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Stories of Rescue in the Letters of Jewish Survivors about Polish Rescuers

This lecture discusses early postwar memories of Jewish survivors and their rescuers.


This lecture discusses early postwar memories of Jewish survivors and their rescuers concerning wartime rescue in Warsaw and Warsaw province, and the relationships between rescuers and their Jewish charges in the immediate postwar period.

Joanna Michlic analyses the early postwar correspondence addressed to the Central Committee of Polish Jews (CKŻP) and the American JOINT Distribution Committee (AJDC, the JOINT). Noe Grüss, one of the leading historians of the Jewish Historical Commission set up in Poland in November 1944, viewed accounts concerning rescue activities as 'the files of innate human kindness in the archives primarily registering the murder and destruction of individuals, families and entire generations'. While the correspondence of both rescuers and rescued Jews undoubtedly corroborate acts of kindness and dedication, it also constitute rare and salient data for the study of the intricate map of wartime relations between rescuers and rescued Jews, and into their surrounding local communities.

The letters throw light onto interactions between individual Poles and Polish Jews immediately after the war, and onto fresh, raw postwar memories of the wartime experiences. They constitute precious material for the study of both social mentalities and economic conditions of the early postwar Polish society, both in large cities such as Warsaw and in small towns and rural areas.

Joanna Michlic is a social and cultural historian, and founder and Director of HBI (Hadassah-Brandeis Institute) Project on Families, Children, and the Holocaust at Brandeis University. Her major publications include Neighbors Respond: The Controversy about Jedwabne and Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present.


Speaker(s):

Prof Joanna Michlic | talks

 

Date and Time:

16 January 2013 at 6:30 pm

Duration:

1 hour 30 minutes

 

Venue:

The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide
29 Russell Square
London
WC1B 5DP
020 7636 7247
http://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk

More at The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide...

 

Tickets:

Free

Available from:

Admission is free, but places must be reserved in advance at http://lettersofrescue.eventbrite.co.uk/

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