Jews, Poles, and Slovaks: A Story of Encounters, 1944-48.

After the Holocaust (1944-48), Jewish survivors returned to Poland and Slovakia to face the loss of their families, material destruction of their homes, lack of basic supplies and the absence of safety and security. In addition to this personal upheaval, Jews as well as Poles and Slovaks faced new political landscapes. Change of regime in Slovakia and civil war in Poland were new facets of public life that intimately affected the private sphere. Importantly, the Jews, both as a community and as individuals, had to cope with antisemitism and the growing wave of violence directed against them. My work is a response to a common historical narrative which presents the postwar Jewish returns to Eastern Europe as a story of antisemitism and emigration alone. This narrative presents Jewish postwar emigration as an inevitable outcome of antisemitism. In my work, I complicate the picture by shifting the focus to the experience of everyday life and by introducing a comparative perspective between Poland and Slovakia. The examination of daily experience, in particular, allows the return of Jewish survivors to be seen not solely as a struggle against antisemitism but as a series of encounters with their neighbors (society) and the administration (state). These encounters included traveling back home, struggling to repossess property and retaining citizenship, rebuilding normal lives by marrying, having children, finding a job, engaging in political and cultural life, and, yes, experiencing violence. This new focus together with the comparative perspective showcases the contingency of Jewish emigration and integration after the war in Poland and Slovakia. It illuminates how the two processes were linked to and were unintelligible without the social and political conditions of the two countries. Second, a closer examination of the everyday experience illuminates the agency of the survivors: their daily interactions and negotiations with the majority population and the state. Finally, this new approach casts light on the general dynamics of interaction among ethnic groups and the limits of belonging of an ethnic minority to a national community after crisis.Ph.D.HistoryUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61676/1/acichope_1.pd

After Liberation: the Journey Home of Jewish Survivors in Poland and Slovakia, 1944-46

In this paper, I tell the stories of Jewish survivors who made their way to their hometowns in Poland and Slovakia between the fall of 1944 and summer 1948. I describe liberation by the Soviet Army and attitudes toward the liberators in Poland and Slovakia. I ask what the Jewish position was in the complex matrix of Polish-Russian relations in 1944 and 1945. Then I follow the survivors during the first hours, days, and weeks after liberation. I describe their pursuit of something to eat and wear and a place to sleep. Finally, I focus on the journey home of Jewish survivors leaving for their hometowns in the hope of finding living relatives and their homes intact. I look at all those experiences as a time of exchange and confrontation between liberators and the liberated and among travelers on the road. I argue that these encounters were not homogenously marked by violence, hatred, and mutual resentment, but also by curiosity, solidarity, and indifference

Differences in motivation to work among generation (X, Y, Z) groups

Celem pracy licencjackiej jest zbadanie różnic w motywacji do pracy, jakie występują w grupach pokoleniowych (X, Y, Z). Przedstawione zostały wyniki badań przeprowadzonych na grupie osiemdziesięciu jeden pracowników, z różnych branż, reprezentujących każde z trzech pokoleń X, Y i Z, z wykorzystaniem kwestionariusza ankietowego. Badania ukazują, że istnieją różnice w motywacji do pracy między poszczególnymi pokoleniami, wynikające z odmiennych oczekiwań, wartości i potrzeb. Wnioski z badań mogą być przydatne podczas zarządzaniu zasobami ludzkimi, w szczególności, aby skutecznie motywować pracowników z różnych grup pokoleniowych.The aim of this bachelor’s thesis is to examine the differences in motivation to work among generational groups (X, Y, Z). The results of the research conducted on a group of eighty- one employees from various industries representing each of the three generations X, Y and Z, using a questionnaire, ale presented. The research shows that three are differences in motivation to work between individual generations, resulting from different expectations, values, and needs. The conclusions from the research could be useful in human resource management, especially in effectively motivating

Jews, Poles, and Slovaks: A story of encounters, 1944-1948

After the Holocaust, Jewish survivors returned to Poland and Slovakia where they had to cope with the loss of entire families, destruction of hometowns, lack of basic supplies, and the absence of safety and security. The majority of them had no home to return to. In addition to personal upheaval, Jews as well as Poles and Slovaks faced new political landscapes. Change of regime in Slovakia and civil war in Poland were new facets of public life that intimately affected individual lives. Importantly, the Jews, both as a community and as individuals, had to cope with antisemitism and the increasing wave of violence associated with it.This study is a response to a common historical narrative which presents the Jewish postwar return to Eastern Europe as a story of antisemitism and emigration/integration alone. Instead of focusing on these phenomena, this study shows the return of Jewish survivors as a time of their encounters with state and society. These encounters included travelling back home, struggling to repossess property and retaining citizenship, rebuilding normal lives by marrying, having children, finding a job, engaging in political and cultural life, and, yes, experiencing violence.The shift of focus in addition to a comparative perspective allows showing that Jewish emigration and integration were not inevitable outcomes of the transitional postwar period. Despite intense violence in Poland, the Jews succeeded to build normal lives (in selected regions) without the need to assimilate radically. This study also shows that Jews were constantly interacting with the state and the majority population and were dependent on the two in rebuilding their lives. In fact, the postwar experience of Polish and Slovak Jews was so entangled with the experience of the rest of the country that it becomes unintelligible without it. Some experiences are incomprehensible even outside of a regional context, proving that large national narratives can be deceptive in the way they homogenize experience.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Michigan, 2008.School code: 0127