Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

Teaching history of genocides has taken a special place in the school history course. This article describes basic methodological principles of teaching the genocides topic in the school history course. There are defined teacher’s methodical mistakes in the process of teaching the history of genocides. The article is focused in the importance of using cross-curricular themes and different aspects in teaching the history of genocides. There is a based conclusion about the necessity of the organization of teaching the history of genocides from the point of the social psychology. There is a question defined on the comparative teaching of history of genocides.

This article takes a micro-analytical approach to examining a war crimes trial in Klaipėda in 1964, when seven defendants were sentenced for their contribution to the extermination of 3,000 people, mostly Jews, in the summer of 1941, in Skuodas, northwest Lithuania, and its area. The article is a case study that attempts to shed a light on the role of the wives of war criminals during similar wartime events. In order to achieve this aim, it presents the historical context of the Holocaust in and around Skuodas, and discusses the war crimes trial that took place in the city of Klaipėda in 1964, before presenting socio-psychological portraits of the wives of the defendants, insofar as this can be done based on the case material. In addition, the article reveals their attitudes towards the war crimes committed by their husbands, and discusses their role in the region during the Holocaust. The paper also seeks to locate these female trial testimonies within the broader context of the case, by revealing how in general the Soviet interrogators (re)presented images of women in the course of this war crimes trial.

The article analyses the everyday life of civilians in East Prussia during the Second World War, with a special focus on the Klaipėda (Memel) region, a former territory of Lithuania, which was annexed by the German Reich in March 1939. Since the Wehrmacht recruited a large number of men in 1941 in the former Memel region, a great shortage of labour also arose in this northern part of East Prussia. At the same time, numerous labour camps were set up in the region, for both foreign and forced labourers, and prisoners of war. Foreign workers were employed in most agricultural enterprises, which were run by women, thus creating many sources of tension. The women were dependent on close cooperation with the workers, but had to keep a safe distance and report to the Nazi authorities, as well as to their men who were on the front line. The paper focuses on the situation of women who lived and worked in familiar surroundings during the war, but whose lives were nevertheless greatly influenced by the war.

The paper focuses on evaluations of the June 1941 uprising in historiography, and analyses aspects of its social preconditions, genesis, aims, and the composition of its participants. Particular attention is paid to an analysis of the relationship between the uprising and previous and concurrent processes in the development of Lithuanian society, and with other Second World War phenomena (collaboration with the Germans, and the Holocaust). The author argues that the uprising was the result not merely of geopolitical or ideological choices, but also of complex social processes. The preconditions for it were created by the character of the socio-political development of society in the period of the independent republic, and a direct reason was the changes in social and economic life implemented during the Soviet occupation and the repressions by the regime. Interrelationships of the membership in different professional groups and political and social organisations were factors that mobilised the insurgents.

Jewish immigration, which increased in East Prussia particularly after the Crimean War (1853-1856) because of an immigration policy that had been liberal for decades, brought especially young Litvak families to the region. They came with the decided endeavour to leave a part of their Litvak traditions behind and to establish themselves in Prussia. Which Jewish identity did they pass on to their children, who grew up as citizens of the Reich? And how did the identity of the grandchildren’s’ generation unfold? That very prominent change of identity is shown on the basis of one family that proves to be exemplary for Jews who immigrated in the second half of the 19th century. Several generations can be defined. The generation of the immigrants had children who explicitly felt German. The life of the grandchildren was connected to the decision for forced migration and thus with commitment to a new chosen homeland (in most cases, Palestine), in which the mental relationships to their home region were shaped in a very ambivalent way.