# Szymon Datner > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Szymon_Datner > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Szymon_Datner.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szymon_Datner > Source revision: 1339787768 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Polish historian}} thumb|right|Szymon Datner in 1960s '''Szymon Datner''' (2 February 1902 – 8 December 1989) was a Polish historian, [Holocaust survivor](/source/Holocaust_survivors) and [underground](/source/Polish_Underground_State) operative from [Białystok](/source/Bia%C5%82ystok),{{Cite book| publisher = Indiana University Press| isbn = 978-0-253-01087-2| last = Grabowski| first = Jan| title = Hunt for the Jews: betrayal and murder in German-occupied Poland| location = Bloomington, Indiana| date = 2013}} who was born in [Kraków](/source/Krak%C3%B3w) and died in [Warsaw](/source/Warsaw). He is best known for his studies of the [Nazi war crimes](/source/Nazi_war_crimes) and events of [The Holocaust](/source/The_Holocaust_in_Poland) in the [Białystok](/source/Bia%C5%82ystok) [region](/source/Bezirk_Bialystok). His 1946 ''Walka i zagłada białostockiego ghetta'' was one of the first studies of the [Białystok Ghetto](/source/Bia%C5%82ystok_Ghetto).{{Citation| title = Aleksiun - 2004 - Polish Historiography of the Holocaust—Between Silence and Public Debate.pdf| accessdate = 2018-01-29| url = http://content.ebscohost.com/ContentServer.asp?T=P&P=AN&K=13838389&S=R&D=aph&EbscoContent=dGJyMMvl7ESeqLc4yNfsOLCmr1CeprRSsqa4SK%2BWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGrsEyuqbRJuePfgeyx44Dt6fIA}} ==Life to 1945== In 1928 Datner settled in [Białystok](/source/Bia%C5%82ystok).{{cite web|url=http://www.szlak.uwb.edu.pl/miejsca.html|title=Szymon Datner (1902-1989)|publisher=Uniwersytet w Białymstoku|work=Szlak Dziedzictwa Żydowskiego w Białymstoku|accessdate=10 May 2011|author=Poczykowski, Radosław & Katarzyna Niziołek}} Before the outbreak of [World War II](/source/World_War_II), he worked as a [physical-education](/source/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](/source/Soviet_Union), he was forced with his family into the [Białystok Ghetto](/source/Bia%C5%82ystok_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|date=November 2016}} ==Postwar career== After the war, Datner served for two years as head of the Białystok branch of the [Central Committee of Jews in Poland](/source/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 [Warsaw](/source/Warsaw). He became a prominent specialist on World War II crimes and [the Holocaust](/source/the_Holocaust).{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=--fhfkLjI8AC&q=%22Szymon+Datner%2C+the+most+outstanding+Polish+specialist+on+the+Holocaust%22&pg=PA391|chapter=Polish-Jewish Relations|publisher=[Northwestern University Press](/source/Northwestern_University_Press)|title=Dagmar Herzog: Lessons and Legacies: The Holocaust in international perspective|year=2006|accessdate=10 May 2011|author=Wróbel, Piotr|pages=391–96|isbn=0-8101-2370-3}} Of [Jewish](/source/Jewish) extraction, he was dismissed from his post during the [1968 Polish political crisis](/source/1968_Polish_political_crisis) but was rehabilitated soon after. In 1969–70 he presided over [Warsaw](/source/Warsaw)'s [Jewish Historical Institute](/source/Jewish_Historical_Institute), and he was one of the historians at the {{ill|Main Commission to Investigate Hitlerite Crimes|pl|Główna Komisja do Badań Zbrodni Hitlerowskich}}.{{Cite web|url=http://muzhp.pl/pl/c/1977/zbrodnie-hitlerowskie-na-zydach-zbieglych-z-gett|title=Datner o zbrodniach hitlerowskich na Żydach zbiegłych z gett - Muzeum Historii Polski|website=muzhp.pl}} According to [Bernd Wegner](/source/Bernd_Wegner), Datner drew up the most comprehensive documentation of [Nazi Germany](/source/Nazi_Germany)'s [war crimes](/source/war_crimes) and atrocities in eastern Poland.{{citation|title=From Peace to War: Germany, Soviet Russia, and the World, 1939-1941|publisher=Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, Berghahn Books, [Germany](/source/Germany)|year=1997|author=Bernd Wegner|authorlink=Bernd Wegner|page=54}} In 1966 he published an article on "The Extermination of the Jewish Population in the District of Bialystok". {{ill|Andrzej Żbikowski|pl}} states that Datner wrote in similar vain to authors engaging in "heroic-martyrological discourse".{{cite book |last1=Żbikowski |first1=Andrzej |title=New Directions in the History of the Jews in the Polish Lands |date=2019 |publisher=Academic Studies Press |isbn=978-83-949149-1-2 |page=406 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/book/9788394914912/10.1515/9788394914912-037.xml |language=en |chapter=The Dispute over the Status of a Witness to the Holocaust: Some Observations on How Research into the Destruction of the Polish Jews and into Polish–Jewish Relations during the Years of Nazi Occupation Has Changed since 1989|doi=10.1515/9788394914912-037 |s2cid=212905113 |quote=}} [Alexander B. Rossino](/source/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 {{ill|Helena Datner|pl|Helena Datner}}, Polish historian and sociologist specialising in the social history of Polish Jews and the anti-semitism in Poland. ==Death== Datner died in 1989 in [Warsaw](/source/Warsaw) and was interred at the [Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery](/source/Okopowa_Street_Jewish_Cemetery). ==Publications== *''Walka i Zagłada białostockiego getta'' ([Łódź](/source/%C5%81%C3%B3d%C5%BA), 1946) *''Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu na jeńcach wojennych w II wojnie światowej'' ([Warsaw](/source/Warsaw), 1961) *''Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach)'' (Warsaw, 1962) *''Wilhelm Koppe - nieukarany zbrodniarz hitlerowski'' (Warsaw-[Poznań](/source/Pozna%C5%84), 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, {{nobreak|no. 60: pp. 3–29}}) *''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== {{reflist}} ==External links== * {{cite web |last1=Datner |first1=Szymon |title=German Nazi Crimes Against Jews Who Escaped From The Ghettoes "Legal" Threats And Ordinances Regarding Jews And The Poles Who Helped Them |url=http://muzhp.pl/files/upload/aktualnosci/szymon_datner.pdf |publisher=Jewish Historical Institute Bulletin No. 75 (1970) }} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Datner, Szymon}} Category:1902 births Category:1989 deaths Category:20th-century Polish historians Category:Polish male non-fiction writers Category:Białystok Ghetto inmates Category:Schoolteachers from Białystok Category:Writers from Kraków Category:Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust Category:20th-century Polish male writers --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Szymon Datner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szymon_Datner) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szymon_Datner?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.