cover image of The Coming of Nazi Occupation: Patterns of continuity and changes in Jewish and Polish life, 1939-1941 project

    18-19 Nov 2019, Warsaw

    The Coming of Nazi Occupation: Patterns of continuity and changes in Jewish and Polish life, 1939-1941

    The conference marks the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II and the beginning of the Nazi occupation in Poland. It will deal with all aspects of the changes that took place in Jewish and Polish life during the first period of the Nazi occupation, as well as continuities in both communities. The purpose is to discuss a wide range of issues from all possible disciplines in order to characterize the formative year of the German occupation in Poland, its influence on Jewish and Polish life in the following years, as well as encounters between the two nations during this time.

    Venues:
    Day 1 - Jewish Historical Institute (Żydowski Instytut Historyczny), Tłomackie 3/5
    Day 2 - Zielna Conference Center, Zielna 37

    Programme

    18/11/2019 Monday

    9:00 - 9:30
    Greetings and opening remarks
    Jewish Historical Institute
    Chair: Konrad Zieliński (Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin/ Warsaw Ghetto Museum)

    Albert Stankowski, Director of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum
    Paweł Śpiewak, Director of the Jewish Historical Institute
    Jan Rydel, Member of the Steering Committee of the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity
    9:30 - 10:30
    Keynote lecture
    Stephan Lehnstaedt (Touro College Berlin): In the eyes of the occupier. Ordinary Germans looking at Poland, 1939-1940
    10:45 - 12:45
    Session no. 1: Jewish persecutions 1939-1941: regional perspectives
    Chair: Daniel Blatman (Hebrew University/ Warsaw Ghetto Museum)

    Szymon Pietrzykowski (Institute of National Remembrance, Poznań): Battlefield, internment, the return and persecution: The odyssey of Jewish soldiers from Poznańskie (1939-1941)
    Jakub Chmielewski (The State Museum at Majdanek / Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin): Between exclusion and ghettoization: The fate of Lublin Jews under the German occupation (September 1939–March 1941)
    Lea Prais (Yad Vashem, Jerusalem): The small towns in occupied Poland: A look at the recent past in the context of testimonies from the Oyneg Shabes archives
    Tomasz Domański (Institute of National Remembrance, Kielce): Persecution of Jews in the provincial ghettos of the Radom district (1939-1941)
    12:45 - 14:00
    14:00 - 15:30
    Session no. 2: Poles, Jews and the Germans’ occupation: Comparative paradigms
    Chair: Jacek Młynarczyk (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń/ Muzeum Getta Warszawskiego)

    Alicja Bartnicka (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń/ Muzeum Getta Warszawskiego): The organization of forced labor for the Jewish population in the General Government (until 1941)
    Martin Borkowski-Saruhan (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen): Sporting Occupation: Jews and non-Jews in Nazi-Occupied East Upper Silesia, 1939–41
    Karolina Wasiluk (Catholic University of Lublin): The Fate of Poles and Jews, 1939-1941: the Lublin district as a case study
    15:30-15:45
    Coffee break
    15:45 - 17:15
    Session no. 3: Race and patters of persecution: ethnic groups in Poland and the German policy
    Chair: Andrei Zamoiski (Berlin)

    Michał Turski (Historisches Institut/ Osteuropäische Geschichte, Giessen): A real Apartheid? German ethnic lists and the separation of Germans and Poles in the Warthegau
    Isabel Röskau-Rydel (Pedagogical University of Krakow): Volksdeutsche in the General Government: the Kraków district as a case study
    Alicja Gontarek (Institute of National Remembrance, Warsaw/ Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin): Persecution of the Roma people in occupied Poland (1939-1941): Typology, strategies, consequences
    17-15:17:30
    Coffee break
    17:30 - 18:45
    Session no. 4: Special event: Introducing the Jewish Historical Institute new encyclopaedia of the Ghettos
    Chair: Andrzej Żbikowski (Jewish Historical Institute)

    Maria Ferenc Piotrkowska (Jewish Historical Institute): The Encyclopaedia in the context of the current research on Warsaw ghetto and the digitalization of the humanities
    Katarzyna Person (Jewish Historical Institute): The Warsaw ghetto elite through the prism of preparing the encyclopaedia
    Justyna Majewska (Jewish Historical Institute): Research program on economic changes in the Warsaw ghetto based on the outlines of "Oneg Shabbat"

    19/11/2019 Tuesday

    9:45–11:30
    Session no. 5: Jewish memory - Polish memory: perspectives of similarities and differences
    Zielna Conference Center
    Chair: Małgorzata Pakier (European Network Remembrance and Solidarity)

    Andrzej Kirmiel (Alf Kowalski Międzyrzec Museum): "Polenaktion" in Zbąszyń (1938-9) and the perception of these events by todays’ residents of the town
    Sara Bender (University of Haifa): Life under siege: Warsaw, September 1939 in Simcha Korngold’s memoires
    Anna Ciałowicz (Pilecki Institute): Polish-Jewish relations between September and December 1939 in the light of the memoirs of Reuwen Feldszuh
    Johannes-Dieter Steinert (University of Wolverhampton): Being a child and a forced labourer in occupied Poland: Polish and Jewish children’s memoirs
    11:30 - 11:45
    Coffee break
    11:45 - 13:30
    Session no. 6: Polish Jews in (and) the Soviet Union, 1939-1941
    Chair: Sara Bender (University of Haifa)

    Daniela Ozacky-Stern (Moreshet Archives and Bar Ilan University): The Kibbutz in Vilna during the beginning of the Nazi occupation in light of documents and testimonies
    Vasyl Gulay (Lviv Polytechnic National University): The Jews of Western Ukraine at the early period of the Second World War
    Andrei Zamoiski (Freie Univrsität Berlin): “About that Hell, [that the] Jewish towns have experienced in Poland, probably [you] already know…” What did the people in USSR know about the persecution of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland (1939-1941)?
    13:30 - 14:30
    Lunch break
    14:30 - 15:30
    Visiting the buildings of the Bersohn & Bauman Hospital
    15:45 - 18:00
    Session no. 7: Integrative perspectives on the history of Warsaw Ghetto
    Chair: Hanna Węgrzynek (Warsaw Ghetto Museum)

    Anna Hirsh (Jewish Holocaust Centre, Melbourne): “There Is No There”: Postcards from Warsaw, occupied Poland 1939-41
    Daniel Reiser (Herzog Academic College/ Zafat Academic College): R. Szapiro’s faith and religious leadership in the first months of the occupation
    Adam Puławski (The “Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre” Centre in Lublin): Polish underground towards the Jewish population of Warsaw (1939-1941)
    Dorota Siepracka (Institute of National Remembrance, Łódź): “Akcja Żet”: A Polish Scouts aid campaign for the Warsaw ghetto
    18:00 - 18:30
    Concluding remarks
    Daniel Blatman (Warsaw Ghetto Museum/ Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

    Partners

    Organisers:
    logo of Muzeum Getta Warszawskiego
    logo of Polskie Towarzystwo Studiów Żydowskich
    In collaboration with:
    logo of ENRS
    logo of Jewish Historical Institute
    logo of Touro College