The policy of the communist authorities towards the Church charity activities — The common fate of Caritas in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary

Po drugiej wojnie światowej władze komunistyczne w Polsce (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza ‒ PZPR) realizowały program eliminacji Kościoła z życia publicznego. W mieście Opatów, należącym do diecezji sandomierskiej, jak w zwierciadle widoczny był proces, który wystąpił w całym kraju. W artykule na przykładzie parafii Opatów zaprezentowano relacje między Kościołem katolickim a władzami państwowymi. Polityka laicyzacji i ateizacji społeczeństwa objęła parafię św. Marcina, zakony, szkoły i instytucje. Usunięto naukę religii ze szkół publicznych, redukowano materialny stan posiadania Kościoła, zwalniano zakonnice z pracy w przedszkolach i szpitalach. Służby specjalne i państwowa administracja do spraw wyznań inwigilowały działalność religijną i duszpasterską. Dyskryminacyjnej polityki najbardziej doświadczyli księża, zakonnicy i zakonnice pracujące w parafii Opatów. Antykomunistyczny opór i aktywne życie religijne katolików w tym mieście i okolicznych wioskach spowodowały, że Kościół utrzymał wysoki autorytet moralny i pozycję społeczną.

W pierwszym powojennym dziesięcioleciu, pod rządami Bolesława Bieruta, misja Kościoła na Śląsku Opolskim została zakwestionowana przez komunistyczną władzę. Po kilkuletnim okresie przygotowawczym, z początkiem lat 50. XX w. przeszły one do zdecydowanej ofensywy, zmierzającej do osłabienia, „włączenia w system”, a ostatecznie do zniszczenia tych wartości, których był on strażnikiem w ciągu wieków istnienia. Była to prawdziwa batalia o kształt, charakter posłannictwa i duchową niezależność Kościoła. Krótko po przełomie politycznym Października 1956 r. władze znowu zaczęły „dokręcać śruby” w antykościelnej polityce. W grudniu 1970 r. w Gdańsku, a potem w innych miastach Wybrzeża, wybuchły protestacyjne manifestacje ludności. Władze krwawo je stłumiły. Kościół i prymas znowu wpływali uspokajająco na naród, przyczyniając się do zapanowania pokoju społecznego. Okres od 1970 r. miał być okresem wejścia państwowej polityki wyznaniowej w fazę pełnej normalizacji stosunków państwowo-kościelnych i społeczno-wyznaniowych. Liberalizacja względem Kościoła następowała powoli i z oporami, czego wyrazem były trudności w zakresie katechizacji i budowy kościołów. Zaburzenia czerwcowe 1976 r. spowodowały represje milicyjne wobec robotników Radomia, Ursusa i innych ośrodków. Rząd szukał wówczas wsparcia w Kościele, który znowu po raz kolejny usiłował łagodzić napięcia społeczne, ale równocześnie zdecydowanie dopominał się o prawa człowieka. Jednakże opór społeczny narastał do powstania i legalizacji „Solidarności” w 1981 r. Wymusiło to zmiany na szczytach władzy. Rządy w kraju objął gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, który doprowadził do stanu wojennego. W polityce wobec Kościoła wyraziło się to liberalizacją, głównie w zakresie budownictwa sakralnego. W tej ostatniej dekadzie PRL wzniesiono najwięcej kościołów. Władze komunistyczne nadal nie rezygnowały jednak z działań mających na celu wyrugowanie Kościoła i religii z życia publicznego. Szczególnie jaskrawym tego przykładem było usuwanie krzyży i innych symboli religijnych z miejsc publicznych. W warunkach narastającego kryzysu społeczno-gospodarczego władze kościelne opowiadały się za zawarciem porozumienia pomiędzy władzami państwowymi i opozycją. W ten sposób przyczyniły się do przełomu, jaki się dokonał w życiu politycznym kraju w latach 1989–1990.

As the traditional virtue of the Chinese nation, the excellent quality of helping others is an important support for building a harmonious socialist society. Charity activities are an important form to carry forward its excellent quality. College students as the future hope of the motherland, by encouraging and guiding college students to participate in charitable activities to cultivate relevant excellent quality is the important content of shaping contemporary higher education talents and realizing their personal life value, but at present, there are still problems in college students’ participation in charitable activities that need to be solved urgently. Taking YuLin University as an example, this paper points out the relevant theoretical concepts, analyzes the significance of college students’ participation in public welfare and charitable activities. Through data investigation, it is concluded that there are some problems in YuLin University students’ participation in public welfare and charitable activities, such as less participation, impure participation motivation, single participation information acquisition channel and distrust of relevant groups. This paper puts forward the improvement path from the aspects of individual, family, school and society in order to play an optimization role.

The overall approach of the communist authorities toward religious orders in the 1950s and 1960s hinged on the attempt to weave them into the socialist reality of the Polish People’s Republic. Religious orders in the PPR held considerable organizational and personal potential, which meant that they were of interest to both the Episcopate of Poland and the state authorities, and their activities were formed under the distinct influence of the relationship between the state and the Roman Catholic Church. Two periods can be distinguished on the basis of executing different policies of the communist authorities with regard to monastic orders and congregations in Poland: from 1945 to the early 1960s and from the 1960s to the end of 1989. During the first period (the so-called Stalinist era) monastic orders, much like the Roman Catholic Church, were treated as an enemy of the state. During this period, in the case of the Congregation of Salvatorian Fathers in Bagno, state repression and, at the same time, limitations on their freedom to manifest religious beliefs were enforced through administrative, legal and police measures. In the second period, the Communist authorities altered their tactics in their dealings with monastic orders. At that time, steps were taken to weaken the episcopate’s influence over monastic orders by attempting to use their autonomy to break up the unity of the Church in Poland. Up until 1964, the Salvatorian Fathers’ Higher Seminary in Bagno was frequently inspected and required to produce suitable documentation for the authorities. After that, the government made larger-scale attempts to infiltrate the monastery by building a network of secret collaborators. They took advantage of the order’s international missionary activities in particular, forcing or encouraging monks to cooperate with the State in exchange for passports and gaining permission to leave. In view of this, the policy towards the Salvatorian Fathers’ congregation in Bagno depended on the institution’s loyalty to the State, which also directly translated into its members’ greater freedom to express their religious beliefs, which in the case of this congregation meant, among other things, that they were allowed to educate clerics at the Lower and Higher Seminary and conduct their missionary activities in the spirit of Roman Catholic faith.

God and State in Egypt

Like most European historiographies, modern Croatian historiography was founded in the second half of the nineteenth century. It coincided with the appearance and spread of nationalism – what is more, it was one of its essential components. Nonetheless, the number of historians in Croatia remained small for a long period of time (In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, approximately twenty historians worked in universities, museums, and archives), and historiographic production was modest and methodologically traditional. The number of historians and institutions dedicated to historical writing increased significantly in the decades following the Second World War, reflecting the importance placed on history by the communist authorities. Approximately one hundred historians were employed in Croatia at the time of its independence in the early 1990s, principally at the country's two universities and a number of historical institutes. Today, Croatia – a country with a population of less than four million – offers up to eight undergraduate and graduate history programs, as well as several doctoral programs. More than 300 professional historians work in faculties, institutes and other institutions such as archives, museums or non-governmental organisations.

REVIEWS 155 Friedrich, Klaus-Peter. Der nationalsozialistische Judenmord und das polnisch jiidische Verhdltnisim Diskurs derpolnischenUntergrundpresse (ig42-ig44). Mit einem Vorwort von Karol Sauerland. Materialien und Studien zur Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, 15. Herder-Institut, Marburg, 2006. ix + 246 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. 33.00 (paperback). No subject ismore guaranteed to setpulses racing and voices raised in anger than the contentious one of Polish attitudes and actions towards theJews of Poland during theNazi occupation of that country in the Second World War. For those years, the lines of this difficult subject are easily drawn: towhat extent did endemic Polish antisemitism manifest itselfduring thewar, and if sowas this really a factor in themanner inwhich theNazi authorities killed nearly threemillion Polish Jews? Were the Poles able or willing to help the Nazi-oppressed Jews, and was what theydid sufficient? And ifnot, why not? Klaus-Peter Friedrich's meticulous studyof thePolish wartime underground press and itsresponses to theJewish question inPoland then isguaranteed to stoke the fires of controversy even further.This is because of the evidence he has uncovered of the extremes ? and some of it really is extreme ? of Polish anti-Jewish sentiment at a time when the Nazi authorities were methodically gassing Polish Jews in their extermination camps. Friedrich's study isbased on over 1,000 examples of thePolish underground press during the war, and represents the views of the whole gamut of Polish political and religious resistance to theGermans: The Home Army; the Government [in-Exile] Delegates; theLeft; theRight; the Sanacja Group, i.e. the Pilsudski clique; theNational Catholics; the Peasant Movement; and the Communists. Usefully, Friedrich begins with a survey of those groups and theirpublished views on theJews. The centre-piece of this study is the reaction of the Polish press to the elimination of the Warsaw Jewish ghetto in the summer and autumn of 1942, and the January and April 1943 anti-German uprisings in the ghetto. Yet whatever the topic, the comments quoted always need to be contextualized within a number of consistent anti-Jewish themes that frame the overall subject: Polish Jews, like theGermans and Russians, are the perennial enemy of the Poles; Polish Jews collaborated with the Communist authorities in anti Polish policies in eastern Poland after itsannexation by Soviet Russia on 17 September 1939; after thewar therewill be no place forJews in Poland; the Poles need to think of themselves firstand foremost, especially since the fate of theJews under Nazism could foreshadow the same for the Poles. Yet as Friedrich underlines, since the Poles (correctly) regarded themselves as victims of Nazi terror ? at the Nuremberg trials itwas asserted that almost one-third of Poles died under Nazism ? they inevitably regarded the fate of Polish Jews under Nazism exclusively from thepoint of view of theirown forms ofmartyrdom. It should also be remembered that Poles laboured under the German threat of execution ifcaught assistingJews. Not that such attitudesmeant that feelings of empathy or sympathy for the Jewish fate under theNazis were altogether missing. Time and again reports on the clearing out of theWarsaw ghetto in the summer of 1942 and the transport of theJews to be gassed at Treblinka (from their very beginning, I56 SEER, 87, I, JANUARY 2009 reports were carried on the mass murder of Jews at named places such as Auschwitz, Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor and Treblinka) prompted extensive comments on the 'bestiality' and cruelty of theGermans. A socialist publica tion,WRN, issued a call on 28 September 1942 that itwas 'the duty of every Pole to help the victims of German bestiality' (p. 93). However, a report in the 14October 1942 issue of Rzeczpospolita Polska (ThePolish Republic) of the Government-in-Exile Delegates summed up precisely the kinds of thinking to be found across the board of the underground press at all times and which are fully represented throughout this book. Admitting that that therewas not a party or person inPoland that did not consider theJews as the principal and most threatening enemy of thePoles, nevertheless, in the circumstances, Poles should react to theJews in the sense 'that they are humans' (p. 63). Interestingly, while there was much criticism of the 'passivity' of the Warsaw Jews in the summer of 1942when the ghetto was being...

