New Research and Resources On Children And The Holocaust
Symposium
February 26–27, 2013
Washington, DC
Children selected for deportation bid farewell to their families through the wire fence of the central prison during the Gehsperre Aktion in the Lodz ghetto, September 1942. US Holocaust Memorial Museum
This symposium explores the evolution of the study of children and the Holocaust ten years after the Center first convened a conference on the topic. Drawing from new Museum resources, presenters will explore such familiar subjects as hiding and rescue, as well as new areas like postwar identity, history and memory, and the challenges and opportunities of child survivor testimony itself.
The symposium is made possible through the generosity of the Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus Fund for the Study of the Fate and Rescue of Children.
Register here.
SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26
10 a.m.
Welcome and Introduction
Paul A. Shapiro, Director, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
10:30 a.m.
Keynote: Orphans of the Shoah and Jewish Identity in Postwar France
Susan Rubin Suleiman, C. Douglas Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France and Professor of Comparative Literature, Harvard University, and 2009–2010 J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Senior Scholar-in-Residence, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
11:30 a.m.
Children, Hiding, Flight, and Rescue during the Holocaust: Sources and Approaches
Chair/Respondent:
Omer Bartov, John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History and Professor of History and of German Studies, Brown University, and 2012–13 J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Senior Scholar-in-Residence, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The Children’s Sphere: Acculturation and the Contexts of Rescue
Jennifer Marlow, PhD Candidate, Michigan State University
Rescue of Children during the Holocaust in the North Caucasus
Sufian Zhemukhov, Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University
Private Citizens and American Rescue: Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus and the 50 Children of Vienna
Robert Williams, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
2 p.m.
Returning Home: The Postwar Identity of Child Survivors
Chair/Respondent:
Judith Gerson, Professor of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University
Victims and Threats, Wanderers and Citizens: Rethinking the Processes of Rehabilitation for Child Survivors in Britain and Palestine/Israel
Mary Fraser Kirsh, PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison
In the Pipeline: Children, Families, and Europe’s DP Crisis, 1945–1951
Adam Seipp, Associate Professor of History, Texas A&M University
“In the Best Interest of the Child”: Hidden Jewish Children and State Decisions in Postwar Netherlands
Diane Wolf, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Davis
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27
10 a.m.
Surviving Survival: Children and Child Survivors in History and Memory
Chair/Respondent:
Suzanne Vromen, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Bard College
The World of the Child: Children and Coping in Wartime Europe
Patricia Heberer, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies,
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
“Nobody Knew about My Existence”: Young Soviet Jews, the Nazi Genocide, and the Challenges of Being a Soviet Partisan
Anika Walke, Postdoctoral Fellow, International and Area Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
Uncovering the Hidden Child: Jewish Children and the Holocaust in The Search (1948)
Anna Holian, Associate Professor of History, Arizona State University
11:45 a.m.
Speaking of Survival: Child Survivor Voices
Roundtable Discussion
Moderator:
Leah Wolfson, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies,
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Discussants:
Gideon Frieder, PhD, A. James Clark Chair Emeritus of Engineering and Applied Sciences, George Washington University, and Survivor Volunteer, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Marie Kaufman, Organizer, Child Survivors of the Holocaust, Los Angeles
Harry Davids, The Righteous Conversations Project of
Remember Us
Simone Schweber, Goodman Professor of Education and Jewish Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison
