This is a miscellaneous issue, publishing four research articles and a review essay, covering several topics in modern Jewish history, focusing primarily on the first half of the twentieth century. The underlying thread of these articles may be the calamitous events that affected Jews in Europe, given the disrupting impact of war and violence throughout the first part of the century. Space is also a recurring theme, both in the form of movement—through migration, exile or displacement—and in the form of confinement and segregation.
The first article, authored by Jan Kutílek and titled “Looting and Killing are Permitted: Rumors in the November 1918 Pogrom in Lviv,” explores the violence that erupted in Lviv, leading to the pogrom of Jews in November 1918. Using a wealth of primary sources, the article analyzes the dynamics that led to the massacre of Jews, focusing also on the spread and role of rumors. Shedding light on their influence and significance in driving the violence of the pogrom, and examining how they were validated by the press. Moreover, the article explores the unintentional role of the Jewish militia in creating fear, uncertainty, and paranoia in the minds of Poles, while revealing how Poles’ perception of Jews was to a very high degree grounded in prejudice.
The second article, by Anna Teicher, is devoted to the David Diringer’s biographical trajectory: “David Diringer’s Refugee Itinerary: From Foreign Student in Fascist Italy to Academic in Post-War Britain.” Following in the footsteps of a recent wave of scholarship aimed at reconstructing the intellectual trajectories of persecuted emigres (including European Jews), fleeing from totalitarian regimes and antisemitism, the article presents a case study in intellectual migration. Diringer graduated in Florence in 1923 under the guidance of Umberto Cassuto and pursued his early career in Italy, being part of the small cohort of foreigners that successfully obtained Italian citizenship. However, his career and life were disrupted by the loss of his position and his expulsion from Italy following the 1938 racial legislation. As an academic refugee in Britain, unsuccessful in attempts to reach the US or return to Italy after the war, he was precariously dependent on grants until he finally obtained a stable university position in 1948.
“ ‘Good Moral Conduct’ in an Italian Concentration Camp: Women’s Daily Lives in Ferramonti di Tarsia, 1940-1943” is the third article published. It is authored by Susanna Schrafstetter. As the title indicates, the article analyzes the situation of female inmates in the Italian internment camp of Ferramonti, located in Calabria in South Italy, and which was used primarily to imprison foreign Jews from central and eastern Europe. Until now, historical accounts of the camp at Ferramonti have been based mainly on the testimony of male members of the camp’s Jewish self-administration, who focused on the successful institutions and the flourishing social and cultural life among the internees. The article draws a somewhat different picture, analyzing the testimony of former female internees, including their work, health, daily chores, and gender relations. It argues that women’s bodies in Ferramonti were subject to rigid surveillance by both the male camp inmates and the Fascist authorities. It also illustrates how the specifically male and rather positive representation of Ferramonti that developed since the immediate aftermath of the war contributed to the development of the “myth of the good Italian.”
Danny Goldman is the author of the fourth article, titled “Wilhelma, Israel: An Interface of Israeli and German Settlement Histories,” which analyses the interconnected history of two settlements, Wilhelma and Atarot. The German settlers of Wilhelma were deported by the British Mandate authorities in 1948 and the Jewish settlers of Atarot had to leave their settlement in the same year. The latter were resettled in Wilhelma as it was vacated by the British. The German settlers of Wilhelma were deported to Australia, where they were naturalized, mostly in Melbourne and Sydney. The name Wilhelma was replaced with Bnei Atarot by the Jewish settlers from Old Atarot.
We also publish a lengthy review essay by our co-editor Ulrich Wyrwa, presenting the 16-volume edition of the publication of documents about the persecution and murder of European Jews (“Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933-1945”), edited on behalf of the Chair of Modern History at the University of Freiburg, the Institute for Contemporary History (Institut für Zeitgeschiche/IfZ), and the German Federal Archives The contribution, titled “Back to the Sources: Over Five Thousand Documents on the ‘Persecution and Murder of European Jews by National Socialist Germany’.On the Completion of a 16-Volume Edition” chronicles and discusses the outcome of this monumental project aimed at retrieving the vast documentation on the persecution and massacre of European Jewry.
The “Discussion”section is dedicated to Ari Joskowicz’s important study, “Rain of Ash: Roma, Jews, and the Holocaust (2023), with contributions authored by Anton Weiss-Wendt and Marius Turda. We also publish a reply by the author.
Finally, the “Reviews” section publishes critical presentations of six books, which are dedicated to a wide range of topics, among which the intellectual biography of Lazare Sainéan, Zionism and Italian identity between 1918 and 1938, Jewish art collectors in France, material history and Jewish literature, debates on the Holocaust and the persecution of the Jews and Roma in Romania during World War II.
