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Older Jews and the Holocaust: A public symposium at USHMM
September 9, 2024 @ 10:30 am - 6:30 pm
We’re pleased to announce a public symposium at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, co-convened by USHMM, The Wiener Holocaust Library and the Conference on Jewish material Claims against Germany.
The symposium will take place on Monday 9 September, and you can register to attend in person or online.
During the Holocaust, older Jews were among the first to be targeted for death or deportation to killing centers. Some wrote about their experiences in diaries and letters, and information can be found in other documentation and post-war testimony. Still, little is known about how older Jews endured persecution, how they responded, and their survival strategies.
This symposium will explore new research on the experiences of the elderly during and after the Holocaust, preceding the publication of an edited volume on the same topic. Instead of focusing solely on their vulnerability and death, the speakers will discuss how older individuals lived through genocide and navigated its aftermath, as well as how others reacted to the needs of older Jews.
Event Schedule
| 10:30 – 10:45am Introductory Remarks | Elizabeth Anthony, US Holocaust Memorial Museum Christine Schmidt, The Wiener Holocaust Library |
| 10:45am – 12:15pm Panel I: Contexts of Persecution | Chair: Natalya Lazar, US Holocaust Memorial Museum When the Nineteenth Century Ended for Jews: The Elderly and the Holocaust Dan Stone, Royal Holloway, University of London The “Old Soldiers” of Theresienstadt: German Jewish War Veterans at Terezin Michael Geheran, US Military Academy, West Point “I am 57, I am old, useless and I am alive”: The fate of the Elderly Survivors of the First Liquidation Action of the Warsaw Ghetto Katarzyna Person, Warsaw Ghetto Museum, and Maria Ferenc, Jewish Historical Institute and University of Wrocław |
| 12:15 – 12:30pm Break | |
| 12:30 – 2pm Panel II: Older People and Migration | Chair: Anna Ullrich, US Holocaust Memorial Museum “Head of an Old Woman”: Nelly Wolffheim and the Voices of the Aged Christine Schmidt, The Wiener Holocaust Library “The Tragedy of Old Age is Not That One is Old, but That One is Young”: Antonia Jacoby and Elderly Jewish Migration to Japan Niamh Hanrahan, University of Manchester Older Jewish Refugees in China: From A History of the Other to Multidirectional Memories Xin Tong, Shanghai International Studies University Polish Elderly Jewish Refugees and Holocaust Survival in the Soviet Union Lidia Zessin-Jurek, Masaryk Institute and Archives, CAS / Stockton University, and Katharina Friedla, Stanford University |
| 2 – 3pm Lunch Break | |
| 3 – 4:30pm Panel III: Older Jews among the “Displaced” | Chair: Patricia Heberer-Rice, US Holocaust Memorial Museum The Most Tragic of all Survivors? Elderly Displaced Persons in Postwar Germany Kierra Crago-Schneider, US Holocaust Memorial Museum Elderly Concentration Camp Survivors in Postwar Vienna Elizabeth Anthony, US Holocaust Memorial Museum Postwar Humanitarian Photography: The Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad’s Photographs of Older Jews in Postwar Europe Roxzann-Rio Moore, Royal Holloway, University of London |
| 4:30 – 4:45pm Break | |
| 4:45 – 6pm Panel IV: Older Jews after the Holocaust | Chair: Rebecca Carter-Chand, US Holocaust Memorial Museum Care for Older Holocaust Survivors: The Work of the Claims Conference and JDC, 1954-1960 Joanna Sliwa, Claims Conference Justice for All? Restitution and Compensation of Elderly Holocaust Survivors in Hungary Borbàla Klacsmann, University College Dublin |
| 6 – 6:15pm Closing Remarks | Joanna Sliwa, Claims Conference |
Catch up on the full symposium via YouTube
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