Between Life and Death 2026: Exhibition in New York

Between Life and Death

25 August–29 October 2026, New York City, USA

The exhibition will be on display at the Pilecki Institute in New York City.

Risking one’s own life to save another person is one of the most extraordinary acts of courage. The exhibition Between Life and Death. Stories of Rescue during the Holocaust pays tribute to those who, despite the threat of imprisonment, deportation, or death, chose to help persecuted Jews during the Second World War. By bringing together the stories of rescuers and survivors, the exhibition explores the complexity of human relationships under the varied and extreme conditions of the war. Each story is placed within a broader historical context, helping visitors better understand how local circumstances shaped both the possibilities for rescue and the chances of survival. One of the aims of the exhibition is to demonstrate that the decision to help was profoundly influenced by local realities – for example, the circumstances facing rescuers in Warsaw were fundamentally different from those in Paris.

The exhibition presents stories of the rescue of Jews from fifteen European countries – Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom – highlighting the experiences of both rescuers and survivors. One of the panels is dedicated to diplomats from Poland, Japan, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark, whose efforts to save Jews took place in Germany, France, Hungary, Lithuania, and Switzerland.

This initiative is a collaborative project between ENRS, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, and the Silent Heroes Memorial Centre. It was first presented at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels in January 2018. Since then, it has been displayed in numerous locations across Europe and Japan, including Amsterdam, Bratislava, Vilnius, Budapest, Bucharest, Bern, Dresden, Osaka, Yokohama, Tsuruga, Gifu, Szczecin, Gdańsk, Strasbourg, Bad Ischl, Dublin and New York City.

Download the exhibition catalogue in English [PDF]

Accompanying events

The exhibition will be accompanied by two special events at the Pilecki Institute in New York. On 9 September 2026, at 6PM, the seminar Memory in Transition: A Transatlantic Perspective on Holocaust Education, will bring together experts from Europe, Israel and the United States to discuss the changing landscape of Holocaust remembrance and the challenges facing educators on both sides of the Atlantic.
More information here.

On 10 September 2026, at 6PM, Holocaust survivor Eva Paddock will share her story of rescue, resilience and rebuilding her life after escaping German-Nazi-occupied Europe on a Kindertransport in 1939. The conversation will also include a presentation of Sound in the Silence, an innovative educational programme developed by ENRS.
More information here.

Meet our event speakers

Daniel Blatman

Daniel Blatman is the Max and Rita Haber Professor (emeritus) of Contemporary Jewry and Holocaust Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He previously served as director of the University’s Institute of Contemporary Jewry and of the Center for the Study of the History and Culture of Polish Jewry. His research focuses on twentieth-century Polish Jewry, the Jewish labor movement in Eastern Europe, the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, Polish–Jewish relations during the Holocaust and its aftermath, and Nazi extermination policy. Among his major publications are For Our Freedom and Yours: The Jewish Labor Bund in Poland, 1939–1945; Reportage from the Ghetto: The Jewish Underground Press in the Warsaw Ghetto; The Death Marches: The Final Phase of Nazi Genocide; and Conflicting Histories and Coexistence: New Perspectives on the Jewish–Polish Encounters. He is the recipient of the Jacob Buchman Memorial Prize, the Yad Vashem International Prize in Holocaust Studies, and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. Prof. Blatman has been a visiting professor and research fellow at several academic institutions, including the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, Georgetown University, New York University, the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and the Centre d’Études des Religions du Livre (CERL-CNRS) in Paris. Between 2018 and 2025 he served as the chief historian of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum in Poland.

Rune Christiansen

Rune Christiansen is an associate professor of history education at VIA University College, dept. of teacher education in Aarhus. He is the current chairman of the Danish censorship commission for history education and has previously served as an expert in the COMEX at the Council of Europe and been a member of the Danish parliamentary committee on Southern Slesvig. He is a member of the International Society of History Didactics and his primary research interests are teaching conflicted or minority history, and teaching about the holocaust in primary and secondary education.

