Magdalena Waligórska
Biographic Data
| ID | 215098 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Magdalena Waligórska |
| GIVEN NAMES | Magdalena |
| FAMILY NAME | Waligórska |
| SIGNATURE | WALIGÓRSKA M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7856-0831 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 22 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
‘Intimate Dispossession’
The theft of Jewish personal belongings during the Holocaust was the most widespread but also the most tabooed aspect of genocidal dispossession. Yet the history of mundane items stolen from Jewish households and used for decades after the war’s end in many homes in eastern Europe remains little known. This chapter reconstructs the modalities of this ‘intimate dispossession’, listing the conditions in which Jewish clothes would be appropriated by…
Intimate Dispossession as a Form of Violence
Looking at testimonies of victims, bystanders and perpetrators that report wartime theft and looting of Jewish belongings across East-Central Europe, this article focuses specifically on one aspect of genocidal dispossession which has so far received only tangential attention – the theft of the most intimate possessions: personal belongings, especially clothes. In doing so, it addresses the question of how this specific form of intimate disposses…
Collecting the Holocaust
Private collections featuring Holocaust-related objects, either in the form of daily objects of Jewish life or representations thereof, are an under researched source of knowledge in the aftermath of genocidal violence. As defined here, Holocaust mementos encompass everyday objects predating the Holocaust and originally belonging to Jews, objects relating to the persecution of Jews, and three-dimensional folk art that depicts the Holocaust. This …
Awkward Objects
After the void
A history of overwriting
Focused on the post-1944 history of Jewish cemeteries in threetowns: Iŭje (Belarus), Berezne (Ukraine) and Biłgoraj (Poland) thispaper examines different local trajectories of repurposing andoverwriting Jewish cemeteries. This comparative study goes beyondthe top-down policy analysis to include the ways the localpopulation participated in and reacted to these acts of overwriting.We complement the historical consideration with an ethnographicappro…
Topos of the Jewish treasure in postwar Polish, Belarusian and Ukrainian shtetls
Round table discussion
Holocaust Survivors Returning to their Hometowns in the Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands, 1944–1948
This article looks at the initial return of Holocaust survivors to six shtetls: Izbica and Biłgoraj in eastern Poland; Iŭje and Mir in western Belarus; and Berezne and Brody in western Ukraine. Focusing on the period between the liberation in 1944 and the end of this phase of the first returns in 1948, we investigate the strategies that the returning survivors adopted to keep safe, reclaim their property, and confront their implicated neighbors. …
Cross Purposes
No other symbol is as omnipresent in Poland as the cross. This multilayered and contradictory icon features prominently in public spaces and state institutions. It is anchored in the country's visual history, inspires protest culture, and dominates urban and rural landscapes. The cross recalls Poland's historic struggles for independence and anti-Communist dissent, but it also encapsulates the country's current position in Europe as a self-avowed…
The second life of Jewish belongings–Jewish personal objects and their afterlives in the Polish and Belarusian post-Holocaust shtetls
This article examines the ways in which Jewish personal belongings that have been appropriated by gentiles during, and in the aftermath of, the Holocaust have been identified, demanded back, passed down from generation to generation, and commodified. Focusing on Biłgoraj and Izbica (Poland), and Mir and Iŭje (Belarus), our objective is to determine whether the Jewish identity of personal belongings appropriated by local non-Jewish communities dur…
Anti-Jewish Violence of Polish Troops, 1918–1920
An examination of anti-Jewish violence on the part of Polish troops stationed in Bobruisk (Bel: Babruǐsk; Pol: Bobrujsk) between 1919 and 1920 puts into relief the interconnectedness of antisemitism and Polish nationalist discourse at the time of the consolidation of the Polish state. The relationship between Polish forces and the town's majority — Jews — reflects both Poland's colonial ambitions in the East and the emerging political vision of t…
The Klezmer Revival in Poland as a Contact Zone
Introduction
This introduction to the special section on Poland’s wars of symbols analyzes the symbolic contestation that has characterized the country in recent years, studying a range of phenomena including nation, gender, memory, and religious symbolism within the overall framework of political conflict. In doing so, it offers a multidisciplinary view on political fractures that have resonated throughout Europe and the “West.” Overall, the four case studie…
On the Genealogy of the Symbol of the Cross in the Polish Political Imagination
