Szymon Datner (2 February 1902 – 8 December 1989) was a Polish historian,Holocaust survivor andunderground operative fromBiałystok,[1] who was born inKraków and died inWarsaw. He is best known for his studies of theNazi war crimes and events ofThe Holocaust in theBiałystokregion. His 1946Walka i zagłada białostockiego ghetta was one of the first studies of theBiałystok Ghetto.[2]
In 1928 Datner settled inBiałystok.[3] Before the outbreak ofWorld War II, he worked as aphysical-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 theSoviet Union, he was forced with his family into theBiałystok Ghetto. On 24 May 1943 he helped smuggle several persons out of the Ghetto. However, his wife and daughters did not survive its liquidation.[citation needed]
After the war, Datner served for two years as head of the Białystok branch of theCentral 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."[4]
The same year, theCŻKH published hisWalka i zagłada Białostockiego Ghetta (The Struggle and Destruction of the Białystok Ghetto).[3] In the late 1940s Datner moved toWarsaw. He became a prominent specialist on World War II crimes andthe Holocaust.[4] OfJewish extraction, he was dismissed from his post during the1968 Polish political crisis but was rehabilitated soon after.
In 1969–70 he presided overWarsaw'sJewish Historical Institute, and he was one of the historians at theMain Commission to Investigate Hitlerite Crimes [pl].[5] According toBernd Wegner, Datner drew up the most comprehensive documentation ofNazi Germany'swar crimes and atrocities in eastern Poland.[6] In 1966 he published an article on "The Extermination of the Jewish Population in the District of Bialystok".Andrzej Żbikowski [pl] states that Datner wrote in similar vain to authors engaging in "heroic-martyrological discourse".[7]Alexander B. Rossino names Datner asthe eminent historian of Wehrmacht war crimes in Poland.[8]
His daughter isHelena Datner [pl], Polish historian and sociologist specialising in the social history of Polish Jews and the anti-semitism in Poland.
Datner died in 1989 inWarsaw and was interred at theOkopowa Street Jewish Cemetery.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
