Dr. Joanna Sliwa On Holocaust Distortion, Poland's ‘Politics of Memory’, Jewish Childhood in Kraków, an Undercover Jewess Who Negotiated with the Nazis, and a Legacy to Inspire Future Scholars of All Genocide

Warfare of Art & Law Podcast

To learn more, please visit the website for Ms. Sliwa.
Show Notes:

2:45 inspiration for her career as a historian of the Holocaust and Polish Jewish history

4:30 American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC)

6:50 Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (the Claims Conference)

8:00 Claims Conference’s work on behalf of elderly survivors

10:00 current issues blocking claims that she’s encountered and how they differ between countries

12:00 history of the plunder and anti-restitution approach/laws in Poland

16:00 definition of who is a survivor for restitution purposes, e.g., exclusion of Jews who were in hiding during WWII from receiving pensions

17:45 lack of understanding and education about the gravity of the theft and restitution issues from WWII

19:00 claims like Menachem Kaiser

20:20 attitudes and behaviors towards Holocaust survivors and why claims are still ongoing

23:00 heirless property

24:00 JUST Act report’s findings on Poland about archives

26:00 It Is Still Night authors Historian Jan Grabowski and Professor Barbara Engelking

30:00 pursuit of the ‘Politics of Memory’ by the current government in Poland, Law and Justice as a distortion of Holocaust history

35:00 example of how Holocaust history is distorted: Poland’s commemoration of a Polish railway worker who is said to have given water to Jews in boxcars en route to Treblinka versus acknowledging Poles who robbed Jews in boxcars in exchange for water

41:00 Jewish Childhood in Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaust

43:45 historical drama film Schindler’s List

45:45 Children With a Star: Jewish Youth in Nazi Europe by Deborah Dwork

47:00 Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Mathematician Who Rescued Poles during the Holocaust co-authored with Dr. Elizabeth (Barry) White, expert on Majdanek Concentration Camp

52:00 genealogy methods supplemented research for Counterfeit Countess

56:15 The Beginning of the Holocaust in Poland 1939-1941? Other upcoming projects?

59:15 how Dr. Sliwa defines justice and how she sees her work facilitating justice

1:30:00 Dr. Sliwa’s hope for her legacy: to educate and inspire future scholars of all genocide

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© Stephanie Drawdy [2024]