The letters 1938-1945. The Grunwald's journey from oppression to freedom.

The bulk of the correspondence is between Susanne Sommer's parents, Max and Marga Grunwald, and their sponsors in the United States, Paul and Jean Lewinson. Also included are letters from Susanne Sommer's maternal grandparents prior to their deportation from Berlin in 1942 and from her paternal grandfather prior to and after his deportation from Stettin to a ghetto in Poland. A number of letters by Hugo Grunwald, Susanne Sommer's uncle, joined the British army after his immigration to England, are included as well.

Report 1942 to 1945.

Memoir describes the personal experience of Coen Rood during the Holocaust from 1942 to 1945. The report was written from 1945 to 1949 for the War Documentation Center in Amsterdam.

Theresienstadt 1941-1945.

Translation of H.G. Adler, "Theresienstadt 1941-1945"

Manch Gespenst steht sinnend. 1938-1945

Manuscript of an autobiographical novel, recounting the author’s experiences under Nazi rule in Austria after the occupation of 1938, particularly his imprisonment in Dachau concentration camp and his subsequent emigration to England.

Julius Streicher Collection 1945

Documents and books pertaining to Julius Streicher

Guides to German records microfilmed at Alexandria, Va. 1933-1945

Inventory lists of captured German documents; 1933-1945.

Leiwen; Jewish community 1800-1945

Manuscripts: "Schicksal der Leiwener Juden von der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus bis heute;" Geschichte der ehemaligen Judengemeinde in Leiwen." Contains references to the history of different Jewish families from Leiwen.

Mendelsohn Family Collection, Zeitz, Saxony 1870-1945

Names and dates of 5 members of the Mendelsohn family from Zeitz, Saxony, who were killed during World War I and during the Holocaust

Suomi ja Euroopan kirkollinen jälleenrakentaminen 1945-1948

The international aid that the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland received between 1945 and 1948 is the topic of this historical study, in which the process of reconstruction of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland is examined in a European context. The key questions are related not only to the achievements of the reconstruction programs but also to the purposes and objectives of the donating churches. The study pays particular attention to the changes in the ecclesiastical, political and economic fields after the Second World War and asks how the tense political atmosphere of a divided world affected the reconstruction programs of the churches. It is possible to distinguish three periods within the European church reconstruction process. To begin with, the year 1945 was, in general, the year of organization. Many churches had started planning reconstruction work already during the war, but only after the conflict in Europe had ceased did they have a chance to renew contacts, assess the damage and begin operations. The years 1946 and 1947 were the main years of the work. Large reconstruction organizations from American churches donated money, food, clothes and vitamins worth millions of dollars to the European churches. The work started to diminish as early as 1948, partly because Marshall Plan aid and the rising standard of living had reduced the need for material assistance in many countries and partly because other problems overshadowed the reconstruction work of the World Council of Churches: for example, most WCC resources at this time were directed to refugee programs and to Third World churhces. The most important donors from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland's point of view were the American Section of the Lutheran World Federation, the World Council of Churches and the Churches of Denmark, Sweden and England. The amount of money and value of goods received by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland totaled approximately 2.5 million dollars, from which about 60 per cent came from the Lutheran churches of America. The importance of the Lutheran World Federation was even greater because of the productive financial arrangements that increased the American Lutheran funds. In addition the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland imported hundreds of tons of tax-free coffee and sold this to Finns. The money gained was used mostly to rebuild destroyed church buildings and to support the work of different ecclesiastical organizations. Smaller amounts were used for scholarship programs, youth work, and supporting sick and disabled church workers.

Erwin Gruen Collection 1945-1995

Various clippings and articles about the work of Erwin Gruen and his Jewish-German background (1965-1993); Letter by Gruen describing his experiences during the Nazi period.

Small State Cultures of Consensus : State Traditions and Consensus-Seeking in the Neo-Corporatist and Neutrality Policies in Post-1945 Austria and Finland

