Situated in Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research, The Diana and Eli Zborowski Center seeks to initiate, coordinate and support research relating to the consequences and implications of the Shoah. The center was established by Dr. Zeev Mankowitz ז"ל who was a pioneer in the study of Survivors of the Holocaust in the immediate Aftermath.
The post-war years were one of huge upheaval and transition. In these few years, survivors of the Holocaust were for the most part homeless, geographically dispersed, displaced and recovering from their struggle against death and loss. It was a period in which the broken body and spirit of European Jewry was trying to regather itself and find a way to rebuild destroyed lives and communities. The efforts they made and the organizations that were created to assist them is a phenomenal story of improvisation, creativity, and leadership in assisting men, women, and children to find the basic conditions necessary for continued survival. These struggles were not always overcome as many individuals were unable to find the emotional and physical resources to rebuild their lives. These experiences are important to document as it gives witness to their endeavors. This period also provides models and tools for the millions of victims who today are suffering as a result of war and violence and are looking for ways to restore hope and instill resilience in innocent victims.
The goal of the center is initiate research and host scholars to present their current research in various aspects of the immediate postwar experience. The center seeks provide a space in which interdisciplinary research in areas in which the efforts made – organizationally and individually – towards the physical and emotional rehabilitation of survivors will be discussed.
Recent Publications
Since its inception the center has initiated and published new research.
In 2023, The Centre together with the George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention at the American University of Paris published: After the Darkness: Holocaust Survivors’ Emotional, Psychological and Social Journeys in the Early Postwar Period. Researchers from Israel and abroad presented their work relating to the emotional and social challenges that survivors of the Holocaust faced in the immediate post-war period.
In 2019 the center published the edited volume: Starting Anew: the rehabilitation of child survivors of the Holocaust in the early postwar years which examines the physical, emotional, and social rehabilitation of child survivors. As part of this project 12 scholars, both early career researchers and established scholars were recruited to examine the issue of child survivors in the immediate post war period.
In 2019 the Center published the first volume in the series The Cold Shower of a New Life: The Postwar Diaries of a Child Survivor Yehuda Bacon This project involves the publication of Yehuda Bacon’s post-war notebooks. During WWII, the now-renowned artist and Holocaust survivor Yehuda Bacon became determined to somehow share the events he was experiencing, and this resolution continued to guide him throughout his postwar life. In particular, he wanted to bear witness to what he and millions of other Jews had gone through. He has fulfilled this resolution by, among other things, writing over 240 notebooks, or diaries, since the end of the war until this day. Originally in Czech, Bacon’s early diaries (1945-1948) are annotated and published in English. His writing is accompanied by drawings, as he uses both mediums to express his daily thoughts, activities, hopes and struggles. These are powerful and rich documents which will hopefully give readers a deeper understanding of the experiences of child survivors of the Shoah.
The sixth volume is currently being prepared for publication and is an ongoing project.
Recent Research Workshops
- Planned for 2025: Holocaust Survivor “Diasporas”: Call for Papers.
- 2024: Mapping the Holocaust Early postwar efforts to identify, locate, document and memorialize former sites of Jewish life and death (1944-1955). This workshop will be held in collaboration with the University of Connecticut.
- 2023: Issues Pertaining to Guardianship of Child Survivors.
- 2022: The post-war period as reflected through Art. This workshop was hosted together with the Museums Division, Yad Vashem.
- 2020: Overcoming the darkness? Holocaust Survivors' Emotional and Social Journeys in the Early Postwar Period. This workshop was held in collaboration with The George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention at the American University of Paris
- 2019: The Practice of Restitution and Reparations and the Historiography of the Holocaust: An Entangled History?
Guest lectures
Each year the center invites scholars working on the period of the Aftermath to give lecture to our scholarly community.
Previous lecture January 2024: Prof Susan Suleiman: “From Child Survivor of the Holocaust to Harvard Professor: Susan Suleiman discusses her memoir Daughter of History: Traces of an Immigrant Girlhood”.
Upcoming Lecture
26 September, 2024: Prof. Robin Judd will discuss her recent publication: Between Two Worlds: Jewish War Brides after the Holocaust (UNC Press, 2023)
For research proposals, comments or further information please contact us at:
The Diana Zborowski Center for the Study of the Aftermath of the Holocaust,
Yad Vashem,
P.O.B. 3477,
Jerusalem 9103401
Israel.
E-Mail address: zborowski.center@yadvashem.org.il
