Editorial


S:I.M.O.N. is an e-journal of the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI). It appears twice a year in English and German language. S:I.M.O.N. aims at both a transnational and comparative history of the Holocaust and Jewish Studies in Central and Eastern Europe within the broader contexts of the European history of the 20th and 21st century, including its prehistory, consequences and legacies as well as the history of memory.

S:I.M.O.N. serves as a forum for discussion of various methodological approaches. The journal especially wishes to strengthen the exchange between researchers from different scientific communities and to integrate both the Jewish history and the history of the Holocaust into the different “national” narratives. It also lays a special emphasis on memory studies and the analysis of politics of memory.  S:I.M.O.N. uses a double-blind review system, which means that both the reviewer’s and the author’s identities are concealed from each other hroughout the review process.

Shoah: The journal deals with the history of the Shoah from multidisciplinary, transnational and comparative perspectives. It seeks to integrate studies on Jews as well as on other groups of victims of the Holocaust, especially on Roma, and of so far less researched regions of (East) Central and (South) Eastern Europe.

Intervention. The journal reports on research projects and their transmission into public events. It also informs about current educational and remembrance programs.

Methods. The journal serves as a forum for the discussion of methodological approaches as, for instance, the everyday history, oral history, gender history, the history of violence, anti-Semitism and racism and the theory of memory and memory politics.

DocumentatiON. The journal contributes to critical approaches on using and interpreting archival materials in the 21st century. 

Download the current issue S:I.M.O.N. 2017/2.

Articles

Miloslav Szabó

Auf dem Weg zum Holocaust? Der slowakische Antisemitismus in der Ersten Tschechoslowakischen Republik

Download PDFOlder Research either hardly paid any attention to Slovak antisemitism in the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938) or regarded as a kind of preliminary stage to the Holocaust. In contrast, it is the intention of the present study to historicise the Slovak antisemitism of the interwar period. Therefore it aspires a sophisticated treatment, which focuses both on the political radicalisation of the Catholic as well as fascist milieus and the latent antisemitism of the Slovak society, respectively the ambivalent responses to antisemitism of the Czechoslovak judiciary and administrative organs. In this respect, the increasing invocation of the 'Jewish Question' since the end of the 1920s appears to be a symptom of the condition of Slovak politics and society (and by trend also of the Czechoslovak State), albeit it could fully unfold its destructive impact only after the annihilation of Czechoslovakia in an altered political context.

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SWL-Reader

Peter Black

NS-Gerichtsverfahren in den USA. Die Arbeit der Dienststelle für Sonderermittlungen des US-Justizministeriums, 1978–2010

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During the first two decades following the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of migrants arrived in the United States of America from all parts of Europe, many of them having fled the Soviet occupation. Several hundred had been in service to Nazi Germany or other powers in league with the Third Reich before 1945: as state ministers, administrative officers of the German occupational forces, adjunct policemen or as guards at the concentration camps and extermination camps. In the late 1970s, the US Department of Justice established an Office for Special Investigations. It was their task to investigate alleged Nazi perpetrators, and, if applicable, to prosecute them for violation of the US immigration and naturalization laws. Their efforts resulted in the deportation from the United States of America of more than a hundred of these persons.

Peter Black recounted the story of this office from an insider's point of view. Beginning with an explanation of the problem of competence, he explained why it took so long for these cases to be initiated, and how it was possible that decades passed between the initiation of a deportation case and the actual deportation. He then went on to analyse a range of cases, described the required evidence and finally presented a discussion of selected individual cases.

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Events

Miloslav Szabó

Ein ‚antislowakischer' Oscar-Film? Zur Darstellung des Holocaust im tschechoslowakischen Film Obchod na korze

Download PDFDuring the clerical-fascist Slovak State, "Tóno" Brtko, a docile and poor carpenter, is offered the possibility to 'aryanise' the small Main Street sewing accessories shop of Rozália Lautmannová. Torn between his good-natured principles and his greedy wife Evelyna, he finally agrees to take over the shop by making the deaf and senile lady believe he is her nephew arriving to help her out. Yet he then discovers that the business is bankrupt, and Ms. Lautmannová is only relying on donations from the Jewish community. While letting his wife believe he is making money from the shop, he gradually becomes a supporter of the old lady. More and more, a cordial relationship between the two evolves. When the Slovak authorities finally decide to deport the Jewish population of the small town, Tóno, in a deep conflict with himself and his values, finally opts for hiding Ms. Lautmannová – a decision which turns into tragedy. Obchod na korze won the 'Oscar' for Best Foreign Language Film in 1966. The film was presented on the occasion of a VWI-Visuals presentation on 29 January 2015 in Vienna's Admiralkino.

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Beiträge des VWI zur Holocaustforschung: Band 3

Regina Fritz/Grzegorz Rossolinks-Liebe/Jana Starek (Hg.)

Alma Mater Antisemitica.

Akademisches Milieu, Juden und Antisemitismus an den Universitäten Europas zwischen 1918 und 1939

Alma Mater Antisemitica.

Academic Milieu, Jews and Antisemitism at European Universities between 1918 and 1939

 

Das universitäre Milieu der Zwischenkriegszeit war in Mitteleuropa durch Antisemitismus und antijüdische Ausschreitungen gekennzeichnet: Obwohl die meisten europäischen Staaten jüdischen Studierenden und Professoren die Tore ihrer Universitäten nicht, wie das Deutschland tat, bereits 1933 verschlossen, führten sie verschiedene antisemitische Beschränkungen oder Regelungen ein. Judenfeindliche Artikel in der studentischen Presse, die Forderung nach einem Numerus clausus, Krawalle gegen jüdische Hörer und Hörerinnen sowie die Einführung einer antisemitischen Sitzordnung gehörten in den 1930er-Jahren zum universitären Alltag in vielen europäischen Staaten.

Die Beiträge dieses Bandes, zum Teil aus einem Workshop des Wiener Wiesenthal Instituts für Holocaust-Studien (VWI) 2012 hervorgegangen, behandeln einerseits die Träger, Formen und Motive des universitären Antisemitismus in der Zwischenkriegszeit, andererseits aber auch die jüdische und nichtjüdische Gegenwehr.

Regina Fritz ist Projektmitarbeiterin bei der Edition „Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933-1945 (VEJ)”, Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut der Freien Universität Berlin, und  Jana Starek ist wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin am Wiener Wiesenthal Institut für Holocaust-Studien (VWI)

 Wien 2016

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