During the Holocaust, European Jewish life was decimated. By 1950, approximately one-third of the prewar Jewish population remained alive in Europe. Thus, in the immediate postwar period, survivors of the Holocaust were for the most part homeless, geographically dispersed, displaced, and recovering from their struggle against death and loss. Survivors contemplated whether to remain in Europe or to move away and rebuild their lives elsewhere. For many, the need and desire to leave Europe was urgent due to multiple difficulties, including anti-Jewish violence and pogroms. Thus, as a result of World War II, the geography of Jewish life was radically altered, and the center of Jewish life moved away from Europe and toward the Americas and Israel. Historians Laura Jockusch and Avinoam Patt observed that:
“…approximately 2 million Holocaust survivors—broadly understood here as people whom the Nazis persecuted as Jews, who lived under the Nazi regime in the years 1933–45, and who remained alive in Europe at the end of the Second World War—had to come to terms with being forced into exile from their prewar homes and with the destruction of European Jewish communities and culture. Survivors engaged in complex processes of rebuilding their shattered lives involving prolonged periods of migration and life in transit. Survivors moved across the European continent in search of remaining relatives and friends, looking to return home to rebuild devastated communities, or in pursuit of better living conditions, equality, security, and stability. Many saw no future in Europe and chose to permanently relocate overseas.”
Jockusch and Patt, Holocaust Survivor Diasporas, 2021, p. 458
This workshop invites scholars to submit proposals that examine the arrival of survivors to Jewish communities and their involvement in the rebuilding, creation, or expansion of these communities.
The workshop seeks to address different topics, including:
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The DP camp as the first new community of survivors
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She’erit Hapleta as a new form of identity and community
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Rebuilding homes on the ruins of the past
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How survivors chose their postwar communities
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Culture/s of Holocaust remembrance established by survivors
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Models of Jewish identity and affiliation: With whom/how did survivors affiliate in their communities? Did they affiliate with local Jewish organizations and community structures, or did they form their own communities? Did they create their own networks of assistance, support, and communication?
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The interaction between survivors and the local Jewish population
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Relationship to non-Jewish groups of victims of Nazi persecution
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Continuity versus change in the newly established or reestablished homes. e.g., religious and political affiliation, modes of identity, language, culture, etc.
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Feeling of belonging and identification to their new communities
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Survivor Diaspora communities and their relationship to the efforts to establish the State of Israel, and their relationship to Israel
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Involvement in the struggle for human rights and the prevention of genocide
Application Details
Please send your paper proposal of no more than 250 words and a short 150-word biography by January 10, 2025, to research.applications@yadvashem.org.il.
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Papers will be 20 minutes in length.
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Applicants will be notified by February 1, 2025, of their inclusion in the program.
