Wykład o książce DALEJ JEST NOC na Uniwersytecie British Columbia w Vancouver

30.10.2018 06:34:11

15 listopada prof. Jan Grabowski wygłosi gościnny wykład o książce "Dalej jest noc. Losy Żydów w wybranych powiatach okupowanej Polski" na Uniwesytecie British Columbia w Vancouver
 

The Holocaust Education Committee of the Department of History at University of Brotish Columbia is pleased to present the 2018-19 Rudolf Vrba Memorial Lecture

"Night without an End: Jewish Survival Strategies in Occupied Poland, 1942-45"
by Jan Grabowski, Professor of History, University of Ottawa

Thursday, November 15, 2018 - 17:00 to 18:30

The Rudolf Vrba Memorial Lecture honours the memory of Dr. Rudolf Vrba, who was a distinguished medical researcher and professor of pharmacology at UBC for many decades before his death in 2006. Rudolf Vrba also played a critical role in the history of the Holocaust as one of only five Jewish prisoners who ever escaped from Auschwitz. The report written by Rudolf Vrba and his fellow-prisoner Alfred Wetzler following their escape in 1944 was the first eyewitness report about what was happening inside Auschwitz. It is considered a foundational document for understanding the facts about the Holocaust.

Prof. Jan Grabowski has produced over 14 monographs and more than 60 articles in various languages. His most recent book, Hunt for the Jews: Betrayal and Murder in German-Occupied Poland (2014), was a Yad Vashem International Book Prize winner. He will be speaking on the subject of the recent two-volume Polish work (soon to appear in English) which he co-edited with Barbara Engelking.

Book "Night Without an End. The fate of Jews in selected counties of occupied Poland" eddited by prof. Barbara Engelking and prof. Jan Grabowski is a product of several years of work of researchers working in the Polish Centre for Holocaust Research of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Two volumes contains nine chapters, each concerning a different county; Bielsk Podlaski, Biłgoraj, Bochnia, Dębica, Łuków, Miechów, Nowy Targ, Węgrów, and Złoczów. In 1942, on the eve of the liquidation actions, Jews made up 5-10% of the total population of each of the studied areas. Researchers aimed to study - in as much detail as possible – the fate of the Jews in each of the counties in 1939-1945, with the main emphasis placed on the time of the liquidation actions (1942-1943) as well as on the time of hiding until the liberation.

One of the most important conclusions that sums up several years of our joint research effort is the wealth of observations regarding the degree of Jews’ own agency when faced with the impending and ongoing Holocaust. One is struck by the determination, resourcefulness and the mobility with which the victims started to fight for their own lives and that of their close ones. Our observations – collated and outlined for the entire occupied country – give the lie to claims about the alleged passivity of the victims, about “Jews led to death like sheep to slaughter”.

From the preface to the Polish Eddition:

Our studies show that there was an enormous variety of survival strategies adopted by Jews hiding on the Aryan side. Some found rescue under their neighbours’ roofs, others tried to survive in the network of German labor camps. Others – when the topography permitted – decided to live in the woods, in certain cases fighting for their lives in the bunkers, and in other cases they tried to survive by joining the partisans. Where possible, networks to smuggle people across the border were set up, especially to Slovakia and Hungary.

Nevertheless, for each three Jews looking for shelter, two perished, most often with the involvement of their Christian neighbors. Our studies provide evidence which indicates a considerable – and larger than previously expected – scale of Polish involvement in the destruction of their Jewish compatriots. However difficult for many to accept, historical evidence collected in this volume leaves no doubt: considerable and identifiable groups of the Polish population took part in liquidation operations (and later - during 1942-1945) directly or indirectly contributed to the deaths of thousands of Jews who were seeking rescue on the 'Aryan' side.

Thursday, November 15, 2018 - 17:00 to 18:30
Location: Buchanan A 103 Vancouver , BC Canada
See map: Google Maps, MapQuest
 

Lecture site on the University webpage