The policy of communist authorities in Poland as seen through rumors in the years 1949-1953 The article deals with the image of the Polish Communist authorities during the period of deep Stalinism (1949-1953) in the light of common knowledge and rumors circulating among the ordinary people in Poland. The study is based mainly on information collected by the Polish political policy (bezpieczeństwo) and local committees of the Polish Communist Party. 1. The common knowledge reveals much about the fears and the hopes of Polish society during the Stalin era. 2. The main factor which accelerated gossips and rumors was the difficulty in acceding to credible information about the real situation in Poland. However the circulation of rumors was also partly favored by censorship as a means of controlling society. The Polish speaking radio stations existing in the West during the Stalin period (first of ail Radio Free Europe) were very important sources of knowledge about Poland and the rest of the world, but listening to those broadcasts was banned by Communist law. 3. Among the major themes studied by the authors are the collectivization of agriculture, the expected outbreak of the third world war, the provision of food, the limitations of human rights and the persecution of the Catholic Church. 4. Rumors show that a remarkable increase of optimism in Poland follows Stalin's death in Mardi 1953.

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. Shafir, "Between Denial and 'Comparative Trivialisation';" Braham, Anti‐Semitism and the Treatment of the Holocaust in Post‐Communist Eastern Europe; idem, The Treatment of the Holocaust in Hungary and Romania during the Post‐Communist Era; Volovici, "Antisemitism in Post‐Communist Eastern Europe." 2. This is partly because, unlike in many other parts of Eastern Europe, for much of the post‐1945 period Yugoslavia's Communist authorities allowed greater public recognition to be paid to the specifically Jewish tragedy of the war period (see Gitelman, "History, Memory and Politics", 26; Gordiejew, Voices of Yugoslav Jewry). As a result, with the onset of post‐Communism Yugoslavia remained, by and large, off the radar of critical scholarship. 3. For a detailed discussion of this topic in the context of Serbian Orthodox Culture see Byford, "'Serbs Never Hated the Jews'" and Potiskivanje i poricanje antisemitizma, especially Chapter 5. 4. Milan Koljanin, Nemački logor na Beogradskom Sajmištu; for the history of the Holocaust in Serbia generally, see Manoschek, "The Extermination of Jews in Serbia"; Browning, Fateful Months; Božović, Stradanje Jevreja u okupiranom Beogradu; Romano, Jevreji Jugoslavije 1941–1945; Lebl, Do 'konačnog rešenja'. 5. The speech delivered by Zoran Lilić at the ceremony also mentioned "Jews, Serbs, Roma, women, children and partisans" who died at the camp, without specifically referring to the Holocaust or the role of Sajmište in the history of Hitler's Final Solution. 6. Nikolić et al., Istorija za III razred gimnazije prirodno‐matematičkog smera i IV razred gimnazije opšteg i društveno‐jezičkog smera. This book contains also a controversial interpretation of the Nazi occupation of Serbia. It offers a favourable portrait of the head of the collaborationist government, Milan Nedić, and a positive evaluation of the Chetinks, whose patriotism is contrasted with the unpatriotic fanaticism of Tito's partisans. The book reflects the broader revisionist trends in the interpretation of the history of World War II which followed the fall of Milošević in 2000. 7. Rajić et al., Istorija za 8.razred osnovne škole, 160. 8. Bečanović and Stojanović, Istorijska čitanka za 8. razred osnovne škole, 111–15. 9. The book that came under criticism from Nikolić is the final volume in the Teaching Modern Southeast European History series, published under the auspices of the Centre for Democracy and Cooperation in South Eastern Europe (Erdelja, Workbook 4: The Second World War). 10. Nikolić and Rajić, "Balkanska povest sa oksfordskim akcentom." In 2002, the publishing house of the Serbian Ministry of Education published Nikolić's book Fear and Hope in Serbia, 1941–1944, which examines everyday life in Serbia under Nazi occupation. Consistent with the views on the Holocaust expressed on other occasions, Nikolić completely omits to mention the fate of Jews, the community that had most to fear and least to hope for during the years of Nazi occupation; Nikolić, Strah i Nada u Srbiji. 11. The focus of this paper is the treatment of the Holocaust outside Serbia's Jewish community, so institutions and bodies affiliated to that community are not considered. Jewish community organisations involved in Holocaust commemoration include the Belgrade‐based Jewish Historical Museum (the only institution in Serbia specifically devoted to the preservation of Holocaust memory), the Union of Jewish Communities of Serbia and local community organisations in Belgrade, Zemun, Niš, Apatin, Novi Sad and Zrenjanin. For information about the activities of the Jewish Historical Museum see Mihajlović, "The Jewish Historical Museum, Belgrade" and Mihajlović and Džidić, "Prikupljanje i istraživanje građe o holokaustu u Jevrejskom istorijskom muzeju u Beogradu." 12. Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Education on the Holocaust and on Anti‐Semitism. In addition to the two institutions examined here, the report also mentions the Jewish Historical Museum and the Fund for Genocide Research, a private research foundation established in 1992. The Jewish Historical Museum is not considered, for reasons stated earlier, whereas the Fund for Genocide Research had been a subsidiary of the Museum of Genocide Victims for more than a decade. The founder and proprietor of the Fund is Milan Bulajić, who was also the director of the Museum of Genocide Victims between 1992 and 2002. During that period the two institutions effectively functioned as a single entity. 13. Shafir, "Between Denial and 'Comparative Trivialisation'." 14. The number of victims of Jasenovac represents one of the most contentious issues in the historiography of the former Yugoslavia. Estimates range from 40,000 to 700,000. The figure of approximately 100,000, which is not considered definitive but the best approximation based on current evidence, resulted from the research reported in Cvetković and Graovac, Ljudski gubici Hrvatske. 