Professor Jerzy Tomaszewski

We mourn the passing of Professor Jerzy Tomaszewski who died on November 3rd 2014 at the age of 84 and was for many years professor and Director of the Mordechai Anielewicz Centre for the Study and Teaching of the History and Culture of the Jews in Poland at Warsaw University. He was also professor of the Wyższa Szkola Gospodarki Krajowej in Kutno.

He was one of the pioneers in the study of national minorities in Poland in the twentieth century, above all the Jews, and a great expert on the history of Central Europe, particularly that of the Czechs and Slovaks. He was present at all the conferences which transformed Polish-Jewish studies. As one of the founders of ‘Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry’ Jerzy Tomaszewski was a member of its editorial collegium, and he was among the founding fathers of the Pollin Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

His many publications include Z dziejów Polesia 1921–1939. Zarys stosunków społeczno-ekonomicznych (On the History of Polesie 1921–1939. An Outline of Social and Economic Conditions) (Warsaw, 1963); Rzeczpospolita wielu narododów (A Republic of Many Nations) (Warsaw, 1985), Ojczyzna nie tylko Polaków: Mniejszości narodowe w Polsce w latach 1918–1939 (A Fatherland not only for Poles: National Minorities in Poland in the Years 1918–1939) (Warsaw, 1985), and Preludium zagłady: wygnanie Żydow polskich z Niemiec w 1938 r. (Prelude to Destruction: the Expulsion of Polish Jews from Germany in 1938) (Warsaw, 1998).

His latest book Czechy i Słowacja (Czech Lands and Slovakia) was published only a few months before his death. He will be sorely missed.