My first book, Jewish Childhood in Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaust (Rutgers University Press, 2021), illuminates Holocaust history from the perspective of Jewish children’s experiences.
A focus on children, the symbol of hope and future for the Jews, and a threat to the Nazi racial community, reveals what this age group witnessed and how the Holocaust affected Jews who were up to the age of fourteen when World War II began. Through the children’s experiences and recollections, this book explores the events and processes that framed the Holocaust in German-occupied Poland in general, and in Kraków in particular. Kraków assumed different roles during the Nazi rule, from serving as the capital of German-occupied Poland and a model Germanic city, to the site of a ghetto and the camp at Płaszów. For Jews, Kraków became a refuge, a site of persecution, and a point of departure for transnational rescue missions. This book explores these various functions of the city and their consequences for Jewish children. A microhistory of a place, a people, and daily life, this book plumbs the decisions and behaviors of ordinary people in extraordinary times. Ultimately, this book is an effort to understand the past and to reflect on the position and responses of young people during humanitarian crises.
I received support for this project from the following institutions and organizations: the Fulbright Program, Yad Vashem, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Proventus, Hadassah Brandeis Institute at Brandeis University, German Historical Institute in Warsaw, American Institute of Polish Culture, Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union, Polish Student Organization, and Clark University.
“... An important addition to Holocaust literature.”
“... will become a standard work on the subject ...”
“... These voices will become central to the ways we think about Jewish children’s experiences during the Holocaust.””
REVIEWS
H-Net, H-Poland, Reviewed by Dr. Rachel Rothstein, July 2022.
Eastern European Holocaust Studies, Reviewed by Dr. Denisa Nešťáková, November 2022.
AJS Review, Reviewed by Dr. Sean Martin, April 2023.
Central European History, Reviewed by Dr. Monika Rice, June 2023
The Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth, Reviewed by Dr. Melissa R. Klapper, Spring 2023.
READ AND LISTEN
Society for the History of Children and Youth, Featured Books Series, interviewed by Dr. Adara Goldberg.
New Books Network Podcast, interviewed by Dr. Ari Barbalat.
RECOGNITION
2022 Outstanding Academic Titles in Central and Eastern Europe category, Choice Magazine
2020 Ernst Fraenkel Prize awarded by the Wiener Holocaust Library
UPCOMING EVENTS
past events
February 2024: “Jewish Children Seeking Help from Catholic Institutions in Kraków during the Holocaust,” Conference Jewish Childhood in Eastern Europe, launch of vol, 36 of Polin. Studies in Polish Jewry, Institute for Polish-Jewish Studies and the UCL Institute of Jewish Studies, in partnership with POLIN Museum of History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland.
November 2023: “Refuge in Slovakia and Jewish Rescuers during the Holocaust,” Lessons and Legacies, Prague, Czechia.
September 2023: “Beyond Schindler: Jewish Children in Kraków,” Limmud Atlanta and Southeast, GA.
April 2023: Holocaust Remembrance Day Lecture, Linden Public Library, NJ.
April 2023: Yom HaShoah Commemoration, Congregation Kol Ami of Westchester, NY.
February 2023: Guest presentation in a class on East European Jewish History, Jewish Childhood in Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaust, Fort Hays State University.
September 2022: Book talk, Jewish Childhood in Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaust, Center for Jewish Studies, Arizona State University. Part of the series “New Holocaust Research from Poland: Groundbreaking Perspectives.”
May 2022: Jewish Children in the Kraków Ghetto, Yom HaShoah Commemoration, Jewish Federation & Jewish Foundation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
April 2022: Book Talk, Jewish Childhood in Kraków: A Microhistory of the Holocaust, Holocaust Resource Center of Kean University.
March 2022: “The Kraków Ghetto Through the Eyes of Jewish Children,” Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, the University of Texas at Dallas.
February 2022: Zoom in on the Forum: Jewish Childhood in Kraków, Forum for Dialogue.
February 2022: Virtual Ernst Fraenkel Prize Lecture, the Wiener Holocaust Library.
February 2022: Teacher Workshop: Jewish Childhood in Kraków. Master Teacher Institute in Holocaust Education, the Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, Rutgers University-New Brunswick.
July 2021: “New Research: Jewish Childhood in Kraków,” Auschwitz Jewish Center Fellows Program, Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust.