Archives of Pinkas Katz Museum of the history of Polish Jews

Memorabilia of Pinkas Katz (1896-1942?), a pre-war humanist from Lviv. He studied at the Vienna University of Economics, the University of Vienna, the University of Iowa, Columbia University and Oxford University; he received his PhD from the University of Vienna on the basis of his dissertation "Thomas Carlyle und die romantische Staatswissenschaft in Deutschland. Eine Gegenüberstellung'. During his brief scholarly activity, interrupted by the war, he established contacts with many academics from all over the world (as evidenced by correspondence from this archive group).

He studied English in Cambridge, among other places. He even authored a script: In 1937, an eighty-page The first English course for adult foreigners was published by the Lviv publishing house of M.H. Rubin.

The outbreak of war found Pinkas Katz in Lviv, where he lived at 28 Akademicka Street (as evidenced by a postal tube from his diploma from a British course bearing the recipient's address). In 1940, he worked at the Academy of Foreign Trade as an English teacher, where he met Zdzisław Żygulski, a student there. In June 1941, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union, he did not evacuate to the east. In the Lvov ghetto at the turn of 1941 and 1942, he gave his documents and photographs to Żygulski for safekeeping. It is possible, however, that he sensed death.

As Prof. Teresa Grzybkowska, donating memorabilia to the collection on behalf of Prof. Żygulski, wrote in a letter to the museum (the letter of 17 February 2015):

"Żygulski remembers Pinkas as an excellent language teacher; 'he was one of the most cheerful, intelligent and witty people I have ever known in my life. He borrowed books from him; Pinkas had an excellent English-language library.

When he found himself in the ghetto, he would send messages to Zdzisław asking for bread and sugar, which he would bring whenever possible. The young Żygulski was shocked by the scenes of violence he saw in the ghetto. The last meeting took place in winter, when Pinkas was sick and weak [...]. When Zdzisław Żygulski came to the ghetto the next time, he did not find Pinkas. He was most probably sent to the camp in Bełżec, where he died".

For years, Professor Żygulski kept the archives entrusted to him. Towards the end of his life, he donated to the POLIN Museum what he believed to be the most valuable documents of his English teacher - from Cambridge. After Prof. Żygulski's death, Prof. Grzybkowska also donated the remaining archives (as well as, to the POLIN Library, three volumes from Katz's book collection).

The documents donated to the Museum are not only mementoes of Pinkas Katz. They are also his scientific legacy. Perhaps other typescripts by Dr Katz have been preserved in the personal archives of foreign professors or in university archives, but it cannot be ruled out that the dissertation Thomas Carlyle und die romantische Staatswissenschaft in Deutschland. Eine Gegenüberstellung is the only surviving material from the output of a scholar who did not manage to make an effort to publish the text. And perhaps the most important of the works he wrote.

Przemysław Kaniecki