15. Although founded in 1992, the museum began to function in its present form three years later. The delay was caused by the controversy surrounding the museum's location. The Act of Parliament that established the museum cited the city of Kragujevac as the museum's base, while the Director Milan Bulajić insisted on it being based in Belgrade. In 1995, Bulajić accepted a compromise solution whereby the museum would be registered in Kragujevac, but the research base would be in Belgrade. As a result, the museum is currently registered at two addresses, one in Kragujevac, the other in Belgrade. 16. The two were introduced in the same Act of Parliament: "Zakon o osnivanju Muzeja žrtava genocida," Službeni Glasnik, no. 49 (1992). 17. It appears that Bulajić's relationship with the media was much stronger than with government officials: his correspondence over the years with ministers of the state reveals a continuous sense of frustration at his employer's failure to share his faith in the museum and the conviction that this institution was one of profound national significance. See Bulajić, Deset godina Muzeja žrtava genocida. 18. "Zakon o osnivanju Muzeja žrtava genocida." 19. Bulajić argued that otherwise the institution would be "abandoning its basic orientation." Speech at the gathering to mark the tenth anniversary of the Museum of Genocide Victims, cited in Bulajić, Deset godina Muzeja žrtava genocida, 10. See also the recent pamphlet Muzej žrtava genocida, containing a summary of the museum's activities, ⟨http://www.jasenovac.info/biblioteka/muzej_zrtava_genocida.pdf⟩ (accessed 20 September 2006). 20. Milan Bulajić was sacked in October 2002 by the then Deputy Prime Minister Žarko Korać, and replaced by the historian Nenad Đorđević. Since then, Bulajić's activity has been confined to running the Fund for Genocide Research, which he now regards as separate from the museum and as the "only active and legitimate institution dedicated to the research of genocide committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia" (see Bulajić, "On the Day of Remembrance of Genocide Victims"). He remains active in the organisation of public commemorations of the Day of Remembrance for Genocide Victims. 21. "Saopštenje za javnost sa sjednice Odbora za Jasenovac Svetog arhijerejskog Sinoda Srpske Pravoslavne Crkve," Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 19 July 2005. 22. Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), Education on the Holocaust and on Anti‐Semitism, 52. The ODIHR report specifically states that the five examples of good practice included in the report do not constitute an exhaustive list, but a selection of "positive models" that might be used in other countries. However, in the opening address to the participants of the acclaimed workshop, the Coordinator of the Jasenovac Committee Hieromonk, Jovan Ćulibrk, stated that the "OSCE placed this workshop among the top five most important Holocaust education events in the world [sic] in 2005" ("Otvoren seminar o Jasenovcu za nastavnike bogoslovija u Banjoj Luci"). 23. Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Education on the Holocaust and on Anti‐Semitism, 109. 24. As early as the late 1980s, and therefore before the onset of the dissolution of Yugoslavia, a Commission of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, tasked with the of gathering of historical material pertaining to "the genocide against the Serbian and other nations in Yugoslavia in the 20th Century," proposed the creation of a Museum of Genocide which would be based in Belgrade. Although nothing came out of these early efforts, Milan Bulajić sees the Academy's Commission (which ceased to function in June 1994) as the forerunner of the Museum of Genocide Victims. For a brief account of the commission's activity see Sinbœk, "Mentioning the War." 25. Extracts from the transcript of the parliamentary debate are published in Bulajić, Deset godina Muzeja žrtava genocida, 481–95. 26. Another MP, Miladin Tošić, proposed the name "Museum of Genocide Victims—Serbian Golgotha." 27. Bulajić, Deset godina Muzeja žrtava genocida, 483. 28. "Zakon o osnivanju Muzeja žrtava genocida." 29. Bulajić, Deset godina Muzeja žrtava genocida, 487. 30. Letter to Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 4 November 2001, in Bulajić, Deset godina Muzeja žrtava genocida, 342. 31. Ibid., 483. 32. Mirković, Genocid u XX veku na prostorima jugoslovenskih zemalja. Twenty‐nine of the 38 conference papers were specifically about genocide against the Serbian people. There was only one paper devoted to the Holocaust in Serbia and one to the genocide against Roma, in Jasenovac. 33. Krestić, "O vremenu nastanka, uzrocima i ciljevima genocidne politike u Hrvatskoj;" for the background to the stereotype of Croats as "genocidal" see Milosavljević, U tradiciji nacionalizma. 34. Throughout the 1990s the Director of the Museum of Genocide Victims liaised with representatives of Serbia's Ministry of Education with the aim of introducing the topic of genocide into the school curriculum. In 1997, the Ministry issued a recommendation (no. 632‐00‐1/97‐01, 20 February 1997) that the Day of Remembrance (22 April) should be commemorated with a lesson dedicated to the topic of genocide. The fact that Bulajić's 1997 book Tuđman's Jasenovac Myth: Jasenovac, The System of Ustashe Concentration Camps and other similar literature were proposed as a teaching tool suggests that, once again, the events in the NDH were the salient theme to be commemorated on that day (see Bulajić, Deset godina Muzeja žrtava genocida, 319). 35. "Istina o genocidu—uslov mira i stabilnosti," press release issued by the government of Serbia, 28 March 2005, ⟨http://www.srbija.sr.gov.yu/vesti/vest.php?id=23901⟩. 36. In 1995 the Serbian government organised an exhibition staged at the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Belgrade on the subject of "Genocide against Serbs 1941–1945 and 1991–1995," which drew direct parallels between the past and the present. 37. Bulajić, Deset godina Muzeja žrtava genocida, 17. 38. Bulajić, "Srbi u Muzeju holokausta," 46–47. 39. Bulajić, Deset godina Muzeja žrtava genocida, 24, 411. Also Bulajić's letter to Slobodan Milošević, 2 June 2000, ibid., 295. 40. Letter dated 6 June 2000, cited in Bulajić, Deset godina Muzeja žrtava genocida, 298. On another occasion Bulajić announced that his activities "instituted a change in the attitude of powerful Jewish organisations"; ibid., 254. 41. The equation of Serbian and Jewish victimisation through the reference to "Serbian and Jewish" or "Jewish and Serbian Holocaust in Croatia" has featured in Bulajić's writing since the early 1990s. In 1992, Bulajić submitted to the municipal authorities in Belgrade a proposal for a memorial at Sajmište to be called "The Serbian and Jewish Holocaust Museum" which would be devoted primarily to Serbs but also to Jews who perished in "Yugoslavia" during the Second World War. 42. "Izveštaj direktora: Upravni odbor 6.marta 2002," in Bulajić, Deset godina Muzeja žrtava genocida, 465. 