English
Polish
“Typical Image”: The album Extermination of Polish Jewry (1945)
Agnieszka Kajczyk
akajczyk@jhi.pl BioAgnieszka Kajczyk - graduated cultural studies and history, head of the Heritage Documentation Department at the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Institute, associate at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She works on the history of Jewish film in postwar Poland and on visual documentation (photography and film records) from the period of the German occupation and the first five years after the war. Among other things, she co-authored the book Anthology of Views. The Warsaw Ghetto - photographs and films (2023).
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7312-0789
Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
Iwona Kurz
i.kurz@uw.edu.pl BioIwona Kurz - cultural critic and historian, professor at the Institute of Polish Culture in the Faculty of Polish Studies at Warsaw University. She deals with the history of modern Polish culture from a visual perspective, visual memory, including memory of the Holocaust, and issues of the body and gender. Co-author, among others, of the book Traces of the Holocaust in the Imaginarium of Polish Culture (2017). Read more: https://ikp.uw.edu.pl/dr-hab-iwona-kurz/
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7180-8670
Institute of Polish Culture, Faculty of Polish Studies, University of Warsaw
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. 20 (2024), pages: 631-662
Publication date: 2024-12-17
Abstract
Among the notable publications issued by the Central Jewish Historical Commission [CŻKH] in 1945 there was the only photo album in its portfolio, “The Holocaust of Polish Jewry,” by Gerszon Taffet. It provides an important starting point for considering how the language and visuality of the Holocaust were shaped just after the war – under the influence of political, social, but also technical factors or those resulting from the state of available documents themselves. The album, which documents the state of memory and visual awareness as to the fate of Polish Jews in the first months after the war, establishes a narrative that to a large extent encapsulates and anticipates the dominant portrayal of the Holocaust today. The article describes both the process of the CŻKH’s acquisition of the photos and their subsequent use in the work on the album – reconstructing the circumstances of its creation and distribution. In the album itself, the use of photography as a medium that speaks for itself, so to speak, also becomes an important factor, so the article also undertakes an analysis of its construction and the way in which meanings are constructed. The album “Holocaust of Polish Jewry” and the collection of photographs collected by the CŻKH, found in the collection of the E. Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, were used as research material.
Keywords
Gerszon Taffet, “The Holocaust of Polish Jewry”, photo album, photography and the Holocaust, Central Jewish Historical Commission
References
Źródła archiwalne / Archival sources
Archiwum Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego
Inwentarz Centralnej Żydowskiej Komisji Historycznej przy Centralnym Komitecie Żydów w Polsce (1944–1947), oprac. Monika Natkowska, sygn. zespołu w Archiwum Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego 303/XX, http://www.jhi.pl/uploads/inventory/file/125/CZ_KH_303_XX.pdf
Protokoły CKŻwP 1945, sygn. 303/I
„Biuletyn ŻAP”
prasa żydowska z lat 1945–1948
Literatura przedmiotu / Content related Literature
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Finder Gabriel N., A Horrific Impression of Jewish Martyrdom: Regarding Extermination of Polish Jews: Album of Pictures, „The Journal of Holocaust Research” 2020, t. 34, nr 4, s. 388–408, doi:10.1080/25785648.2020.1820132.
Pietroń Agata, „Fotomontaż jako sposób opisu Zagłady. Analiza albumów fotograficznych z łódzkiego getta”, praca magisterska napisana pod kierunkiem prof. Jacka Leociaka. Archiwum Prac Dyplomowych UW, sygn. https://apd.uw.edu.pl/diplomas/30441/.
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Other articles by the same auhtor(s)
- Iwona Kurz, Bartosz Kwieciński, Obrazy i klisze. Między biegunami wizualnej pamięci Zagłady; Katarzyna Mąka-Malatyńska, Widok z tej strony. Przedstawienia Holocaustu w polskim filmie , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 11 (2015)
- Iwona Kurz, “This picture is a little horrific”. The story of a film, or the Polish nation face-to-face with the Jew) , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: No. 4 (2008)
- Iwona Kurz, “This picture is a little horrific”. The story of a film, or the Polish nation face-to-face with the Jew , Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały: 2010: Holocaust Studies and Materials
