Odysseys of Survival: The Deportation of Polish Jews to the Soviet Interior

712 West 2nd Street,Davenport IA 52802

16 October, 2022

Description

This presentation focuses on a little-known but significant part of the history of Polish Jews during WWII: the escape, deportation, and evacuation of Polish Jews into the interior of the Soviet Union. The unintended consequence of this event was that approximately a quarter million Polish Jews survived the Nazi genocide in the relative safety of the Soviet interior. These "accidental" survivors represent a large majority of the Polish Jews who survived the war. This presentation will examine some of the reasons why, until fairly recently, this remarkable history is not better known. Dr. Stephen J. Gaies is the Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Education, and Professor Emeritus, Department of Languages and Literatures, at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, IA.