43. Macdonald, Balkan Holocausts; Gordiejew, Voices of Yugoslav Jewry; Živković, "The Wish to Be a Jew;" Sekelj, "Antisemitism and Jewish Identity in Serbia after the 1991 Collapse of the Yugoslav State." 44. "Saopštenje za javnost sa sjednice Odbora za Jasenovac Svetog arhijerejskog Sinoda Srpske Pravoslavne Crkve," Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 19 July 2005. Patriarch Pavle also identified, as the Committee's main mission, the preservation of the memory of Jasenovac "the New Babylon, the symbol of the totality of Serbian martyrdom in the Second World War"; see "Poruka srpskog Patrijarha najvišim zvanićnicima Izraela povodom pedesetogodišnjice postojanja Memorijalnog centra Jad Vašem," Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 26 September, 2003. 45. The symbolic link between Jasenovac and Kosovo is apparent also in the initiative of the Serbian Orthodox Church for the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Genocide in the 20th Century to be commemorated not on 22 April, the day of the breakout from Jasenovac, but on St Vitus Day, the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 (see Bulajić, Deset godina Muzeja žrtava genocida, 31). 46. "Otvoren seminar o Jasenovcu za nastavnike bogoslovija u Banjoj Luci," announcement on the website of the Jasenovac Committee of the Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, ⟨http://www.jasenovac.info/?lang=sr&s=seminar⟩ (accessed 15 September 2006). 47. Ibid. 48. "Saopštenje za javnost sa sjednice Odbora za Jasenovac Svetog arhijerejskog Sinoda Srpske Pravoslavne Crkve," Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 19 July 2005. 49. For the examination of the political dimension of the memory of the New Martyrs and of Jasenovac generally in the discourse of the Serbian Orthodox Church, see Perica, Balkan Idols; Radić, "Crkva i 'srpsko pitanje'"; Tomanić, Srpska crkva u ratu i ratovi u njoj. 50. "Saopštenje za javnost sa sjednice Odbora za Jasenovac Svetog arhijerejskog Sinoda Srpske Pravoslavne Crkve," Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 19 July 2005. 51. Ćulibrk, "The Remembrance of the Common Suffering as the Path to the Future." 52. Ibid. 53. "Poruka srpskog Patrijarha najvišim zvaničnicima Izraela povodom pedesetogodišnjice postojanja Memorijalnog centra Jad Vašem," Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 26 September, 2003. Because of the assumed equivalence between Serbian and Jewish suffering, Serbian victims of Jasenovac are seen as constituting a part of Holocaust memory. In the letter, the Patriarch expressed hope that "joint suffering [of Serbs and Jews] will find its place in the new museum at Yad Vashem." 54. Ćulibrk, "The Remembrance of the Common Suffering as the Path to the Future." 55. "Poruka srpskog Patrijarha najvišim zvaničnicima Izraela povodom pedesetogodišnjice postojanja Memorijalnog centra Jad Vašem," Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 26 September, 2003. 56. Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust, 50. 57. Ćulibrk, "The Remembrance of the Common Suffering as the Path to the Future." 58. Anon., Novi Sveštenomučenici i Mučenici Pravoslavne Crkve; Mileusnić, Sveti Srbi. 59. In representations of Jasenovac in Serbian public discourse, the status of that camp as a place of national martyrdom is frequently augmented through the suggestion that even the Nazis were appalled by the brutality of Ustashe. For instance, in the aforementioned article by Kosta Nikolić and Suzana Rajić (see note 10), the authors accentuate Serbian suffering vis‐à‐vis the Holocaust by noting that Herman Neubacher, the German Foreign Office plenipotentiary for Southeastern Europe, wrote in his diary that "the destruction of Orthodox Serbs [in the NDH] … is one of the worst atrocities in history." The fact that Neubacher did not consider the Ustashe policy towards Jews an atrocity clearly escaped the attention of Nikolić and Rajić. 60. Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust, 50. 61. Ćulibrk, "Srpska Pravoslavna Crkv7a i Jasenovac." 62. Shafir, "Between Denial and 'Comparative Trivialisation'." 63. "U Banja Luci počeo trodnevni seminar o Jasenovcu," Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 20 October, 2005. 64. "Drugi dan seminara o Jasenovcu," press release, Jasenovac Committee of the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 20 October 2005, ⟨http://www.jasenovac.info/?lang=sr&s=seminar_201005⟩ (accessed 23 September 2006). 65. "Treći dan seminara o Jasenovcu za nastavnike bogoslovija Srpske pravoslavne crkve," press release, Jasenovac Committee of the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 20 October 2005 ⟨http://www.jasenovac.info/?lang=sr&s=seminar_211005⟩ (accessed 23 September 2006). 66. Ćulibrk, "The Remembrance of the Common Suffering as the Path to the Future." 67. Ibid. 68. Ćulibrk, "Srpska Pravoslavna Crkva i Jasenovac." 69. Džomić, "Marović i izmišljeni holokaust u Srbiji." 70. "Govor predsjednika Marovića na skupu povodom otvaranja novog Muzeja holokausta Jad Vašem u Jerusalimu," 16 March 2005, ⟨http://www.predsednik.gov.yu/press/vest.php?id=832sr⟩ (in English: ⟨http://www1.yadvashem.org/new_museum/serbia.pdf⟩) (accessed 20 September 2006). 71. Džomić "Marović i izmišljeni holokaust u Srbiji." 72. "Poruka srpskog Patrijarha najvišim zvaničnicima Izraela povodom pedesetogodišnjice postojanja Memorijalnog centra Jad Vašem," Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 26 September 2003. 73. For a summary of arguments regarding the uniqueness of the Holocaust, see Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust, especially 39–67. 74. Linenthal, Preserving Memory, 255. 75. Maier, The Unmasterable Past, x. 76. Berenbaum, After Tragedy and Triumph, 29–30. Additional informationNotes on contributorsJovan ByfordJovan Byford is a lecturer in social psychology at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Open University, United Kingdom. He is the author of two books published in Serbian in the past two years: Denial and Repression of Antisemitism: Memory of Bishop Nikolaj Velimirovic in Contemporary Serbian Orthodox Christian Culture (2005) and Conspiracy Theory: Serbia vs. the New World Order (2006). In addition to the two books in Serbian, he has published numerous articles in the English language on conspiracy theories, the Christian right, and Antisemitism in Serbia.

