Artur Hojan
Artur Hojan, selfportrait
Born7 August 1973
Głogów, Poland
Disappeared1 December 2013
Kościan, west-central Poland
StatusDeceased
OccupationInvestigative journalist

Artur Hojan (7 August 1973 – found dead, 9 February 2014) was a journalist and published author specializing in the history of the Chełmno extermination camp and the Nazi involuntary euthanasia programme conducted in the territory of occupied Poland by the SS during World War II. Hojan was the co-founder of the Tiergartenstrasse4 Association in 2005 (together with Cameron Munro) devoted to Aktion T4 history, with emphasis on the Kościan psychiatric hospital located where he lived.[1] Hojan, age of 40, left home in the evening of 1 December 2013 at 8 p.m. for a walk around town and disappeared.[2][3] His body was found two months later on 9 February 2014 floating in the Obra canal near the town of Kiełczewo,[4] and identified later. The cause of death has not been determined.[5] He was buried at the Kościan cemetery on 15 February 2014.[6] He left behind a wife and young daughter.[6] The monograph Treblinka Death Camp: History, Biographies, Remembrance by Chris Webb, the co-founder of H.E.A.R.T (also known as the HolocaustResearchProject.org),[7] is dedicated to his memory.[8]

Life

Hojan was born in Głogów, Lower Silesia,[9] and lived in Kościan (69 km distance).[10] He graduated from the Poznań University department of Geology. After graduation, Hojan worked as a journalist, and in the course of his research, became interested in the war crimes committed in occupied Poland during World War II.[11][12] In 2002 Hojan published Terra Incognita, his first expanded essay about the history of a Jewish community from a small-town in Wielkopolska, Poland.[13] His book was adapted for the stage in the same year by Teatr 112 of the Kościan Community Centre.[14] In 2004, Hojan published a monograph about the extermination of Polish hospital patients by the SS, titled Nazistowska pseudoeutanazja w Krajowym Zakładzie Psychiatrycznym w Kościanie (1939-1940) or The Nazi pseudo-euthanasia at the Psychiatric Hospital in Kościan (1939-1940) about the forced euthanasia in the newly-formed Warthegau district, which led to the murder of 3,282 patients of the local psychiatric hospital in his hometown between November 1939 and March 1940.[11][15]

In 2005 Hojan co-founded the Tiergartenstrasse4 Association with British researcher Cameron Munro,[16] to further research and document the subject of Nazi euthanasia leading to the Holocaust. He was instrumental in creating the Associations website.[10] He worked closely with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum,[1] researching and photographing Auschwitz subcamps.[17] After several years of fieldwork in December 2011 Hojan and Munro organized an exhibition on the extermination camp Kulmhof at the Centrum Judaicum in Berlin, titled "The unknown extermination camp Kulmhof am Ner – history and remembrance" documenting the development and history of the camp. The exhibition revealed that traces of murder can still be found at the site seventy years after the fact. The exhibition was sponsored by the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and funded in part by the German Federal Government.[18]

Hojan helped organize presentations at conferences devoted to World War II and the Nazi euthanasia in Germany. He also wrote chapters for books, and articles for Polish periodicals about the Holocaust and the extermination of Jews with the use of sparsely documented gas vans. At the time of his death Hojan was working on a book about the Arbeitskommando at Kulmhof. His manuscript was saved in a draft form and is scheduled to published by the association as a "fitting memorial to Artur and his work". Following Hojan's death, the Tiergartenstrasse4 Association relocated to Berlin and re-established itself as the Tiergarten4 Association.[10]

Selected publications

  • Artur Hojan, Terra incognita, Kościańska Oficyna Literacka "Werset", 2002.[19]
  • Artur Hojan, Komora gazowa w Forcie VII w Poznaniu (początek nazistowskiego ludobójstwa) [The gas chamber at Fort VII in Poznan, the beginning of Nazi genocide]
  • Artur Hojan et al., Człowiek wobec totalitaryzmu. Od prostych recept do ostatecznego rozwiązania [Individual human being against totalitarianism. From basic precepts to stable solutions].[2]
  • Artur Hojan, Nazistowska pseudoeutanazja w Krajowym Zakładzie Psychiatrycznym w Kościanie (1939-1940) [The Nazi pseudo-euthanasia at the Psychiatric Hospital in Kościan (1939-1940)].[15]

