Talking Memory

The International Virtual Lecture Series, "Talking Memory"

Now in its second year, the Talking Memory virtual lecture series has become an integral part of the Ghetto Fighters' House with thousands of participants form over 30 countries. For more details about the Talking Memory lecture series and joining our mailing list … You can watch all the recorded Talking Memory programs on the Ghetto Fighters' House YouTube channel here:

Over the past six months, the goal has been to create series-based programs in which international scholars, researchers and experts examined a specific subject from different perspectives and disciplines. Holocaust survivors and second generation also contributed to the project.

In September, we continued a four-part series: Grossaktion Warsaw: Remembering 80 Years Later. The series focused on the 80^th anniversary of the great deportation from the Warsaw ghetto. Each program dealt with a different aspect of the deportations. The last two programs took place in September and October.

The program that took place in September, The Hippocratic Oath at the Umschlagplatz: The Jewish Doctors of the Warsaw Ghetto focused on the Jewish doctors in the Warsaw ghetto. Opening remarks were be given by Dr. Hadas Shasha-Lavsky, from the Galilee Medical Center, who is the Chair of the annual Medicine and the Holocaust conference in Israel. The guest speakers were Dr. Maria Ciesielska, who wrote a book based on her in-depth research on the subject, and Luc Albinski, second generation survivor, who helped create a short documentary film about the incredible story of his family – his mother who was hidden and raised in a Catholic home and her mother who was a doctor in the Warsaw ghetto. Holocaust survivor Dr. Michael Katz joined the program and talked about his experience as a child in the Warsaw ghetto

In this program, we were honored to have Dr. Tali Nates, founding director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center, as a guest moderator. Dr. Nates is an historian and participated in the publication of Dr. Ciesielska's book and the documentary film "Nobody Told Me" that describes Luc Albinski's journey to discover his and his mother's Jewish identity while also learning about his grandmother, Dr. Halina Rotstein, who was deported to Treblinka.

The fourth and final program in the series, Beyond the Umschlagplatz: Remembering the Warsaw Ghetto, took place in October and dealt with how we remember and commemorate the Warsaw ghetto and the great deportation. Dr. Liat Steir-Livny opened the program with a short summary of global antisemitism and noted that most students in the Western world do not learn about the history of the Holocaust. The event continued with Dr. Steir-Livny interviewing the two guest speakers: Dr. Marie Ferenc – who described how rumors about the deportation influenced the Jews and their understanding of Treblinka – and Dr. Slawomir Grunberg, a prize winning Polish Jewish filmmaker, who talked about the making of his film Jan Karski & the Lords of Humanity and the importance of telling Karski's story.

As part of this special closing program, registrants were invited to watch two films: Jan Karski & the Lords of Humanity and Eric Bednarski's Warsaw: A City Divided.

This program was in partnership with Classrooms Without Borders, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center, the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University, Moreshet Holocaust & Research Center, the Institute for the History of Polish Jewry at the University of Tel Aviv, the Polish Institute in Tel Aviv, and the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

In November, we started a new series marking the 75^th anniversary of the Jewish Historical Institute: Oneg Shabbat Archives and Beyond: Documenting and Preserving the History of European Jewry at the Jewish Historical Institute. This series was developed together with

the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and the Polish Institute in Tel-Aviv.

This program is in partnership with the Jewish Historical Institute (JHI) in Warsaw, the Polish Institute in Tel-Aviv, the Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre in Lublin, the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center, Liberation 75, Classrooms without Borders, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.

The first program, "Let the World Read and Know": The Oneg Shabbat Archives, focused on the establishment of the JHI and the Oneg Shabbat archive. Monika Krwczyc, the director of the JHI, gave a short introduction to the activities of the institute today both for researchers and the general public. Dr. Natalia Aleksiun introduced the audience to the survivors that established the JHI (some also wrote for the archive, like Rachel Auerbach). Finally, Dr. Katarzyna Person gave a riveting presentation on the state of mind of these survivors that had to deal with the emotional effect of organizing the documents and making them accessible to future generations.

The second program, From the Archives to the Streets of the Former Warsaw Ghetto, the guest speaker, Dr. Eleanor Bergman, discussed her involvement in the recently published volume on clandestine education and children that reflects not only their fate but is a record of civil resistance. It contains 47 archival items including several dozen documents – essays, drawings, texts for learning, invitations to performances, songs, and other.writings.