The author studies some issues connected with the activities of the Buddhist eparchy represented by Pandito Khambo-lamas, abbots of the Buryat datsans, and healing lamas during the World War I. The relationship of the Buddhist clergy with the representatives of the regional authorities – gover-nors-general, district and uyezd authorities, foreign administrations and volost foremen is also considered. The goal of the research is to study all possible as-sistance of the Buryat datsans to the victims of military operations, hospitals, families of dead and wounded soldiers; the Buryats mobilized for rearguard work. For its solution, the following main tasks have been set: 1) to study the interaction of the Buddhist clergy with the Russian Red Cross society, the cre-ation and activities of the All-Buryat Committee for collecting donations for the needs of the war; 2) analyze the activities of lama healers among the Bur-yats mobilized for rearguard work during the World War I. The materials stored in the funds of the State archive of the Republic of Buryatia, as well as the scientific works, mainly the Buryat researchers’ publications, have provid-ed the work basis. As a result of the study, it was found out that the initiative to collect donations among the Buryat datsans initially came from the govern-ment bodies and was later actively supported by the Buddhist clergy of East-ern Siberia and the Buryat elite. Many details of the collection of donations in the Buryat datsans and their parishes to help the victims of the war have been traced. It has been found out that the lama healers provided all possible sup-port to the Buryats mobilized for rearguard work. On the basis of the materi-als of the State Archive of the Republic of Buryatia the names of some lamas healers, who had worked in difficult conditions in the region of Arkhangelsk, were identified. Thus, we have studied and supplemented some topical issues of the charitable and medical activities of the Buddhist clergy during the World War I.

