Szymon Datner (2 February 1902 – 8 December 1989) was a Polish historian,

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

and underground operative from

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

, who was born in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

and died in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

. He is best known for his studies of the Nazi war crimes and events of

The Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

in the

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

. His 1946 ''Walka i zagłada białostockiego ghetta'' was one of the first studies of the Białystok Ghetto.

Life to 1945

In 1928 Datner settled in

. Before the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he worked as a physical-education teacher at a Jewish secondary school in Białystok. He lived in that city with his wife and two daughters through the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland. After the German attack on the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, he was forced with his family into the Białystok Ghetto. On 24 May 1943 he helped smuggle several persons out of the Ghetto. However, his wife and daughters did not survive its liquidation.

Postwar career

After the war, Datner served for two years as head of the Białystok branch of the Central Committee of Jews in Poland (''CŻKH''). "A survivor himself, he deposited his own testimony at the Jewish Historical Commission in Białystok on 28 September 1946." The same year, the ''CŻKH'' published his ''Walka i zagłada Białostockiego Ghetta'' (The Struggle and Destruction of the Białystok Ghetto). In the late 1940s Datner moved to

. He became a prominent specialist on World War II crimes and

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. Of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

extraction, he was dismissed from his post during the 1968 Polish political crisis but was rehabilitated soon after. In 1969–70 he presided over

's Jewish Historical Institute, and he was one of the historians at the . According to Bernd Wegner, Datner drew up the most comprehensive documentation of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

war crimes A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...

and atrocities in eastern Poland. In 1966 he published an article on "The Extermination of the Jewish Population in the District of Bialystok". states that Datner wrote in similar vain to authors engaging in "heroic-martyrological discourse". Alexander B. Rossino names Datner as ''the eminent historian of Wehrmacht war crimes in Poland.''Hitler Strikes Poland: litzkrieg, Ideology, and Atrocity - Page 185 Alexander B. Rossino · University Press of Kansas 2003

Family

His daughter is , Polish historian and sociologist specialising in the social history of Polish Jews and the anti-semitism in Poland.

Death

Datner died in 1989 in

and was interred at the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery.

Publications

*''Walka i Zagłada białostockiego getta'' (

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

, 1946) *''Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu na jeńcach wojennych w II wojnie światowej'' (

, 1961) *''Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach)'' (Warsaw, 1962) *''Wilhelm Koppe - nieukarany zbrodniarz hitlerowski'' (Warsaw-

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

, 1963) *''Ucieczki z niewoli niemieckiej 1939-1945'' (Warsaw, 1966) *''Eksterminacja ludności żydowskiej w Okręgu Białostockim'' (Bulletin of the Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw, October–December 1966, ) *''Niemiecki okupacyjny aparat bezpieczeństwa w okręgu białostockim (1941–1944) w świetle materiałów niemieckich (opracowania Waldemara Macholla)'', Biuletyn GKBZH (Warsaw, 1965) *''55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce'' (Warsaw, 1967) *''Las sprawiedliwych. Karta z dziejów ratownictwa Żydow w okupowanej Polsce'' ( Warsaw, 1968) *''Tragedia w Doessel - (ucieczki z niewoli niemieckiej 1939-1945 ciąg dalszy)'' (Warsaw, 1970) *''Z mądrości Talmudu'' (Warsaw, 1988)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Datner, Szymon 1902 births 1989 deaths 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Białystok Ghetto inmates Schoolteachers from Białystok Writers from Kraków Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust