Filip (Philip) Friedman (27 April 1901,
Lemberg
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...
– 7 February 1960,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
) was a
Polish-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...
historian and the author of several books on
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
and
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
.
Philip Friedman was born in
Lwów
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
in 1901. After graduation from Gymnasia in Lwów, Friedman studied at the
Jan Kazimierz University
The University of Lviv ( uk, Львівський університет, Lvivskyi universytet; pl, Uniwersytet Lwowski; german: Universität Lemberg, briefly known as the ''Theresianum'' in the early 19th century), presently the Ivan Franko Na ...
in Lwów, the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...
and the Jewish Paedagogium under
Salo Baron
Salo Wittmayer Baron (May 26, 1895 – November 25, 1989) was a Polish-born American historian, described as "the greatest Jewish historian of the 20th century". Baron taught at Columbia University from 1930 until his retirement in 1963.
Life
...
. He moved to
Łódź
Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...
in 1925 after receiving his doctorate from the University of Vienna. Friedman taught at a leading Hebrew secondary school in Łódź, as well as at the People's University of that city, at
YIVO
YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...
in
Vilna
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...
(1935), and at the Taḥkemoni of
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
(1938–1939). He also continued his historical research. In autumn of 1939 he returned to Lwów, where he worked in the
Science Academy of Ukraine. When
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
began, he was engaged in writing a comprehensive
history of the Jews of Poland from the earliest beginnings through the twentieth century. After the fall of Poland at the beginning of World War II and the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
occupation of Lwów, Friedman went into hiding on the "Aryan side" of the city i.e. outside the
Lwów Ghetto
, location = Lwów, Zamarstynów(German-occupied Poland)
, date = 8 November 1941 to June 1943
, incident_type = Imprisonment, mass shootings, forced labor, starvation, forced abortions and sterilization
, perpetrators =
, par ...
. He survived the war but lost his wife and daughter.
After the liberation of
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
, he taught
Jewish History
Jewish history is the history of the Jews, and their nation, religion, and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions, and cultures. Although Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenisti ...
at the
University of Łódź
The University of Łódź (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Łódzki'', Latin: ''Universitas Lodziensis'') is a public research university founded in 1945 in Łódź, Poland, as a continuation of three higher education institutions functioning in Łódź in ...
, and also served as the director of the
Central Jewish Historical Committee (created by the
Central Committee of Jews in Poland), whose mission was to gather data on Nazi war crimes. He collected testimonies and documentation and also supervised the publication of a number of pioneering studies, including his own on the concentration camp at
Auschwitz
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
. This work, ''To jest Oświęcim'', was published in Warsaw in 1945 and appeared in an abridged English version as ''This Is Oswięcim'' (1946). He also continued to publish historical works, including several monographs on various destroyed Jewish communities, including
Lwów
Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...
,
Białystok
Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area.
Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...
and
Chełmno
Chełmno (; older en, Culm; formerly ) is a town in northern Poland near the Vistula river with 18,915 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is the seat of the Chełmno County in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship.
Due to its regional importan ...
and about
Ukrainian-Jewish relations
The history of the Jews in Ukraine dates back over a thousand years; Jewish communities have existed in the territory of Ukraine from the time of the Kievan Rus' (late 9th to mid-13th century). Some of the most important Jewish religious and ...
during the
Nazi occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...
. At the same time, he taught Jewish history at the University of Łódź (1945-1946) and was a member of the Polish State Commission to Investigate German War Crimes in Auschwitz and
Chełmno
Chełmno (; older en, Culm; formerly ) is a town in northern Poland near the Vistula river with 18,915 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is the seat of the Chełmno County in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship.
Due to its regional importan ...
.
After testifying at the
Nuremberg trials
The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies of World War II, Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II.
Between 1939 and 1945 ...
, Friedman and his new wife decided not to return to Poland. For two years he directed the educational department of the
Joint Distribution Committee
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a Jewish relief organization based in New York City. Since 1914 the organisation has supported Jewish people living in Israel and throughout the world. The organization i ...
in
Allied-occupied Germany
Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and France ...
. He also helped the
Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation in Paris to set up its documentary collection. He immigrated to the
United States of America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
in 1948 at the invitation of Salo Baron.
Jews of the Old Lodz. 1st-2nd vol. (letter F)
There he first held the post of research fellow and then, from 1951 until his death, that of lecturer at Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. From 1949, he also headed the Jewish Teachers Seminary and taught courses at the Herzliya Teachers Seminary in Israel and was the Research Director of the YIVO-Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
Joint Documentary Project, a bibliographical series on the Holocaust, from 1954 to 1960.
Friedman's post-war research focused on the Holocaust, including an account of the Warsaw ghetto uprising titled ''Martyrs and Fighters: The Epic of the Warsaw Ghetto'' (1954) and a volume describing Christian rescue, ''Their Brothers' Keepers'' (1957). A volume of his essays devoted to Holocaust topics, ''Pathways to Extinction: Essays on the Holocaust'' (1980), was edited posthumously by his wife, Dr. Ada Eber-Friedman. He also remained committed to his earlier scholarly interests, and published articles in Yiddish, Polish, Hebrew, French, and English, such as "Polish Jewish Historiography between the Two Wars" and "The First Millennium of Jewish Settlement in the Ukraine and in the Adjacent Areas."
Philip Friedman died in New York on February 7, 1960.
References
External links
Papers of Philip Friedman.
RG 1258; YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...
, New York, NY.
*Laurence Weinbaum "Remembering a Forgotten Hero of Holocaust Historiography," Jewish Political Studies Review Volume 24, Numbers 3–4 (Fall 5773/2012) http://jcpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/BR4.pdf
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedman, Filip
1901 births
1960 deaths
Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe)
20th-century Polish historians
Polish male non-fiction writers
Polish emigrants to the United States
Jewish American historians
Writers from Lviv
Polish Holocaust survivors
20th-century American historians
20th-century American male writers
American male non-fiction writers
20th-century American Jews
Academic staff of the University of Łódź