The Soviet Occupation of Poland, 1939–41, and the Stereotype of the Anti-Polish and Pro-Soviet Jew
The article analyzes two opposing trends that have emerged in Polish postcommunist historiography with regard to the cliché of the procommunist and pro-Soviet and anti-Polish Jew. It traces the origins of this cliché and its development in Polish political thought during the interwar period and its persistence during and after World War II. At the center of the analysis is the application of this cliché in the debate about the Jedwabne massacre on July 10, 1941, by four (ethno)nationalist historians: Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, Bogdan Musiał, Tomasz Strzembosz, and Marek Wierzbicki. The article also focuses on the attempts at challenging the cliché in contemporary historiography by Jan T. Gross, Krzysztof Jasiewicz, Dariusz Libionka, and Andrzej Żbikowski.
Save Your Souls: Jewish Conversion and Survival in the Occupied Soviet Territories During the Holocaust
Religion is one of many factors that can help to elucidate aspects of Jewish and non-Jewish behavior during the Holocaust. By the outbreak of the Second World War, Europe was already well advanced in a process of secularization; however, the process was uneven, with Eastern and Southern Europe remaining arguably more traditionally religious regions. Consequently, we must consider religion as a factor, both in motivating non-Jews to help Jews threatened existentially by the Nazis and, conversely, that non-Jews driven by different religious considerations might also act against Jews. Viewed from this perspective, gauging the impact of religion in Soviet territories occupied by Axis armies constitutes a formidable difficulty. Since its inception, the Soviet state has pursued policies alienating all religions, which climaxed in an actual anti-religious crusade targeting the remaining religious leaders and laymen during the immediate prewar period. Nevertheless, religion persisted in the Soviet Union. Some 57 percent of Soviet citizens defined themselves as believers in the 1937 population census. The combined effect of these factors, prompted by active German promotion of religion in the context of their struggle against the “godless Judeo-Bolsheviks” seems to have brought a certain degree of religious revival in the occupied Soviet territories under German and auxiliary Axis rule. This article assesses the role of religion, most specifically conversion, viewed as a capstone of religious experience, when a Jew was caught on the horns of a dilemma whether—and to what extent—to cling to his or her “born” religion, or to relinquish it, hoping to survive in the occupied Soviet territories. Regarding history from below, it is necessary to address the methodological problem of what responses can be qualified as religious. For the purposes of this study, the area to be scrutinized was narrowed to
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, A Commentary
Volume VI is the sixth substantive volume to be published in the series. It deals with the work of the First Committee at the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea, namely the international seabed area. The volume thus embraces the deep seabed mining regime set out in Part XI of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea together with the 1994 Agreement on its implementation. Completion of this commentary was delayed first by the consultations and negotiations that commenced in 1990 and led to the 1994 Agreement and the entry into force of the Convention. It was further delayed until the Assembly of the International Seabed Authority approved the detailed mining regulations in 2000. Additional supplementary material can be found at UNCLOS 1982 Commentary: Supplementary Documents.