Robert Kuwałek

Robert Kuwałek (born 1966 in Lublin , Poland ; † June 6, 2014 in Lviv , Ukraine ) was a Polish historian and author . He devoted himself to the fate of the Jewish population in the Lublin and Lemberg area during the Holocaust , to Aktion Reinhardt , to research into the so-called transit ghettos, especially the Izbica ghetto , and the Belzec and Sobibor extermination camps .

Life

Robert Kuwałek studied at the Catholic University of Lublin . His master's thesis Organizacja Ogólnych Syjonistów w Lublinie w latach 1926-1939 (The Organization of General Zionists in Lublin in 1926-1939 period) he wrote with Professor Ryszard Bender . He first worked in the Lublin State Archives. From 1995 to 1999 he worked as a history teacher in Bychawa and at the Stanisław Wyspiański School in Lublin. In 1999 he received his doctorate from Professor Zygmunt Mańkowski on the Jewish community in Lublin from 1821–1914. In the same year he became an employee of the Majdanek Memorial (State Museum) .

In 2002 he received a Kosciuszko Foundation grant for a research project at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and the US National Archives in College Park , Maryland.

From 2004 to 2007 he was the director of the new memorial in Belzec, which is attached to the Majdanek memorial. From 2007 he worked in the research department of the museum in Majdanek. In 2010 the Majdanek State Museum published its monograph on the Belzec extermination camp.

He was involved in the Polish-Jewish Society in Lublin. He was one of the founders of the international research group HEART (Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team). He worked extensively with educational institutions devoted to Jewish history; in Lublin it was the Ośrodek "Brama Grodzka - Teatr NN" , in Germany the educational institution Stanisław Hantz . He was a member of the Polish editorial team of the book Righteous Among the Nations .

Honors

• In 2008 he received the Polish order Polonia Restituta II class for his contribution to Jewish history and culture.
• In 2014, the Association of Jewish War Veterans and Victims of World War II awarded him the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Medal .
• The Robert Kuwałek Prize was first awarded in 2014 by the educational institute Stanisław Hantz for a history competition. It was awarded to students of Maria Konopnicka School in Izbica on October 20, 2014 .

Works (selection)

• Obóz zagłady w Bełżcu . Państwowe Muzeum na Majdanku, Lublin 2010, ISBN 978-83-925187-8-5 .
  • The Bełżec extermination camp. German translation by Steffen Hänschen. Metropol Verlag , Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86331-079-0 .
  • Belzec le premier center de mise à mort. French translation by Alexandre Dayet. Calmann-Lévy, Paris 2013, ISBN 978-2-7021-4431-2 .
• Getta tranzytowe w dystykcie lubelskim (Izbica, Piaski, Rejowiec, Trawniki). Lecture for the International Conference "Aktion Reinhardt . The Annihilation of the Jews in Generalgouvernement." Lublin 2002.
• Heritage trail of the Lublin Jews. Lubelski Ośrodek Informacji Turystycznej, Lublin 2002.

• The Lublin Ghetto. translated by Sophie Frankenberg (née Mendelson).

• The transit ghetto in Izbica. In: Theresienstadt studies and documents. 2003, pp. 321-351.

• The Izbica transit ghetto. in the Stanisław Hantz educational institute.

• The transit ghettos of Izbica, Piaski and Rejowiec. in www.deathcamps.org

• The transit ghettos in the Lublin district. In: Bogdan Musial : Aktion Reinhardt. The genocide of the Jews in the Generalgouvernement 1941–1944. Osnabrück 2004, ISBN 3-929759-83-7 .

• The Short Life "in the East" Jewish Germans in the Lublin District from a Polish-Jewish perspective. In: Birthe Kundrus, Beate Meyer (ed.): The deportation of the Jews from Germany: plans - practice - reactions. Wallstein Verlag, Konstanz 2004, ISBN 3-89244-792-6 , pp. 112-135.

• The last stop before the extermination: the transit ghetto in Izbica. In: Germans, Jews, Poland: History of a checkered relationship in the 20th century. Editors: Andrea Löw, Kerstin Robusch, Stefanie Walter, Frankfurt am Main 2004, ISBN 3-593-37515-X , pp. 157-179.

• From Lublin to Bełżec: looking for traces. Life and extermination of the Jews in the southeastern Lublin Land. Translation by Małgorzata Motylewska. Lublin 2006, ISBN 83-922318-8-0 .

Obituaries

• Educational institution Stanisław Hantz: Robert Kuwalek dies (German)
• Educational institution Stanisław Hantz: Robert Kuwalek (German)
• Obituary at Jewish Heritage Europe (English)
• HEART Robert Kuwalek (English)
• Kuwałek's biography in Leksykon Lublin , Ośrodek Brama Grodzka-Teatr NN (Polish)
• Paweł P. Reszka, "Znany lubelski historyk nie żyje," Gazeta Wyborcza Lublin , 7 June 2014 (Polish)

Web links

• Transit ghettos in the Lublin district. Lecture by and interview with Robert Kuwalek