New Perspectives. A Contemporary Reading of History: The Silenced. A Meeting with K. Błażejowska, Dr. J. Gałęziowski, and Dr. J. Ostrowska

We would like to invite you to a discussion from the series “New Perspectives: A Contemporary Reading of History”. The panellists of this debate will be Kalina Błażejowska, Dr Jakub Gałęziowski, and Joanna Ostrowska.

Led by: Dr. Katarzyna Suszkiewicz

“Bezduszni. Zapomniana zagłada chorych” (“Soulless. The Forgotten Extermination of the Sick”) is a non-fictional book, in which, based on the example of three institutions (in Śrem, Lubliniec, and Gostynin), the author describes the Nazi “euthanasia” program – systematic murder conducted by the Third Reich on those who were classified as leading “life unworthy of life”: children with disabilities and adults either suffering from mental illnesses or unable to function independently. The author follows the trace of archives, family memories, and she speaks with those who survived. She also searches for traces left by the perpetrators of the crime and discovers their post-war fates. The book received numerous awards, e.g. the “Polityka” Historic Award, the Klio Award, and the International Witold Pilecki Award.

“Undertold Biographies. Polish Children Born of War” by Dr. Jakub Gałęziowski is a story about war and its aftermath. The term “Children Born of War” evokes, among much else, the difficulty of describing one’s identity and the inability to trace one’s roots, which impacts the entire adult life of those affected, sheds light on topics of history, pedagogy, and wartime sexual violence, and also portrays the demographic politics of post-war European countries – which were often implemented brutally and disproportionately affected the lives of children. The book received numerous awards, e.g. the “Polityka” Historical Award and the prestigious Tadeusz Kotarbiński Award, which each year honors the best academic publication in Polish humanities.

“Them. The World War Two History of Non-Heteronormative People” by Dr. Joanna Ostrowska is a publication honored with the Nike Audience Award and the 2021 Orfeo Iris International Rainbow Culture Network Award. This book is a result of many years of research on gay men who were convicted by the Third Reich under the 175 Section. They were sent to prisons and concentration camps, e.g. Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Majdanek, and Auschwitz. For years, they were perceived through the lens of pre-war psychological projections and discrimination, judged as deviants and sexual predators. Their stories are, in reality, much more complicated, where deportations to death camps could and were often decided by a circumstantial trial based on denunciation. Ostrowska describes a wide spectrum of cases brought under Section 175 and the varied fates of the convicted, but most of all calls for the honoring of the memory of a marginalized social group.

These three books tell stories that were either forgotten or silenced, and biographies which were erased from the collective memory and remained troublesome until today. Finally, they bring back the memory of the people whose fates in history were suppressed and tabooed.

The project “New Perspectives. A Contemporary Reading of History” is a series of discussions on the most important research and publications, which, during the last 20 years, changed our views on Polish history and society by reorganizing the directions of scientific research and significantly contributing to the development of a specific group of publications. Open, admission-free panel discussions will be participated in by scientists, historians, non-fiction writers, and journalists.

The project was financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland from the Fund for Promoting Culture.