Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Editors and Advisers
- Contents
- Polin
- Dedication
- Statement From the Editors
- JEWS IN WARSAW
- ARTICLES
- DOCUMENT
- COMMENTARY
- EXCHANGE
- REPORTS
- REVIEW ESSAYS
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Paul Wexler, Explorations in Judeo-Slavic Linguistics by A. de Vincenz
- Adam Zamoyski, The Polish Way: A Thousand-year History of the Poles and their Culture by Michael Hurst
- Michael Brocke, (ed.) Beter und Rebellen. Aus 1000 Jahren Judentum in Polen by Heinz-Dietrich Lowe
- Stefi Jersch-Wenzel, (ed.) Deutsche Polen Juden. lhre Beziehungen von den Anfiingen bis ins 20. Jaharhundert. Beitriige zu einer Tagung by Heinz-Dietrich Lowe
- Jerzy Kloczowski, et al. Histoire religeuse de la Pologne by Robert M. Kingdon
- Jacob Litman, The Economic Role of Jews in Medieval Poland by Jakub Basista
- Isaac Lewin, The Jewish Community in Poland by Jakub Basista
- Arnold Eisen, Galut. Modern Jewish Reflection on Homelessness and Homecoming by Harvey E. Goldberg
- Calvin Goldschider and Alan S. Zuckerman, The Transformation of the Jews by Harvey E. Goldberg
- Jewish-Polish Coexistence, 1772-1939. A Topical Bibliography compiled by G.]. Lerski and H. T Lerski by Tomasz Gąsowski
- M.A. Ouaknin, Le livre brule - Lire le Talmud by Daniel Tollet
- Daniel Beauvais, Polacy na Ukrainie 1831-1863. Szlachta polska na Wolyniu, Podolu i Kijowszci:.yznie by L. R. Lewitter
- John Doyle Klier, Russia Gathers Her Jews. The Origins of the ‘Jewish Question’ in Russia, 1772-1825 by Eli Lederhendler
- Jacob Katz, by David Sorkin (ed.) Toward Modernity: The European Jewish Model
- Shlomo Avineri, Moses Hess: Prophet of Communism and, Zionism by M. Mishkinsky
- Paul W. Massing, Vorgeschichte des politischen Antisemitismus by Peter Pulzer
- Martin Pollack, Nach Galizien. Von Chassiden, Huzulen, Polen unri Ruthenen by A. de Vincenz
- Robert S. Wistrich, Socialism and the Jews. The Dilemmas of Assimilation in Germany and Austria-Hungary by Jerzy Holzer
- Elzbieta Ettinger, Rosa Luxemburg. A Life by Mark Almond
- Stephen Birmingham, The Rest of Us. The Rise of America's Eastern European Jews by Ewa Morawska
- Miroslav Hroch, Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe. A Comparative Ana(ysis of the Social Composition of Patriotic Groups among the Smaller European Nations by Michael Hurst
- Wolodymyr Kubijovyč, Etnichni hrupy pivdennozakhidnoi Ukrainy (Ha(ychyny) na l.l.1939. Natsionalna statystyka Ha(ychyny by Jerzy Tomaszewski
- Howard Aster and Peter J. Potichnyj, Jewish Ukrainian Relations: Two Solitudes by Michael Hurst
- Edward Prus, Wiadyka Swiftojurski: Rzecz of arcybiskupie Andrze.fu Szeptyckim (1865-1944) by Shimon Redlich
- Christopher R. Browning, Fateful Months. Essays on the Emergence of the Final Solution; Moshe Zimmerman Wilhelm Marr. The Patriarch of Anti-semitism by A. J. Nicholls
- ‘Historikerstreit’. Die Dokumentation der Kontroverse um die Einzigartigkeit der national sozialistischen Judenvernichtung by Peter Pulzer
- John F. Sweets, Choices in Vichy France. The French Under Nazi Occupation by N. J. Atkin
- Janina Bauman, Winter in the Morning. A Young Girl's Life in the Warsaw Ghetto and Beyond, 1939-1945 by Wtadyslaw Bartoszewski
- Joža Karas, Music in Terezin 1941-1945 by Marian FuksJoza Karas Music in Terezin 1941-1945 by Marian Fuks
- John Coutouvidis and Jaime Reynolds, Poland, 1939-1947 by Józef Garliński
