View in EDS PDF Full Text ePub Full Text

The August Trials : The Holocaust and Postwar Justice in Poland

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Title: The August Trials : The Holocaust and Postwar Justice in Poland
Description: The first account of the August Trials, in which postwar Poland confronted the betrayal of Jewish citizens under Nazi rule but ended up fashioning an alibi for the past.When six years of ferocious resistance to Nazi occupation came to an end in 1945, a devastated Poland could agree with its new Soviet rulers on little else beyond the need to punish German war criminals and their collaborators. Determined to root out the “many Cains among us,” as a Poznań newspaper editorial put it, Poland's judicial reckoning spawned 32,000 trials and spanned more than a decade before being largely forgotten.Andrew Kornbluth reconstructs the story of the August Trials, long dismissed as a Stalinist travesty, and discovers that they were in fact a scrupulous search for the truth. But as the process of retribution began to unearth evidence of enthusiastic local participation in the Holocaust, the hated government, traumatized populace, and fiercely independent judiciary all struggled to salvage a purely heroic vision of the past that could unify a nation recovering from massive upheaval. The trials became the crucible in which the Communist state and an unyielding society forged a foundational myth of modern Poland but left a lasting open wound in Polish-Jewish relations.The August Trials draws striking parallels with incomplete postwar reckonings on both sides of the Iron Curtain, suggesting the extent to which ethnic cleansing and its abortive judicial accounting are part of a common European heritage. From Paris and The Hague to Warsaw and Kyiv, the law was made to serve many different purposes, even as it failed to secure the goal with which it is most closely associated: justice.
Authors: Andrew Kornbluth
Resource Type: eBook.
Subjects: Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland, Truth commissions--Poland--History--20th century, War crime trials--Poland--History--20th century
Categories: HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / Holocaust, HISTORY / Europe / Eastern, HISTORY / Jewish, LAW / Legal History, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism
Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
FullText Links:
  – Type: ebook-pdf
  – Type: ebook-epub
Text:
  Availability: 0
Header DbId: nlebk
DbLabel: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
An: 2707378
RelevancyScore: 1103
AccessLevel: 6
PubType: eBook
PubTypeId: ebook
PreciseRelevancyScore: 1103.19409179688
IllustrationInfo
ImageInfo – Size: thumb
  Target: https://rps2images.ebscohost.com/rpsweb/othumb?id=NL$2707378$PDF&s=r
– Size: medium
  Target: https://rps2images.ebscohost.com/rpsweb/othumb?id=NL$2707378$PDF&s=d
Items – Name: Title
  Label: Title
  Group: Ti
  Data: The August Trials : The Holocaust and Postwar Justice in Poland
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Description
  Group: Ab
  Data: The first account of the August Trials, in which postwar Poland confronted the betrayal of Jewish citizens under Nazi rule but ended up fashioning an alibi for the past.When six years of ferocious resistance to Nazi occupation came to an end in 1945, a devastated Poland could agree with its new Soviet rulers on little else beyond the need to punish German war criminals and their collaborators. Determined to root out the “many Cains among us,” as a Poznań newspaper editorial put it, Poland's judicial reckoning spawned 32,000 trials and spanned more than a decade before being largely forgotten.Andrew Kornbluth reconstructs the story of the August Trials, long dismissed as a Stalinist travesty, and discovers that they were in fact a scrupulous search for the truth. But as the process of retribution began to unearth evidence of enthusiastic local participation in the Holocaust, the hated government, traumatized populace, and fiercely independent judiciary all struggled to salvage a purely heroic vision of the past that could unify a nation recovering from massive upheaval. The trials became the crucible in which the Communist state and an unyielding society forged a foundational myth of modern Poland but left a lasting open wound in Polish-Jewish relations.The August Trials draws striking parallels with incomplete postwar reckonings on both sides of the Iron Curtain, suggesting the extent to which ethnic cleansing and its abortive judicial accounting are part of a common European heritage. From Paris and The Hague to Warsaw and Kyiv, the law was made to serve many different purposes, even as it failed to secure the goal with which it is most closely associated: justice.
– Name: Author
  Label: Authors
  Group: Au
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Andrew+Kornbluth%22">Andrew Kornbluth</searchLink>
– Name: TypePub
  Label: Resource Type
  Group: TypPub
  Data: eBook.
– Name: Subject
  Label: Subjects
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Holocaust%2C+Jewish+%281939-1945%29--Poland%22">Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Truth+commissions--Poland--History--20th+century%22">Truth commissions--Poland--History--20th century</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22War+crime+trials--Poland--History--20th+century%22">War crime trials--Poland--History--20th century</searchLink>
– Name: SubjectBISAC
  Label: Categories
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22HISTORY+%2F+Modern+%2F+20th+Century+%2F+Holocaust%22">HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / Holocaust</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22HISTORY+%2F+Europe+%2F+Eastern%22">HISTORY / Europe / Eastern</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22HISTORY+%2F+Jewish%22">HISTORY / Jewish</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22LAW+%2F+Legal+History%22">LAW / Legal History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22POLITICAL+SCIENCE+%2F+Political+Ideologies+%2F+Communism%2C+Post-Communism+%26+Socialism%22">POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Communism, Post-Communism & Socialism</searchLink>
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=nlebk&AN=2707378
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Classifications:
      – Code: 341.690268
        Scheme: ddc
        Type: prePub
    Languages:
      – Code: eng
        Text: English
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Poland
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Truth commissions--Poland--History--20th century
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: War crime trials--Poland--History--20th century
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: The August Trials : The Holocaust and Postwar Justice in Poland
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Andrew Kornbluth
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Andrew Kornbluth
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2021
            – D: 20
              M: 01
              Type: profile
              Y: 2021
          Identifiers:
            – Type: isbn-print
              Value: 9780674249134
            – Type: isbn-electronic
              Value: 9780674259881
            – Type: isbn-electronic
              Value: 9780674259874
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: The August Trials : The Holocaust and Postwar Justice in Poland
              Type: main
ResultId 1