References

  1. 1 2 Tiergarten4 Association (2017). "Nekrolog Artura Hojana". Ku pamięci. Gedenkort-T4.eu. Stiftung Topographie des Terrors. Archived from the original on 2017-05-17. Retrieved 2017-03-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. 1 2 KS, Głos Wielkopolski (5 December 2013). "Zaginął Artur Hojan! Jeśli go widzieliście, pomóżcie rodzinie!" [Artur Hojan missing]. GlosWielkopolski.pl.
  3. ↑ Policja Wielkopolska online (4 December 2013). "Policja poszukuje zaginionego" [Police search for a missing person]. Aktualności. Kościan.
  4. ↑ Anna Szklarska-Meller (9 February 2014). "Ciało mężczyzny wyłowione z kanału Obry w Kiełczewie" [Body of a man found in the canal near Kiełczewo]. Kościan: Koscian.NaszeMiasto.pl.
  5. ↑ "Tożsamość potwierdzona" [Identity established]. StudioFabryka.pl, Aktualności. Koscian.net. 12 February 2014.
  6. 1 2 Staff writer (15 February 2014). "W niedzielę Odnalazł się Artur Hojan" [Body of Artur Hojan found]. Aktualności. Kurier Lokalny - Stęszew, Kościan, Grodzisk. Archived from the original on 1 November 2016. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
  7. ↑ HolocaustResearchProject.org (2013). "Who We Are". Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team.
  8. ↑ Chris Webb (2014). The Treblinka Death Camp: History, Biographies, Remembrance. Columbia University Press. p. xiii. ISBN 978-3-8382-6546-9.
  9. ↑ Chris Webb; Ada Hojan (2016). "Artur Hojan". Holocaust Historical Society.
  10. 1 2 3 Gedenkort-T4.eu (2017). "Obituary for Artur Hojan". Artur Hojan born 7 August 1973 died 9 [sic] February 2014. Stiftung Topographie des Terrors. Retrieved 24 March 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. 1 2 Hojan, Artur; Munro, Cameron (28 February 2013). "Nazi Euthanasia Programme in Occupied Poland 1939–1945". Berlin, Kleisthaus: Tiergartenstrasse 4.
  12. ↑ Project InPosterum (2011). "German extermination of psychiatric patients in Poland 1939-1945". Jaroszewski, Zdzisław ed. Zaglada psychicznie chorych w Polsce 1939–1945 [Extermination of psychiatric hospital' patients in Poland 1939–1945]. PWN, Warszawa 1993. OCLC 68651789.
  13. ↑ Robert Parzer. "Śladami SS-Sonderkommando Lange – współpraca Artura Hojana i Camerona Munro". Gedenkort-T4.eu - Informationen zur NS-"Euthanasie" und ihren Folgewirkungen.
  14. ↑ "Premiery Teatru 112". TERRA INCOGNITA w/g Artura Hojana, 18 września 2002. Scenariusz i reżyseria: Janusz Dodot. Muzyka: Michał Dolata. KOK - Kościański Ośrodek Kultury.
  15. 1 2 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (2004). Collections. Kościan, Poland: Kościańska Oficyna Literacka, 2004. First edition. ISBN 83-916831-8-4. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  16. ↑ The Tiergartenstrasse 4 Association (2017). "About Us". Tiergartenstrasse 4, an international private institution for the documentation and study of Nazi crimes.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. ↑ Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum (2014). "Podobozy KL Auschwitz" [Subcamps of KL Auschwitz]. Archived from the original on 24 May 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2017 – via Internet Archive.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  18. ↑ "Opening of the exhibition on the unknown extermination camp Kulmhof at the Centrum Judaicum". Berlin: Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. 6 December 2011.
  19. ↑ Artur Hojan (2002). Terra incognita. Kościańska Oficyna Literacka "Werset". pp. 111. ISBN 83-916831-2-5 – via Google Books.
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