Austria and Finland are persistently referred to as the “success stories” of post-1945 European history. Notwithstanding their different points of departure, in the course of the Cold War both countries portrayed themselves as small and neutral border-states in the world dictated by superpower politics. By the 1970s, both countries frequently ranked at the top end in various international classifications regarding economic development and well-being in society. This trend continues today. The study takes under scrutiny the concept of consensus which figures centrally in the two national narratives of post-1945 success. Given that the two domestic contexts as such only share few direct links with one another and are more obviously different than similar in terms of their geographical location, historical experiences and politico-cultural traditions, the analogies and variations in the anatomies of the post-1945 “cultures of consensus” provide an interesting topic for a historical comparative and cross-national examination. The main research question concerns the identification and analysis of the conceptual and procedural convergence points of the concepts of the state and consensus. The thesis is divided into six main chapters. After the introduction, the second chapter presents the theoretical framework in more detail by focusing on the key concepts of the study – the state and consensus. Chapter two also introduces the comparative historical and cross-national research angles. Chapter three grounds the key concepts of the state and consensus in the historical contexts of Austria and Finland by discussing the state, the nation and democracy in a longer term comparative perspective. The fourth and fifth chapter present case studies on the two policy fields, the “pillars”, upon which the post-1945 Austrian and Finnish cultures of consensus are argued to have rested. Chapter four deals with neo-corporatist features in the economic policy making and chapter five discusses the building up of domestic consensus regarding the key concepts of neutrality policies in the 1950s and 1960s. The study concludes that it was not consensus as such but the strikingly intense preoccupation with the theme of domestic consensus that cross-cut, in a curiously analogous manner, the policy-making processes studied. The main challenge for the post-1945 architects of Austrian and Finnish cultures of consensus was to find strategies and concepts for consensus-building which would be compatible with the principles of democracy. Discussed at the level of procedures, the most important finding of the study concerns the triangular mechanism of coordination, consultation and cooperation that set into motion and facilitated a new type of search for consensus in both post-war societies. In this triangle, the agency of the state was central, though in varying ways. The new conceptions concerning a small state’s position in the Cold War world also prompted cross-nationally perceivable willingness to reconsider inherited concepts and procedures of the state and the nation. At the same time, the ways of understanding the role of the state and its relation to society remained profoundly different in Austria and Finland and this basic difference was in many ways reflected in the concepts and procedures deployed in the search for consensus and management of domestic conflicts. For more detailed information, please consult the author.

Book Review: "The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945-1975", John Harwood, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011

Within the history of twentieth-century design, there are a number of well-known objects and stories that are invoked time and time again to capture a pivotal moment or summarize a much broader historical transition. For example, Marcel Breuer’s Model B3 chair is frequently used as a stand-in for the radical investigations of form and new industrial materials occurring at the Bauhaus in the mid-1920s. Similarly, Raymond Loewy’s streamlined pencil sharpener has become historical shorthand for the emergence of modern industrial design in the 1930s. And any discussion of the development of American postwar “organic design” seems incomplete without reference to Charles and Ray Eames’s molded plywood leg splint of 1942. Such objects and narratives are dear to historians of modern design. They are tangible, photogenic subjects that slot nicely into exhibitions, historical surveys, and coffee-table best sellers...

Kaupungin savut ja käryt : Helsingin ilmansuojelu 1945-1982

The smoke and fumes of the city: Air protection in Helsinki from 1945 to 1982 This dissertation examines air pollution and air protection in post-war Helsinki. The period studied ends in 1982 when the Air Protection Act entered into force, thus institutionalising air protection in Finland as a socially governed environmental matter. The dissertation is based on the research traditions of environmental politics and urban environmental history. The development of air protection is approached from the perspectives of politicisation and institutionalisation. The dissertation also investigates how air pollution grew into a social issue and presents various discursive ways of analysing air pollution and protection. The primary research material consists of municipal documents and newspapers, while supplementary material includes journal articles and interviews. The event history of air protection is described through an analysis of the material, including source criticism. The social ways of dealing with air pollution and the emergence of air protection are analysed in the light of case-specific air quality disputes from both factual and discursive perspectives. This approach enables the contextualisation of the development of air protection as part of the local history of post-war Helsinki. The dissertation presents the major sources of air pollution in Helsinki and describes the deterioration of air quality in a society which emphasised the primacy of economic prosperity. The air issue emerged during the 1950s in neighbourhood disputes and was exacerbated into a larger problem in the late 1960s. Concurrent to the formation of the field of environmental protection in Finland, an air protection organisation was established in the 1970s in Helsinki. As a result, air protection became a regular part of municipal government. Air protection in Helsinki developed from small-scale policies focused on individual cases into a large, institutionalised air protection system managed by experts. The dissertation research material gave rise to the following major research themes: the economic dimension of the air issue, the role of science in the formation of the environmental problem, and the establishment of norms for acceptable air quality and reasonable limits to air pollution in the urban environment. The paper also discusses the inequitable distribution of the negative effects of air pollution between the residents of different districts. The dissertation concludes that air protection in Helsinki became a local success story although it was long marred by inefficiency and partial failure.

