Relacje więźniów Kabla zebrane przez Wojewódzką Żydowską Komisję Historyczną w Krakowie w kontekście metodologii dokumentowania Zagłady w latach 1944–1949

Abstract

TESTIMONIES OF THE PRISONERS OF THE KABEL FACTORY COLLECTED BY THE REGIONAL JEWISH HISTORICAL COMMISSION IN KRAKÓW IN THE CONTEXT OF THE METHODOLOGY OF DOCUMENTING THE HOLOCAUST IN THE YEARS 1944–1949

Starting off by outlining the beginnings of the historiography of the Holocaust in the second half of the 1940s, I present the fate of the Jewish historical commissions in the context of the activity of Polish institutions documenting the Holocaust after the war. I recount the history of the Central Jewish Historical Commission, focus on one of its most active departments – the Regional Jewish Historical Commission in Kraków – and then proceed to define the characteristics of the function of the minutes secretary working for that institution, and to present the methodology used in the research conducted by the regional commission’s collectors. In the analytical part of the paper I make references to the testimonies of the prisoners of the sub-camp of KL Plaszow established at the Kraków Cable Factory (Kabel); I briefly unfold the story ofthis place, seldom discussed even today, and on the basis of the said witness accounts I reflect on the formal limits of a testimony, focusing mainly on its specificity. In the conclusion of my study I identify the research problems faced by historical commissions’ staff members shortly after the war, and also point to the diffculties of working with this kind of testimonies.