The lively and enjoyable public spaces are of critical position to planning a great city (Burden, 2014). Public space is widely believed valuable for sustainable urban life due to its provision of physical environment for social interaction and possibly natural diversity. Throughout history, cities as production of human activities provide provision of spaces for public life, such as social communication and commercial activities (Unwin, 2000). Public space is also an important part of what defines the city. At early 1960s, academics in the West criticized that urban planning was abstract and humanly distant (Gehl & Svarre, 2013). Citizen groups fought for urban redevelopment plans in connection with the historical background such as the youth revolution, protests against nuclear power plants or anti-war protests. The activities all took place in public spaces and as now at political dimension public space have it very important position (Gehl & Svarre, 2013).
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\nWithin the context of global competition, nowadays the provision of public spaces is believed as the enhancement of infrastructure asset for city marketing and promoting the population influx which keep the livability of the city (Gehl & Gemzoe, 2000). However, it’s criticized by scholars that public space has been aided with too much commercial interests and thus public sphere would be impoverished (Degen, 2008). Sequently, it is always critical to keep the public life flourishing. In spite of the commodification of contemporary urban public space, its ever-presented nature of public decided it would be always “in the process of being shaped, unshaped and challenged by the spatial practices of various groups and individuals whose identities and actions undermine the homogeneity of contemporary cities” (MacLeod, 2012; McCann, 1999).
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\nAt present, the public open space in Hong Kong cannot secure the interest of public and in that case it is not successful to cater public everyday life. The social interaction is significantly affected by the physical arrangement as well as the way such public spaces cater for the specific characteristic of public life in
\nHong Kong. In this dissertation study, the main focus would be how does the public space of consumption interact with public social life and how could the institutional framework influence the whole process by its power. In context of
\nHong Kong, consumer culture has strongly influenced urban form by multiple scales of commercial developments, and the public life style has also been shaped by the physical setting and shopping habits. The interaction between human and material can be negotiated and guided by institutional power. By considering power, urban planning practitioners have the responsibility to provide recommendations for public space developments.
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\nThe dissertation study will develop the research scope to a more specific scope – public open space of consumption in private development, i.e. shopping centers in Hong Kong. In order to carry out the study of public life, key concepts and issues will be examined through literature review. Institutional background of public open space of consumption in Hong Kong will be reviewed for a better understanding of the research. Both Hong Kong and overseas best practices will be studied to find out problems and reference experience in design and managing public open space of consumption. In the end, possible recommendations for planning public open space will be proposed to achieve quality public life.