Kämpän kotihengetär vai hyvä jätkä? : Pohjois-Suomen kämppäemännät ja sukupuolen merkitys kämppäelämässä 1945-1975

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan Pohjois-Suomen savottakämpillä vuosien 1945 1975 välillä työskennelleitä kämppäemäntiä. Kämppäemännät toimivat metsätyöntekijöiden yhteisasunnoissa ruuanlaittajina ja siivoojina. Savottakämpille alettiin palkata kokkeja 1900-luvun alussa ja 1930-luvulta eteenpäin puutavarayhtiöt alkoivat huolehtia heidän palkkaamisestaan. Yhtiöiden palkkaamien ruuanlaittajien ammattinimikkeesi vakiintui kämppäemäntä. Kämppämajoitus väheni 1970-luvun myötä kun metsätyössä siirryttiin työntekijöiden kotikuljetuksiin. Pohjois-Suomessa kämppätyömaita ja kämppäemäntiä oli kuitenkin 1980-luvun lopulle asti. Kämppäemännät työskentelivät maskuliinisella metsäalalla kämppäyhteisöjen ainoina naisina. Tutkielmassa kysytäänkin, minkälaisia käsityksiä ja määritelmiä kämppäemännyyteen yhdistettiin ja miten kämppäemännän sukupuoli näkyy näissä määritelmissä. Lisäksi kysytään, minkälaisina kämpän sisäiset sukupuolten väliset suhteet näyttäytyivät. Tarkastelussa hyödynnetään Yvonne Hirdmanin sukupuolijärjestelmän käsitettä. Tutkimuskysymyksiä lähestytään kolmesta näkökulmasta: Ensin tarkastellaan, miten kämppäemännyyttä määritellään aikalaiskirjallisuudessa. Tässä tarkastelussa tärkeimpänä lähdeaineistona toimivat kämppäemännille suunnatut oppaat. Toiseksi tarkastellaan, miten kämppäemäntinä toimineet naiset vastasivat näihin määritelmiin ja minkälaiseksi he kokivat kämpillä vallinneet sukupuolten väliset suhteet. Kolmanneksi kuvataan, mitä savottakämpillä majoittuneet metsäalalla toimineet miehet näkivät hyvän kämppäemännän ominaisuuksiksi ja minkälaisiksi he kokivat emännän aseman kämppäyhteisössä. Kahden viimeisen näkökulman lähdeaineistona toimii muistitietoaineisto. Kämppäemännät toimivat savottakämpillä erilaisten odotusten ristipaineessa. Kämppäemännän oppaat määrittelevät heidän roolinsa feminiiniseksi ja äidilliseksi. Ne luovat kämppäemännän työstä naisten yhteiskunnallisen roolin mukaista määrittelemällä kämpän kodiksi ja emännän sen hengettäreksi, joka huolehtii miesten hyvinvoinnista. Kämpillä majoittuneet miehet sen sijaan arvostavat kämppäemäntää, joka on rempseä ja huumorintajuinen. Kämppäemännän kuului sopeutua kämpän maskuliiniseen kulttuuriin, mikä onnistui parhaiten osallistumalla sen huumoriin. Kämpän sukupuolijärjestelmä perustui sukupuolitettuun työnjakoon ja kämppätilan sukupuolenmukaiseen jakamiseen. Kämpän keittiö ja emännän huone olivat naisille kuuluvaa yksityisaluetta, josta oltiin yhteydessä miesten puolelle vain tarjoiluluukun välityksellä. Sukupuolten erillään pitämistä perusteltiin kämppäemännän suojelemisella, mutta sen tavoitteena oli myös estää sukupuolisuhteiden syntyminen kämpän miesten ja kämppäemännän välille. Kämppäemäntä olikin virallisesti rauhoitettu ja emännän koskemattomuudesta huolehtiminen oli kämppäyhteisön vastuulla. Kämppäelämässä syntyi kuitenkin seurustelusuhteita ja mahdollisesti myös sukupuolisuhteita. Näistä ei kuitenkaan mielellään kerrota haastatteluissa. Myös seksuaalista häirintää esiintyi. Kämppäemännät kuitenkin korostavat miesten kunnioittavaa suhtautumista heihin. He korostavat, etteivät sukupuolten väliset suhteet olleet ongelmallisia ja painottavat omaa sukupuolimoraaliaan. Kämppäemännät näkevät itsensä kämppäyhteisön jäsenenä, eivätkä halua puhua pahaa muusta yhteisöstä. Vaikeita tilanteita kuvatessaan he korostavat omaa aktiivisuuttaan ja selviytymistään. Kämppäemännät luovat itsestään kuvaa selviytyjinä ja vahvoina naisina.

Fra jungledyr og cykelmyg til frysepunkt og længsel efter kærlighed Et strejftog gennem dansk litteratur på finsk efter 1945

Abstract (A journey through Danish literature translated into Finnish after 1945): Nearly 80 per cent of all literary translations from Danish into Finnish are done after the Second World War. These translations are obviously only a small selection of the Danish national literature, but nevertheless capture important trends and currents in it. Based on a selection of translated works, the article allows a broad introduction to Danish literature available in Finnish. It focuses on children's and youth literature, feminist literature and realistic, magic and civilization critical novels.