Jacek Leociak (born 2 June 1957, in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

) is a Polish literary scholar and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

as well as author. He is a professor of humanities and an employee of the Institute of Literary Research at the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences (, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of distinguished scholars a ...

and the Polish Center for Holocaust Research in

Education and career

Leociak received a Ph.D. in 1996 at the Institute of Literary Research of the

with a dissertation on the Warsaw ghetto. He was awarded the title of Professor at the Academy in 2013. Since 1997, Leociak was head of the research team on Holocaust literature at the Institute of Literary Research. He also joined the Polish Center for Holocaust Research at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. In 2008, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the

Order of Polonia Restituta The Order of Polonia Restituta (, ) is a Polish state decoration, state Order (decoration), order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on alien (law), foreigners for outstanding achievements in ...

for "his important contributions to exploring, collecting, and popularizing the information on

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

as well as his activism for remembering the history of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising". In 2015, he was awarded the Decoration of Honor Meritorious for Polish Culture. In January 2019, he became the recipient of the Kazimierz Wyka Award for his outstanding contributions to artistic and literary criticism. In May 2019, he received a nomination for Poland's top literary prize, the Nike Award, for his work ''Młyny boże. Zapiski o kościele i Zagładzie'' (Mills of God. Notes on the Church and the Holocaust).

Research focus

Leociak deals with the analysis of various forms of recording and of representation of the Holocaust experience. His research interests also include the narratives of victims, perpetrators and witnesses as well as the history of the Warsaw ghetto. Together with Barbara Engelking, he published the book '' The Warsaw Ghetto: A Guide to the Perished City'', which first appeared in Polish in 2001. It focuses on the Warsaw Ghetto and its almost four-year history. According to a review in '' Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies'', the work is "a unique and detailed monograph that gives the reader an insight into the daily life of Jewish inhabitants of the closed district". At 800-pages, the book details "the institutional structure of the ghetto, its relations with the German Nazi government, important social institutions, and the economic and community life of the ghetto population," amounting almost to an encyclopedia. A review by the Jewish Book Council finds ''The Warsaw Ghetto'' to be an "encyclopedic and impressive work" that does not make for an easy reading, but provides a rich and comprehensive portrayal of the life and fate of the ghetto community.Michael N. Dobkowski
"The Warsaw Ghetto: A Guide to the Perished City. Barbara Engelking and Jacek Leociak"
Jewish Book Council

Selected works

*''Tekst wobec zagłady. O relacjach z getta warszawskiego'', Wrocław, 1997 *''Doświadczenia graniczne. Studia o dwudziestowiecznych formach reprezentacji'', Warsaw, 2009 * ''The Warsaw Ghetto: A Guide to the Perished City'',

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

, 2009 (with Barbara Engelking) *''Ratowanie. Opowieści Polaków i Żydów'' (The Rescuing. The Stories of Poles and Jews),

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, 2010 *''Biografie ulic, Dom Spotkań z Historią'', Warsaw, 2018 *''Młyny boże. Zapiski o Kościele i Zagładzie'' (Mills of God. Notes on the Church and the Holocaust), Wydawnictwo Czarne, Wołowiec, 2018, * ''Wieczne strapienie. O kłamstwie, historii i Kościele'' (Eternal distress. About lies, history and the Church), Wydawnictwo Czarne, Wołowiec, 2020,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leociak, Jacek Living people 1957 births Writers from Warsaw Historians of the Holocaust in Poland 20th-century Polish historians Polish male non-fiction writers Polish literary critics University of Warsaw alumni Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta

Education and career

Research focus

Selected works

See also

References