Szymon Datner

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Szymon Datner

Szymon Datner (born February 2, 1902 in Krakow , Austria-Hungary ; died December 8, 1989 , Warsaw , Poland ) was a Polish historian of Jewish origin. He became known for his studies of Nazi war crimes against the Jewish population of Białystok after the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941.

life and work

Szymon Datner was born in Cracow in 1902. He studied at the Jagiellonian University (UJ), where he obtained a degree in anthropology and taught at the Hebrew High School in the Polish city ​​of Białystok in the subjects of sports, history and singing until the outbreak of war.

He survived the Second World War in the forests of Eastern Poland fighting in various partisan groups. His experiences from the Bialystok ghetto to the city of the same Białystok he described in the book Walka i Zagłada Białostockiego Ghetta (The Bialystok ghetto struggle and destruction), which in 1946 by Wojewódzka Komisja historyczna was published [Voivodeship Historical Committee]. After the war he worked at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and was an expert at the Main Commission for Research into Nazi Crimes in Poland ( Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce ). He mainly researched the Holocaust . His Genocide , written together with Janusz Gumkowski and Kazimierz Leszczyński , 1939–1945. (War crimes in Poland) (Eksterminacja ludności w Polsce w czasie okupacji niemieckiej (English), Warsaw and Posen: Wydawnictwo Zachodnie, 1962, Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Niemieckich w Polsce) is the English-language edition of the documentation of German war crimes.

After the March events , he resigned from his position as director of the Jewish Historical Institute in 1970 .

His first wife and two daughters, Mika and Lilka, were killed during the uprising in the Bialystok ghetto .

The historian and sociologist Helena Datner-Śpiewak is his daughter from his second marriage to the Polish communist activist Edwarda Orłowska (1906–1977).

Due to the censorship in communist Poland, he was unable to write openly about some anti-Jewish pogroms - such as the Jedwabne massacre .

He wrote numerous studies (including in the bulletin of the aforementioned main commission) and several books. He was also a proven connoisseur and active person of Jewish culture.

He was buried in the Jewish cemetery on Okopowa Street in Warsaw.

Grave of Szymon Datner, Warsaw Jewish Cemetery

Publications (selection)

  • Walka i Zagłada białostockiego getta [Fight and Holocaust in the Białystok Ghetto] (Łódź, 1946)
  • Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu na jeńcach wojennych w II wojnie światowej [Wehrmacht crimes against prisoners of war in World War II] (Warszawa, 1961)
  • Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach) [Crimes of the occupier during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 (in documents)] (Warszawa, 1962)
  • Wilhelm Koppe - nieukarany zbrodniarz hitlerowski [Wilhelm Koppe - an unpunished Nazi criminal] (Warszawa-Poznań, 1963)
  • Ucieczki z niewoli niemieckiej 1939–1945 [Escape from German captivity 1939–1945] (Warszawa, 1966)
  • Eksterminacja ludności żydowskiej w Okręgu Białostockim [Extermination of the Jewish population in the Bialystok district] (Biuletyn ŻiH , 1966)
  • Niemiecki okupacyjny aparat bezpieczeństwa w okręgu białostockim (1941–1944) w świetle materiałów niemieckich (opracowania Waldemara Macholla) (Biuletyn GKBZH , 1965)
  • 55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce (Warszawa, 1967)
  • Las sprawiedliwych. Karta z dziejów ratownictwa Żydów w okupowanej Polsce (Warszawa, 1968)
  • Tragedia w Doessel - (ucieczki z niewoli niemieckiej 1939–1945 ciąg dalszy) (Warszawa, 1970)
  • Z mądrości Talmudu (Warszawa, 1988)

in translation

  • Genocide, 1939-1945 . Szymon Datner, Janusz Gumkowski, Kazimierz Leszczyński. Wydawnictwo Zachodnie, 1962

See also

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ jhi.pl: Szymon Datner - a man with a biography enough for a few people - accessed on October 15, 2019
  2. ↑ jhi.pl
  3. ↑ jhi.pl: The Fight and the Holocaust of the Białystok Ghetto
  4. ↑ cf. Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database
  5. ↑ Helena Datner-Śpiewak (Polish Helena Datner)
  6. ↑ member of the country's National Council (State National Council) (1945-1947), in the Constituent National Assembly (1947-1952) and the Sejm's first term (1952-1956).
  7. ^ Piotr Wróbel (2006). "Polish-Jewish Relations". Dagmar Herzog: Lessons and Legacies: The Holocaust in international perspective. Northwestern University Press. P. 391. ISBN 0-8101-2370-3 ( online excerpt )

literature

  • Katrin Stoll: The production of truth. Criminal proceedings against former members of the Bialystok District Security Police. 2011 ( online excerpt )
  • Stoll, Katrin: "Szymon Datner's memorial speeches: early testimonies of a Holocaust survivor from Bialystok." In: Yearbook of the Simon Dubnow Institute 11 (2012), edited by Dan Diner, pp. 309–332 ( online excerpt )
  • Freia Anders, Hauke-Hendrik Kutscher, Katrin Stoll (eds.): Bialystok in Bielefeld. National Socialist crimes before the Bielefeld Regional Court 1958 to 1967. 2003, ISBN 3-89534-458-3
  • Freia Anders, Katrin Stoll, Karsten Wilke (eds.): The Jewish Council of Białystok - Documents from the archive of the Białystok Ghetto 1941–1943. Schoeningh Verlag, Paderborn 2010. ISBN 978-3506768506

Web links

Commons : Szymon Datner  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Datner, Szymon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Datner, Šimon; Datner, Shim'on; Datner, Shimen; ש.דאטנער
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Krakow
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1989
Place of death Warsaw