Professor Paweł Machcewicz

Research project at the Kolleg

Retributive Justice after   World War II and the Fall of Dictatorial Regimes in Europe, Latin America, and South Africa: A Comparative Approach

The goal of the project is a comparative study of   various models  of coming to terms   with legacies of crimes committed during WW II and the reign of dictatorial regimes in the second half of the XX-the century.   

The project addresses one of the central issues that are confronted by states and nations in  transitional periods, after the end of wars or collapse of dictatorships. This problem usually becomes fundamental   in the initial phases of post-war or post-authoritarian reconstruction. However,  in some countries it gains political and social importance in delayed ways, long time after  the conclusion of   war  or occupation (e.g. France and the legacy of the Vichy regime) or after the collapse of dictatorial regimes (Spain and the legacy of the Franco regime and of the Civil War 1936-1939; Poland with the most intense public interest and institutional arrangements starting approximately 10 years after the collapse of the Communism). One of the most important questions is the impact of legal and political retribution (or its absence) upon consolidation of new, emerging regimes. One approach suggests that retributive justice might become  detrimental and dysfunctional for consolidation of democratic regimes which replaced dictatorships or for the prospects of social integration of societies torn by war-time conflicts. On the other hand, one may find examples that the absence of retribution leads to widespread feelings of frustration and anger, which may give birth to radical movements becoming serious challenges to democratic systems. 

Another pivotal issue  is a wide variety of legal (or extra-legal)  mechanisms of coming to terms with the legacies of political  crimes and difficult war-time or dictatorial  past. In some instances these were post-war purges (spontaneous or institutional), like in France or Italy after  WW II. In other countries  (Latin America, South Africa) truth-commissions sought to reveal  crimes committed by past dictatorial regimes. In Poland and some other post-Communist countries special institutions were created (e.g. Polish Institute of National Remembrance), which attempt to provide a complex approach to the past: opening of the archives and so called lustration, research and education, legal prosecution of political crimes.

Main areas of research

• History  of the XXth century
• Retributive and transitional justice
• Politics of memory
• Public history and musealisation of history

Positions and memberships

• Professor of history at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw
• Member of the editorial board  of the Taylor&Francis Group publication series Cold War in  Eastern Europe: Foreign Office files on communist states.
• Member of the editorial board of the series Polskie Dokumenty Dyplomatyczne (Polish Diplomatic Documents)
• 2012-2018 – member of the International Auschwitz Council