- Irena Grudzinska-Gross and Jan Tomasz Gross, (ed.) War Through Children's Eyes. The Soviet Occupation of Poland and the Deportations by Mark Almond
- Richard I. Cohen, The Burden of Conscience. French Jewry 's Response to the Holocaust by N. J. Atkin
- Irena Hurwic-Nowakowska, A Social Ana(ysis of Postwar Polish Jewry by Zygmunt Bauman
- Alexander Scheiber, Essays on Jewish Folklore and Comparative Literature by Raphael Patai
- Maria Brzezina, Polszczyzna Źydów by A. de Vincenz
- LEITER TO THE EDITORS
- CONTRIBUTORS
- OBITUARIES
Elzbieta Ettinger, Rosa Luxemburg. A Life by Mark Almond
from BOOK REVIEWS
- Frontmatter
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Editors and Advisers
- Contents
- Polin
- Dedication
- Statement From the Editors
- JEWS IN WARSAW
- ARTICLES
- DOCUMENT
- COMMENTARY
- EXCHANGE
- REPORTS
- REVIEW ESSAYS
- BOOK REVIEWS
- Paul Wexler, Explorations in Judeo-Slavic Linguistics by A. de Vincenz
- Adam Zamoyski, The Polish Way: A Thousand-year History of the Poles and their Culture by Michael Hurst
- Michael Brocke, (ed.) Beter und Rebellen. Aus 1000 Jahren Judentum in Polen by Heinz-Dietrich Lowe
- Stefi Jersch-Wenzel, (ed.) Deutsche Polen Juden. lhre Beziehungen von den Anfiingen bis ins 20. Jaharhundert. Beitriige zu einer Tagung by Heinz-Dietrich Lowe
- Jerzy Kloczowski, et al. Histoire religeuse de la Pologne by Robert M. Kingdon
- Jacob Litman, The Economic Role of Jews in Medieval Poland by Jakub Basista
- Isaac Lewin, The Jewish Community in Poland by Jakub Basista
- Arnold Eisen, Galut. Modern Jewish Reflection on Homelessness and Homecoming by Harvey E. Goldberg
- Calvin Goldschider and Alan S. Zuckerman, The Transformation of the Jews by Harvey E. Goldberg
- Jewish-Polish Coexistence, 1772-1939. A Topical Bibliography compiled by G.]. Lerski and H. T Lerski by Tomasz Gąsowski
- M.A. Ouaknin, Le livre brule - Lire le Talmud by Daniel Tollet
- Daniel Beauvais, Polacy na Ukrainie 1831-1863. Szlachta polska na Wolyniu, Podolu i Kijowszci:.yznie by L. R. Lewitter
- John Doyle Klier, Russia Gathers Her Jews. The Origins of the ‘Jewish Question’ in Russia, 1772-1825 by Eli Lederhendler
- Jacob Katz, by David Sorkin (ed.) Toward Modernity: The European Jewish Model
- Shlomo Avineri, Moses Hess: Prophet of Communism and, Zionism by M. Mishkinsky
- Paul W. Massing, Vorgeschichte des politischen Antisemitismus by Peter Pulzer
- Martin Pollack, Nach Galizien. Von Chassiden, Huzulen, Polen unri Ruthenen by A. de Vincenz
- Robert S. Wistrich, Socialism and the Jews. The Dilemmas of Assimilation in Germany and Austria-Hungary by Jerzy Holzer
- Elzbieta Ettinger, Rosa Luxemburg. A Life by Mark Almond
- Stephen Birmingham, The Rest of Us. The Rise of America's Eastern European Jews by Ewa Morawska
- Miroslav Hroch, Social Preconditions of National Revival in Europe. A Comparative Ana(ysis of the Social Composition of Patriotic Groups among the Smaller European Nations by Michael Hurst
- Wolodymyr Kubijovyč, Etnichni hrupy pivdennozakhidnoi Ukrainy (Ha(ychyny) na l.l.1939. Natsionalna statystyka Ha(ychyny by Jerzy Tomaszewski
- Howard Aster and Peter J. Potichnyj, Jewish Ukrainian Relations: Two Solitudes by Michael Hurst
- Edward Prus, Wiadyka Swiftojurski: Rzecz of arcybiskupie Andrze.fu Szeptyckim (1865-1944) by Shimon Redlich
- Christopher R. Browning, Fateful Months. Essays on the Emergence of the Final Solution; Moshe Zimmerman Wilhelm Marr. The Patriarch of Anti-semitism by A. J. Nicholls