Stephan Lehnstaedt

Stephan Lehnstaedt is since 2016 professor for Holocaust Studies at Touro University Berlin. His current projects include a study called Die Wirkung der Wiedergutmachung, which evaluates oral history interviews with Holocaust survivors from five countries, and aims at evaluating the impact of German compensation payments. In 2019, he has been working with the Berlin Wannsee Conference Memorial and the Wiener Holocaust Library London to curate the exhibition "Crimes Uncovered. The First Generation of Holocaust Researchers." It has been shown by the United Nations in New York, UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the UN's Palais des Nations in Geneva, the Haus der Geschichte in Vienna, and the German Foreign Office in Berlin, among others. Lehnstaedt is publicly active on current issues of German commemorative culture and against antisemitism, publishes in media and is regularly on radio and television. He has been heard by the German Bundestag on several occasions and counsels various ministries in Germany. Since 2025, he has been a member of the Berlin House of Representatives' Enquete Commission against Antisemitism and Racism. Lehnstaedt has published seven monographs, 15 (co-)edited books and more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals mostly on the Holocaust and its aftermath. His recent publications include Der Kern des Holocaust: Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka, und die Aktion Reinhardt (München: C.H. Beck, 2017 / 2nd edition 2020 - Polish 2018, French and Dutch 2020); Der Warschauer Aufstand 1944 (Ditzingen: Reclam, 2024). His book Der vergessene Widerstand: Jüdinnen und Juden im Kampf gegen den Holocaust was published by C.H. Beck in 2025.

Richard Quinlan

Richard Quinlan earned a BA in English from Franklin & Marshall College in 1995. He spent twenty-seven years as a classroom educator, primarily teaching seventh- and eighth-grade students at the Green Vale School in Old Brookville, New York, and also served as an adjunct instructor at Mercy College in the Bronx and Suffolk County Community College. During his time teaching on Long Island, he earned three master’s degrees from Long Island University. Dr. Quinlan was a member of the inaugural doctoral cohort at Gratz College, where he earned a PhD in Holocaust and Genocide Studies in August 2021. His dissertation examined issues of transitional justice and reconciliation in Burundi. He regularly speaks at universities, synagogues, and community centers on topics related to the Holocaust and the history of antisemitism, and he serves as Scholar-in-Residence at the Irving Roth Holocaust Education Center at Temple Judea in Manhasset, New York. He is currently enrolled in the nation’s only master’s program dedicated specifically to Antisemitism Studies at Gratz College, with anticipated graduation in May 2026. Dr. Quinlan currently serves as Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education and Chair of the History Department at Saint Elizabeth University in Morristown, New Jersey.

Piotr Trojański

Piotr Trojański, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the Institute of History and Archival Studies at the University of the National Education Commission in Kraków (Poland). He specialises in 20th-century European history, with a particular focus on the socio-economic life of Polish Jews and other national minorities. His research explores changing perceptions of the Second World War and the Holocaust in Poland, as well as Holocaust education and the evolving memory of Auschwitz and the Holocaust. He serves as an academic advisor at the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. He is also the Vice-Chairman of the European Association for Holocaust Studies and a member of the Polish delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Dan Wolf

Dan Wolf is a hip-hop artist who works with rap, theater, personal narrative, and history to give voice to the problematic world we live in. His multi-sensory work draws its power from years of experience working, teaching, and performing with the critically acclaimed hip-hop music and theatre collective Felonious. His projects have traveled all around the world from concert halls to museums to schools and memorial sites where he engages history and culture as a prompt to make vital music and theater that can only live in this moment. He is the Artistic Director of Sound in the Silence and a co-founder of both the Bay Area Theatre Cypher and Felonious. He is a board member of the Playwrights Foundation and a member of the Recording Academy and Actors Equity Association.

Eva Paddock

Eva Paddock is a Holocaust survivor who, at just three and a half years old, escaped German-Nazi-occupied Europe through the Kindertransport. In July 1939, she and her sister were among the children sent from Prague to England on one of the last Czech Kindertransport trains organised by Sir Nicholas Winton. She pursued a long career in education, teaching at all levels from early childhood to graduate school and continues to support Holocaust education internationally.

Read about the project

"Between life and death. Stories of Rescue during the Holocaust" is a travelling exhibition prepared by ENRS, Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews and Silent Heroes Memorial Center.

Organisers and partners

Organisers

Partners

ENRS is funded by: