Dr. Alicja Podbielska

Professional Background

Alicja Podbielska is a historian of the Holocaust, Polish-Jewish history, and memory. She received her PhD from the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University in 2021. She has served as a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University’s Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies and as a visiting assistant professor of Holocaust and Antisemitism Studies at Emory University.

Dr. Podbielska has received grants and fellowships from numerous institutions, including the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure, the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute, Yad Vashem, the Claims Conference, the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. She recently published “Mothers, Soldiers, and Families: Gender Representations in Polish Memory of Holocaust Rescue” in The Polish Review 69:1 (2024).

Fellowship Research

During her fellowship, Dr. Podbielska will conduct research on Jewish rescue networks in Nazi-occupied Poland. Her project aims to deepen our understanding of agency, support systems, in-group cohesion, and out-group cooperation in situations of extreme violence. She plans to utilize the Museum’s archival holdings on the activities of Polish and Jewish political parties, semi-formal networks based on religious affiliation, and informal assistance networks created across communities and families. Residency Period: August 1, 2025 – July 31, 2028