- ‘Historikerstreit’. Die Dokumentation der Kontroverse um die Einzigartigkeit der national sozialistischen Judenvernichtung by Peter Pulzer
- John F. Sweets, Choices in Vichy France. The French Under Nazi Occupation by N. J. Atkin
- Janina Bauman, Winter in the Morning. A Young Girl's Life in the Warsaw Ghetto and Beyond, 1939-1945 by Wtadyslaw Bartoszewski
- Joža Karas, Music in Terezin 1941-1945 by Marian FuksJoza Karas Music in Terezin 1941-1945 by Marian Fuks
- John Coutouvidis and Jaime Reynolds, Poland, 1939-1947 by Józef Garliński
- Irena Grudzinska-Gross and Jan Tomasz Gross, (ed.) War Through Children's Eyes. The Soviet Occupation of Poland and the Deportations by Mark Almond
- Richard I. Cohen, The Burden of Conscience. French Jewry 's Response to the Holocaust by N. J. Atkin
- Irena Hurwic-Nowakowska, A Social Ana(ysis of Postwar Polish Jewry by Zygmunt Bauman
- Alexander Scheiber, Essays on Jewish Folklore and Comparative Literature by Raphael Patai
- Maria Brzezina, Polszczyzna Źydów by A. de Vincenz
- LEITER TO THE EDITORS
- CONTRIBUTORS
- OBITUARIES
Summary
Elzbieta Ettinger's Rosa Luxemburg is a strange amalgam, a new old-fashioned sort of biography. On the one hand, it celebrates a feminist, a Socialist, an outsider by birth and conviction, but at the same time, it is written in the breathless style and with the heavy hand of fate constantly drawn to the reader's attention, which used to be so typical of the hagiography of more traditional heroes. In other words, it is a very good read, full of interesting information and colourful scenes, plus insight into the innermost thoughts of the characters in their moments of crisis, but it is also a little short on historical perspective.
In her preface, the author laments the lack of official interest in Luxemburg in her native Poland, where ‘there is but a lightbulb factory bearing her name … One of the most prominent of socialist thinkers, Luxemburg is still awaiting a biographer in her own country’. When she turns to Germany, ‘her adopted country’, Ettinger's discussion is extraordinarily blind to the existence of two German states, where once there was a Reich. Ettinger is loftily dismissive of West Germans who speak of Luxemburg as a ‘German revolutionary’, which she sees as ‘perhaps not merely a sign of ignorance but of the confusion which surrounds her’.
The DDR's cult of Luxemburg is overlooked. Of course, there is something more than ironic in East German Bolsheviks paying ritual tribute to the martyrs of January, 1919. In January, 1988, local human rights activists, often drawn from church groups which would have been despised by Luxemburg and Liebknecht, committed sacrilege in the eyes of the Stasi. Uninvited guests at the memorial ceremonies, on their homemade banners they quoted Luxemburg's posthumously published anti-Leninist theses. The demonstrators were quickly bundled away - frequently to West Germany where Rosa Luxemburg's views are not considered subversive, probably not much considered at all.
During the peak of Stalin's terror in the 1930s, Luxemburg was posthumously disgraced as a Trotskyist, presumably because of their shared Jewish origin, since their visions of socialism were so incompatible.
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- The Jews of Warsaw , pp. 396 - 398Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2004