Arhivski vjesnik, Vol. 54 No. 1, 2011.
Original scientific paper
RUDI SUPEK AND BUCHENWALD CONCENTRATION CAMP IN THE RECORDS OF CROATIAN STATE ARCHIVES
Marijan Bosnar
; Hrvatski državni arhiv
Abstract
The basic source for this article are personal papers of the late professor Rudi Supek (1913-1993), a Croatian sociologist of world renown, who in 1944-1945 spent 15 months in Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald in central Germany as a political prisoner, due to his activities in the French Resistance. There he became one of the leading members of the illegally organised resistance of Buchenwald internees, particularly in expanding the scope and numbers of the Yugoslav (mostly Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian) inmates in illegal struggle against the camp SS. The article uses various records that Supek created or collected for years, in order to shed light on such subtopics as the arrival of the first Yugoslav inmates in Buchenwald, their initial organisation and, more importantly, Supek’s own part in inmates’ illegal activities during his time there. The necessary basic information is also given regarding Buchenwald’s establishment, structure and its double administration. Supek’s work after camp’s liberation is also mentioned by giving basic facts and analysing Naš glas, the newspapers he edited there before he left Buchenwald and returned to Yugoslavia. The second important part of the article concerns the reprisals that Communist Party of Yugoslavia took against the former inmates it suspected for collaborating with Gestapo in Buchenwald. Records of Party’s Central Comitee were used as an important source for investigating its view on former Yugoslavian Buchenwald inmates and the accusations against two of them, Janez Rancinger and Vekoslav Figar. They were condemned to prison sentences and Supek’s important role in their eventual rehabilitation is also pinpointed by analysing his writings on the subject and correspondence with other surviving inmates. Supek’s own political unsuitability in the eyes of the Party as the former leading inmate is shown by examining the Party records on his unsuccessful endeavours to become a Party member in the 1950s. Finally, the article demonstrates the impact of the Buchenwald experience on Supek as a long term effect shown in the elements of his unpublished drama Buchenwald, which is also kept in his personal papers. The very beginning of the article provides the main information from Supek’s rich CV, due to the fact his scientific accomplishments in fields of sociology, philosophy, psychology and ecology earned him international recognition still waiting to be matched in his native Croatia.
Keywords
Rudi Supek; Buchenwald; Yugoslavian inmates; Janez Rancinger; Vekoslav Figar; CK SKH; KPJ; SKJ; SS; Gestapo; Croatian State Archives; Rudi Supek personal papers; CK SKH fonds
Hrčak ID:
90520
URI
Publication date:
19.11.2011.
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