After the Second World War, since 1949, the organisations were established in Poland with the aim to gather priests and Catholics and support the communist authorities. Members were recruited by the political police using terror and various discrediting materials. The organisations were created, financed and supervised by the communist party and the political police. Their task was to break up the Church from inside and subordinate it to the totalitarian state. The Catholic Church punished canonically the clergy who acted within the structures of these organisations as they were committing treason. These organisations gathered nearly 10 percent of all Catholic priests in the Lublin voivodeship. They ended their activity when de-Stalinization started in Poland in 1956. The clergy who supported the communist regime in Poland were popularly called patriot priests. It was an ironic term used by Poles. The article shows the organisational structures and analyses the motives and conditions that led the priests to collaborate with the communist authorities.

In the 1970s, the Romanian authorities put together a large collection of compensation claim files of Romanian citizens victims of Nazi persecution between 1939 and 1945. The Romanian Communists’ scope was for a hard-currency settlement with the Federal Republic of Germany. In doing so, the Romanians claimed that the Federal Republic of Germany would pay for persecutions for which the Romanian state had been responsible. The selective denial of the Holocaust was the Communist authorities’ approach to the topic after the end of the Second World War. Especially after 1948, they carefully avoided tackling the issue of country’s own involvement in the persecution of its citizens, externalizing the blame on Nazi Germany. Additionally, in the official narrative the focus was on anti-Fascist resistance and Communists’ martyrdom during the Holocaust and not on Jewish sufferings. By analyzing different claim files part of the larger Romanian collection to be found in the Arolsen Archives I argue that Romanians’ plan of getting Germany’s money–and indirectly recognition of Germany’s responsibility for the Romanian authorities’ wrongdoings during the Holocaust – would have solidified the externalization of blame at international level on the long run.

The Khrushchev Thaw allowed Poland a slightly larger margin of freedom in its cultural exchange with Western Europe than it had since the end of the Second World War. In this newly relaxed political climate, two models of Polish cultural diplomacy emerged in the West. The first constituted the official foreign policy of Poland’s communist authorities, while the other remained unofficial, relying on a network of contacts with Poland’s government-in-exile. An examination of contemporary Polish art exhibited in Paris during the 1950s and 1960s reveals this dichotomy. The first type of cultural patronage was coordinated in Paris by communist representatives of the Polish Embassy. The second emerged in Paris within Polish political émigré circles. Its key proponents were the Literary Institute (Instytut Literacki), including the intellectual and artistic milieu of the monthly journal Kultura (“Polish-based Culture”) and the Lambert Gallery (Galeria Lambert). State foreign policy, funded by the state budget and anchored in agreements between Poland and France on cultural cooperation determined the former, while the latter constituted an oppositional stance against the Eastern Bloc, deriving its strength from the resolve of Polish political émigré circles, their extensive network of sympathetic foreign contacts, and an understanding of the mechanics of the art market. The communist model sought to build a friendly image of Polish culture despite the apparent ideological rift between Eastern and Western Europe. The émigré approach stemmed from a refusal to accept the political division of Europe and involved searching the world of art for evidence of forces in Poland that opposed the political status quo. Finally, the patronage model adopted by communist authorities followed the state-imposed policy of favoring figurative art over Polish abstract art, whereas the model championed by émigré circles pursued the opposite strategy. It showcased unrestrained, spontaneous, and mostly abstract art. It evidenced an affinity for international trends in the art of the time, including abstract expressionism and, in particular, Parisian Art Informel. How can these two strands of cultural diplomacy co-exist? Which resonated more with international audiences?

The yearbooks of the Przemyśl Diocese of 1938 and 1952 deserve special attention and an analysis of their contents. The former was the last schematic account of the state of the diocese before the Second World War and the subsequent changes it entailed. The 1952 yearbook, on the other hand, was the first to be printed after the Second World War. It describes the situation of the diocese at a very delicate time in its history with regard to the state’s confessional policy. The territory of the diocese, following the post-war change of national borders, had shrunk by a third of what it was in 1939. In 1951, the H-T Action took place, which led to the change of national boundaries in the Bieszczady Mountains,  resulting in the alteration of the boundaries and territorial structure of the Przemyśl Diocese. With  regard to the territorial administration of the diocese, of the 35 deaneries existing before the outbreak of the Second World War, 6 deaneries disappeared, 7 ended up in the territory of Soviet Ukraine, 3 were liquidated, 1 new deanery was created and 1 changed its name. The growing number of pastoral institutions and churches led to the acquisition of abandoned Greek Catholic churches and parishes by the Roman Catholic Church. The educational and welfare institutions of the Church were largely liquidated. Between 1939 and 1952, several priests were killed by the Germans and Ukrainian nationalists. Following the closure of the seminary and the so-called minor seminary, as well as secondary schools, the number of candidates for the priesthood decreased drastically. Religious institutions for men and women also decreased due to the war, the change of diocesan boundaries and the measures taken by the Communist authorities. The number of the faithful also decreased, and their profile changed: many returned to the diocese from exile from the territories annexed by the USSR. The diocese also suffered material and cultural losses due to the destruction of churches, thelooting of archival materials, works of art and other ecclesiastical utensils.