign officers, as well as examining the use that was made of Russian émigrés by the German army. It is concluded that the émigrés, clinging to the concept of "irreconcilability" and living in an illusory world, in the end supported the German invasion of the USSR and took part in the genocidal campaign.

Hüseyin İkram Han, A less-known Friend of Baymirza Hayit
In Turkish literature, there is not much known about Hüseyin İkram Han from Uzbekistan, like Baymirza Hayit. Born in Namangan, a city located in Eastern Uzbekistan, Hüseyin İkram Han has graduated from the Faculty of Law of Tashkent University, with highest degree. After graduation he began lecturing at the same faculty. He is recruited into military service by the beginning of World War II and participated murderous wars levied on Germany. He was first taken prisoner in and then became the soldier of Germany. He wrote out his memories in his declining age. Bedir Publications has published those under the title of “Second World War Memories of a Turkmen”. Since he has not produced works as many as Baymirza Hayit, But since 1943, he has published articles and broadcasted thousands of time for the sake of independent Turkistan. He had a close bond with Veli Kayyum Kan, who was the leader of National Turkistan Movement, a fact that made him known as a political figure. He continued lecturing on Uzbek language in Munich University despite his declined age. I have known him through his son and during our friendship we had a chance to have couple of meetings with both him and Baymirza Hayit in Munich. During our meetings, the subjects of the Turkish World, homesickness and especially the state of our friends from Turkistan came out. Further information on Huseyin İkram Han who passed away in 2005, would enlighten Baymirza Hayit and his close circles and allow us to describe his ideals, acts and struggle correctly.

Deviance and anomie have a special place in my heart. When I was in my mid-twenties, I had developed a severe case of agoraphobia and dissociation to the point of catatonia. Overwhelmed by series of traumatic events came a tipping point where there was no room to compartmentalize a single thing. Involuntarily, I plunged into unknown territory with no sign of safety in sight. Is this pathology or is it a series of deception and blindness coming to light?

The book In the Shadow of Giants: Pogroms of 1941 in the Former Soviet Occupation Zone: Historical, Social and Cultural Context pertains to the pogroms of 1941 in the former Soviet Union occupation zone in a broad political, historical and cultural context. The last part of this work presents a theoretical framework of the ethnic conflict labeled “pogrom”. This work, of close to five hundred pages, deals with an extensive area of East Central Europe from the Baltic countries, through the Polish eastern border of 1939, up to Northern Bukovina, and Bessarabia. In this vast region, in the summer of 1941, there were numerous pogroms carried out by the local population against the Jews. Therefore, the major part of the work (Part II) addresses these issues. In this section, based on extensive archival documentation – mainly testimonies of the victims but also relating to other material – are presented pogroms in the area. Introductory chapters of this part apply to the initial steps of Operation Barbarossa and the Einsatzgruppen that were allocated for specific tasks in the areas close to the front-line. However, many pogroms took place during the so-called “vacuum of power” after the evacuation of the Red Army yet before the arrival of the German troops. Those pogroms are clear evidence of the rapid degradation of the Jewish population in these areas during the “vacuum of power” when the old political and social structures broke up and when disorder and chaos reigned. After this period, followed by the invasion of German troops and their allies, further massacres took place. Thus, nearly all the bridges between local people and Jews built during hundreds of years were burnt within a few days. In order to properly place the events of 1941 in their historic context, the first part (Part I) of the book presents the situation of Jews during the interwar period in Central and Eastern Europe. Issues such as the political, economic, demographic and the cultural situation are also extensively discussed. One chapter offers a review of selected cases of pogroms since the early twentieth century until 1939. Accordingly, not only pogroms of 1941 are reported, but also other massacres that took place both in wartime and in peacetime. The last chapter in this section presents the period 1939–1941, when as a result of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact and the war in September 1939 the Soviet Union occupied eastern areas of Poland. A similar fate befell other countries of Eastern Europe. The last part of the work (Part III) is a theoretical study on the development of the pogroms, presents a typology of pogroms, discusses factors affecting the development of pogroms, and analyzes phases of the pogrom. Other chapters of the last part deal with the effects of the pogroms and the relationship between the pogroms and the Holocaust. Indeed, this work may contribute to a better understanding of the phenomenon of pogroms in Central and Eastern Europe and may give a new perspective of this occurrence in the context of an ethnic conflict. Theoretical investigation of the pogrom may well become the basis of studies of this phenomenon in a new and interdisciplinary manner.

Fundacja Generał Elżbiety Zawackiej formalnie powstała w 1990 r., jednak działania dokumentacyjne i sposoby pracy są spadkiem po aktywności podejmowanej przez Elżbietę Zawacką już pod koniec lat 60.
Na zasób archiwalny Fundacji składają się materiały dotyczące trzech głównych tematów: dziejów wojennej konspiracji na Pomorzu, dziejów wojskowej służby Polek oraz dziejów Wydziału Łączności Zagranicznej Komendy Głównej AK „Zagroda”. Najważniejszą część zasobu archiwalnego stanowią teczki osobowe (łącznie kilka tysięcy) ukazujące te trzy zagadnienia przez pryzmat osobistych losów pomorskich konspiratorów, kobiet-żołnierzy i kurierów AK. Fundacja posiada również zbiory muzealne i biblioteczne.
Fundacja prowadzi ożywioną działalność edukacyjną i popularyzatorską, organizując prelekcje, warsztaty, spotkania oraz konferencje naukowe i popularnonaukowe, a także wydając słowniki biograficzne oraz materiały z organizowanych sesji.
Prezentowane informacje pozyskane zostały w ramach projektu pt. „Archiwa społeczne w Polsce – wielokrotne studium przypadku”. Raport zawiera informacje dot. m.in. powodów i sposobów powstania archiwum społecznego oraz celów jego istnienia, charakterystyki posiadanego zasobu archiwalnego, działalności i finansowania archiwum oraz gromadzenia, przechowywania, opracowania oraz udostępniania posiadanych materiałów.

בחינת הקשר ההיסטורי והפילוסופי בין הדרוויניזם והנאציזם מראה, שהפרשנות הנאצית של הדרוויניזם, אינה פרשנות קיצונית אלא קוהרנטית ואולי אף פשוטה ומתבקשת. פרשנותם אפשרה להם להשליך את מסורת המוסר היהודי-נוצרי של אלפי שנים ולהצדיק את האכזריות המזעזעת שבה
הם התנהגו במהלך שלטונם. ויתירה מכך, אף להפוך את הנורמות המוסריות במאה שמונים מעלות
ולטעון שמעשיהם האכזריים הם המתאימים לדרך הטבע בעולם ועל כן צודקים ואפילו מוסריים

What was the Axis all about? Departing from a shared commitment to multiply composed, entangled histories of the Axis powers, an international
group of scholars met in early June 2017 under the auspices of the University of Konstanz and Columbia University’s European
Institute to ponder this question. In what follows I shall not provide a point-by-point synopsis of the papers but instead focus on seven salient, architectonic issues this stimulating workshop addressed.