Another initiative that Bergman will discuss is the project to mark the ghetto borders so that both residents and visitors can experience the size of the ghetto, can try to imagine the old sites, even if nothing is left of them, and to recall the people who once lived and died there.

On the third and final program, Beyond Oneg Shabbat: Recent Research in the JHI, the two speakers discussed how the JHI archives has documents that have contributed to the research of other cities during the Holocaust. Dr. Ewa Wiatr focused on artwork found in the JHI that came from the Lodz ghetto. Piotr Nazaruk discussed on the Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin library that was thought to have been burned during the Holocaust. Some of the books have been found in the JHI archives, and the Grodzka Gate –NN Theatre is in the process of digitalizing the library.

During the same period, the Ghetto Fighters' House collaborated with the Galicia Jewish Museum and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre on a four part series: 80 Years After Aktion Reinhard: The Industrial Killing of European Jewry. Prof. Michael Berenbaum was the guest speaker for the first program: The Road to the ‘Final Solution’: 1933-1941. He described the landscape of Europe after the outbreak of the war. Providing insight into the military situation, as well as changing policy of Nazi Germany toward the Jews, Prof. Berenbaum presented some of the key moments and decisions, which gradually led to what is known today as the “Final Solution”.

In the second program of this series, Mass-Killing in 1942-1943: ‘Operation Reinhardt’ Killing Centres, author Chris Webb explored the history of the Bełżec, Sobibór and Treblinka death camps. He looked at some of the key SS figures responsible for running the sites and the Jewish prisoners who were deported there. Finally, presented the heroic and dramatic revolts that took place in the camps. Tali Nates, director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center shared her family’s history connected to both Treblinka and Belżec death camps.

The third program, Resistance in Treblinka: The Tangible Witnesses, will take place in January. Guest speakers are Dr. Tamir Hod who will present examples of the gaps between memory and history when it comes to the Treblinka extermination camp, Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls will discuss the tangible and intangible evidence of resistance at Treblinka, derived from her archaeological and historical investigations since 2007, and Yaron Tzur who will give a virtual of the Treblinka model that is located at the Ghetto Fighters' House. This model, serving as post-war tangible evidence, was built by Yaakov Wiernik who was one of the survivors of the Treblinka and the uprising in August, 1943.

https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_byLpgDYvRI6YulHGzZCX2Q

In January, we will start 2023 with a special Talking Memory program marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day: Being a Refugee: The Case of Ukraine During the Holocaust and Now with guest speakers, Dr. Marta Havryshko – Institute Director, Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, Chuck Fishman – Award Winning Photographer, and Jonathan Ornstein – Director of the JCC Krakow. The program will focus on the experiences of Ukrainian refugees during the Holocaust and today.

Dr. Marta Havryshko will explore sexual violence during the Holocaust from the point of view of its immediate victims and witnesses —Jewish women and men who survived the Holocaust and became witnesses in postwar trials in Soviet Ukraine (the 1940s-1980s). She will also share her experiences as a refugee who had to leave Ukraine as a result of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Jonathan Ornstein will share the incredible story of how JCC Krakow that has been taking in refugees from Ukraine since the Russian invasion is directly helping and supporting over one hundred and fifty thousand Ukrainians over the last eight months.

Chuck Fishman, who is an award-winning photographer, will share a photographic slice of the Ukrainian refugee experience in Poland, as seen, felt and interpreted by a ripened American photographer.

This program is in partnership with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Israel.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYtce6gqj4iGt0BuCyWvRwAVxZOCv6qHijT

On January 29th, we will start a new four-part series: Violated!: Sexual Abuse During and After the Holocaust. In the first program, Sexual Violence against Jewish Women during the Holocaust: Challenges and Reflections, guest speakers, Dr. Rochelle Saidel and Dr. Sonja Hedgepeth, will discuss their 2010 groundbreaking book on the subject of sexual violence against Jewish women during the Holocaust. They pay tribute to early researchers on the subject and reflect on the continued challenges for scholars. Including this subject in Holocaust history provides a fuller understanding of what many women endured.

Future programs will take place in February and March, focusing on women and children under the Nazi regime and Jewish women at liberation. Guest speakers will be Dr. Beverley Chalmers and Dr. Daina S. Eglitis.

This program is in . partnership with the Remember the Women Institute, Women in the Holocaust – International Study Center (MORESHET), Wagner College Holocaust Center, Classrooms Without Borders, Rabin Chair Forum Washington University, and the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center.

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0tce6gpzsiGN0-7ubxCOHu13VVNVsPXKaO