This article traces the genealogy of the cross as a key Polish national symbol back to the independence struggles of the nineteenth century and the post-1918 attempts to map the new Polish nation-state over its multiethnic territory. Discussing the shifting meaning ascribed to the symbol in the changing political conditions in the 1860s and during the Second Republic, the article relates the semantic content of the symbol to the cycle of solidifi…
Jewish Translation - Translating Jewishness
This interdisciplinary volume looks at one of the central cultural practices within the Jewish experience: translation. With contributions from literary and cultural scholars, historians, and scholars of religion, the book considers different aspects of Jewish translation, starting from the early translations of the Torah, to the modern Jewish experience of migration, state-building and life in the Diaspora. The volume addresses the question of h…
Remembering the Holocaust on the fault lines of East and West-European memorial cultures
The article addresses the emerging memorial spaces on the fault lines of the post-Soviet and Western memorial cultures. Taking as a case study the Memorial Complex in Trastsianets, located on the fourth biggest site of Nazi mass killing in Europe, it analyses the way Belarus revisits its memorial paradigms and factors the Holocaust into its national narrative. Looking at the political underpinnings of the project, rivaling artistic visions and th…
Jewish Heritage and the New Belarusian National Identity Project
Focusing on three contemporary grassroots initiatives of preserving Jewish heritage and commemorating Jews in Belarus, namely, the Jewish Museum in Minsk, Ada Raǐchonak’s private museum of regional heritage in Hermanovichi, and the initiative of erecting the monument of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in Hlybokae, the present article discusses how local efforts to commemorate Jews and preserve Jewish heritage tap into the culture of political dissent, Belarus…
In Search of Polin
The Jewish-theme whodunnit in contemporary Poland and Germany
This article offers a comparative perspective on the intersection of popular fiction and national paradigms of representing the Jewish “other” in Poland and Germany, using as an example the contemporary Polish and German crime novels dealing with Jewish history or featuring Jewish characters. Looking at how a literary genre, which relies on strict conventions of representing crime and punishment, fictionalises the history of antisemitism or anti-…
Cur(at)ing History
In the past few decades, Poland has seen a growing number of attempts to reclaim its Jewish past through traditional forms such as historiographic revision, heritage preservation, and monument building. But a unique new mode of artistic, performative, often participatory “memory work” has been emerging alongside these conventional forms, growing in its prevalence and increasingly catching the public eye. This new genre of memorial intervention is…
Klezmer in Kraków
Research Article| October 01 2006 Klezmer in Kraków: Kitsch, or Catharsis for Poles? Steven Saxonberg; Steven Saxonberg Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Magdalena Waligórska Magdalena Waligórska Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnomusicology (2006) 50 (3): 433–451. https://doi.org/10.2307/20174469 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation…
Cur(at)ing History
In the past few decades, Poland has seen a growing number of attempts to reclaim its Jewish past through traditional forms such as historiographic revision, heritage preservation, and monument building. But a unique new mode of artistic, performative, often participatory “memory work” has been emerging alongside these conventional forms, growing in its prevalence and increasingly catching the public eye. This new genre of memorial intervention is…
Jewish Heritage and the New Belarusian National Identity Project
Focusing on three contemporary grassroots initiatives of preserving Jewish heritage and commemorating Jews in Belarus, namely, the Jewish Museum in Minsk, Ada Raǐchonak’s private museum of regional heritage in Hermanovichi, and the initiative of erecting the monument of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in Hlybokae, the present article discusses how local efforts to commemorate Jews and preserve Jewish heritage tap into the culture of political dissent, Belarus…
Klezmer in Kraków
Research Article| October 01 2006 Klezmer in Kraków: Kitsch, or Catharsis for Poles? Steven Saxonberg; Steven Saxonberg Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Magdalena Waligórska Magdalena Waligórska Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnomusicology (2006) 50 (3): 433–451. https://doi.org/10.2307/20174469 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation…
Remembering the Holocaust on the fault lines of East and West-European memorial cultures
The article addresses the emerging memorial spaces on the fault lines of the post-Soviet and Western memorial cultures. Taking as a case study the Memorial Complex in Trastsianets, located on the fourth biggest site of Nazi mass killing in Europe, it analyses the way Belarus revisits its memorial paradigms and factors the Holocaust into its national narrative. Looking at the political underpinnings of the project, rivaling artistic visions and th…
On the Genealogy of the Symbol of the Cross in the Polish Political Imagination
This article traces the genealogy of the cross as a key Polish national symbol back to the independence struggles of the nineteenth century and the post-1918 attempts to map the new Polish nation-state over its multiethnic territory. Discussing the shifting meaning ascribed to the symbol in the changing political conditions in the 1860s and during the Second Republic, the article relates the semantic content of the symbol to the cycle of solidifi…
The second life of Jewish belongings–Jewish personal objects and their afterlives in the Polish and Belarusian post-Holocaust shtetls
This article examines the ways in which Jewish personal belongings that have been appropriated by gentiles during, and in the aftermath of, the Holocaust have been identified, demanded back, passed down from generation to generation, and commodified. Focusing on Biłgoraj and Izbica (Poland), and Mir and Iŭje (Belarus), our objective is to determine whether the Jewish identity of personal belongings appropriated by local non-Jewish communities dur…
Introduction
This introduction to the special section on Poland’s wars of symbols analyzes the symbolic contestation that has characterized the country in recent years, studying a range of phenomena including nation, gender, memory, and religious symbolism within the overall framework of political conflict. In doing so, it offers a multidisciplinary view on political fractures that have resonated throughout Europe and the “West.” Overall, the four case studie…
Klezmer in Kraków
Research Article| October 01 2006 Klezmer in Kraków: Kitsch, or Catharsis for Poles? Steven Saxonberg; Steven Saxonberg Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Magdalena Waligórska Magdalena Waligórska Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnomusicology (2006) 50 (3): 433–451. https://doi.org/10.2307/20174469 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation…
The Jewish-theme whodunnit in contemporary Poland and Germany
This article offers a comparative perspective on the intersection of popular fiction and national paradigms of representing the Jewish “other” in Poland and Germany, using as an example the contemporary Polish and German crime novels dealing with Jewish history or featuring Jewish characters. Looking at how a literary genre, which relies on strict conventions of representing crime and punishment, fictionalises the history of antisemitism or anti-…
Cur(at)ing History
In the past few decades, Poland has seen a growing number of attempts to reclaim its Jewish past through traditional forms such as historiographic revision, heritage preservation, and monument building. But a unique new mode of artistic, performative, often participatory “memory work” has been emerging alongside these conventional forms, growing in its prevalence and increasingly catching the public eye. This new genre of memorial intervention is…
In Search of Polin
Jewish Heritage and the New Belarusian National Identity Project
Focusing on three contemporary grassroots initiatives of preserving Jewish heritage and commemorating Jews in Belarus, namely, the Jewish Museum in Minsk, Ada Raǐchonak’s private museum of regional heritage in Hermanovichi, and the initiative of erecting the monument of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in Hlybokae, the present article discusses how local efforts to commemorate Jews and preserve Jewish heritage tap into the culture of political dissent, Belarus…
Remembering the Holocaust on the fault lines of East and West-European memorial cultures
The article addresses the emerging memorial spaces on the fault lines of the post-Soviet and Western memorial cultures. Taking as a case study the Memorial Complex in Trastsianets, located on the fourth biggest site of Nazi mass killing in Europe, it analyses the way Belarus revisits its memorial paradigms and factors the Holocaust into its national narrative. Looking at the political underpinnings of the project, rivaling artistic visions and th…
Jewish Translation - Translating Jewishness
This interdisciplinary volume looks at one of the central cultural practices within the Jewish experience: translation. With contributions from literary and cultural scholars, historians, and scholars of religion, the book considers different aspects of Jewish translation, starting from the early translations of the Torah, to the modern Jewish experience of migration, state-building and life in the Diaspora. The volume addresses the question of h…
Introduction
This introduction to the special section on Poland’s wars of symbols analyzes the symbolic contestation that has characterized the country in recent years, studying a range of phenomena including nation, gender, memory, and religious symbolism within the overall framework of political conflict. In doing so, it offers a multidisciplinary view on political fractures that have resonated throughout Europe and the “West.” Overall, the four case studie…
On the Genealogy of the Symbol of the Cross in the Polish Political Imagination
This article traces the genealogy of the cross as a key Polish national symbol back to the independence struggles of the nineteenth century and the post-1918 attempts to map the new Polish nation-state over its multiethnic territory. Discussing the shifting meaning ascribed to the symbol in the changing political conditions in the 1860s and during the Second Republic, the article relates the semantic content of the symbol to the cycle of solidifi…
The Klezmer Revival in Poland as a Contact Zone
Cross Purposes
No other symbol is as omnipresent in Poland as the cross. This multilayered and contradictory icon features prominently in public spaces and state institutions. It is anchored in the country's visual history, inspires protest culture, and dominates urban and rural landscapes. The cross recalls Poland's historic struggles for independence and anti-Communist dissent, but it also encapsulates the country's current position in Europe as a self-avowed…
The second life of Jewish belongings–Jewish personal objects and their afterlives in the Polish and Belarusian post-Holocaust shtetls
This article examines the ways in which Jewish personal belongings that have been appropriated by gentiles during, and in the aftermath of, the Holocaust have been identified, demanded back, passed down from generation to generation, and commodified. Focusing on Biłgoraj and Izbica (Poland), and Mir and Iŭje (Belarus), our objective is to determine whether the Jewish identity of personal belongings appropriated by local non-Jewish communities dur…
Anti-Jewish Violence of Polish Troops, 1918–1920
An examination of anti-Jewish violence on the part of Polish troops stationed in Bobruisk (Bel: Babruǐsk; Pol: Bobrujsk) between 1919 and 1920 puts into relief the interconnectedness of antisemitism and Polish nationalist discourse at the time of the consolidation of the Polish state. The relationship between Polish forces and the town's majority — Jews — reflects both Poland's colonial ambitions in the East and the emerging political vision of t…
Holocaust Survivors Returning to their Hometowns in the Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian Borderlands, 1944–1948
This article looks at the initial return of Holocaust survivors to six shtetls: Izbica and Biłgoraj in eastern Poland; Iŭje and Mir in western Belarus; and Berezne and Brody in western Ukraine. Focusing on the period between the liberation in 1944 and the end of this phase of the first returns in 1948, we investigate the strategies that the returning survivors adopted to keep safe, reclaim their property, and confront their implicated neighbors. …
After the void
A history of overwriting
Focused on the post-1944 history of Jewish cemeteries in threetowns: Iŭje (Belarus), Berezne (Ukraine) and Biłgoraj (Poland) thispaper examines different local trajectories of repurposing andoverwriting Jewish cemeteries. This comparative study goes beyondthe top-down policy analysis to include the ways the localpopulation participated in and reacted to these acts of overwriting.We complement the historical consideration with an ethnographicappro…
Topos of the Jewish treasure in postwar Polish, Belarusian and Ukrainian shtetls
Round table discussion
Intimate Dispossession as a Form of Violence
Looking at testimonies of victims, bystanders and perpetrators that report wartime theft and looting of Jewish belongings across East-Central Europe, this article focuses specifically on one aspect of genocidal dispossession which has so far received only tangential attention – the theft of the most intimate possessions: personal belongings, especially clothes. In doing so, it addresses the question of how this specific form of intimate disposses…
Collecting the Holocaust
Private collections featuring Holocaust-related objects, either in the form of daily objects of Jewish life or representations thereof, are an under researched source of knowledge in the aftermath of genocidal violence. As defined here, Holocaust mementos encompass everyday objects predating the Holocaust and originally belonging to Jews, objects relating to the persecution of Jews, and three-dimensional folk art that depicts the Holocaust. This …
Awkward Objects
‘Intimate Dispossession’
The theft of Jewish personal belongings during the Holocaust was the most widespread but also the most tabooed aspect of genocidal dispossession. Yet the history of mundane items stolen from Jewish households and used for decades after the war’s end in many homes in eastern Europe remains little known. This chapter reconstructs the modalities of this ‘intimate dispossession’, listing the conditions in which Jewish clothes would be appropriated by…
History (15 works) · History (15 works) · Political science (15 works) · Art (13 works) · Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies (12 works) · Judaism (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Eastern European Communism and Reforms (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Sociology (10 works)