THE YAD VASHEM BIENNIAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
The Jewish Refugee Problem
During the Shoah (1933-1945) Reconsidered
December 18 – 20, 2016 Jerusalem
Constantiner Lecture Hall, The International School for Holocaust Studies
Yad Vashem, Mount of Remembrance, Jerusalem
The conference proceedings will be in Hebrew and English with simultaneous translation
With the generous support of
The Gertner Center for International Holocaust Conferences
The Gutwirth Family Fund
Program
Sunday, 18 December 2016
14:00-16:00 Opening Session
In Presence of: Avner Shalev, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Directorate, Israel
Chair: Dina Porat, Yad Vashem; Tel Aviv University, Israel
Rational of the Conference:
Dan Michman, Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research and Incumbent of the John Najmann Chair in Holocaust Studies, Yad Vashem; Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Keynote Speaker:
Norman Goda, University of Florida, USA
A Career in Refugees: James G. McDonald, the Jews, and the Holocaust
16:00-16:30 Break
16:30-18:45 Session 1: The Jewish Refugee Problem in the 1930s and its Ramifications for the 1940s
Chair: Richard I. Cohen, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Susanne Heim, University of Freiburg, Germany
International Jewish Organizations and the European Refugee Crisis, 1936-1943
Rivka Elkin, Independent scholar, Israel
"Pave, Pave a Way": The Flight from Germany in the Years 1939-1941 as Mirrored in the Jüdisches Nachrichtenblatt
Michal Frankl, Masaryk Institute; Archives of the Czech Academy of Science, Czech Republic
Citizens into Refugees: Expulsions of Jews and Revisions of Jewish Citizenship in Poland and Czechoslovakia in 1938-1939
Simha Epstein, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Aid Activists for Jewish Refugees in France from 1933 to 1939 and Their Lot Under the Occupation
Discussion
Monday, 19 December 2016
09:30-11:15 Session 2: The Fate of Jewish Refugees in Satellite Countries of Germany
Chair: Robert Rozett, Yad Vashem, Israel
Naida Michal Brandl, University of Zagreb, the Republic of Croatia
Jewish Refugees from 1933 until 1943 in Croatia in the Shadow of the Holocaust
Silvia Goldbaum Tarabini Fracapane, Independent Scholar, Germany
Young and Elderly Jewish Refugees in Denmark: Two Ways of Reacting To the Nazis
Kinga Frojimovics, Yad Vashem, Israel; Wiesenthal Institute, Austria
Jewish Refugees in the Hospitals of the Jewish Community of Pest, 1938-1944
Discussion
11:15-11:45 Break
11:45-13:30 Session 3: Jewish Refugees in Nazi-Occupied Countries
Chair: Havi Dreifuss, Yad Vashem; Tel Aviv University, Israel
Noam Corb, Independent Scholar, Israel
Germans? Poles? Stateless? The Limburg (Belgium) Enigma
Lea Prais, Yad Vashem, Israel
“The Bitter Bread of Exile”: A Perspective on the Recent Past - Jewish Refugees in Occupied Warsaw
Michal Unger, Ashkelon Academic College, Israel
Discrimination: Jewish Refugees from Poland and the Reich, and Roma from Austria in the Lodz Ghetto
Discussion
13:30-14:45 Lunch Break
14:45-16:15 Session 4 (a): The Free World during WWII vis-à-vis the Jewish Refugees
Chair: Eli Lederhendler, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Laurel Leff, Northeastern University, USA
Discretion and Discrimination: How the US State Department Interpreted Immigration Laws to Bar Refugees from Nazi Europe
Izzet Bahar, Independent Scholar, USA
The Policies of Turkey vis-à-vis the Jewish Refugees in WWII
Kathrin Haurand, Clark University, USA
Jewish Refugees in Teheran during World War II
16:15-16:30 Break
16:30-18:30 Session 4 (b): The Free World during WWII vis-à-vis the Jewish Refugees
Chair: Adara Goldberg, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Michaela Raggam-Blesch, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
Arrival in the “New World”: Difficult New Beginnings ofGerman-speakingJewish Refugee Families in the American Exile
Andrea Orzoff, New Mexico State University, USA
Exilmusik, La Música del Exilio: European Refugees and the Politics of Music in Latin America, 1933-1945
Anne Lepper, Free University of Berlin, Germany
Rescue Attempts at the Peak of Annihilation: Adolf Silberschein’s Relico and the Passport Procurement Operation in Switzerland, 1941-1943
Discussion (sessions a & b)
Tuesday, 20 December 2016
09:30-11:00 Session 5: Jewish Refugees in South-East Europe
Chair: Mirjam Rajner, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Sofija Grandakovska, Saul Kagan Fellow; Singidunum University, Serbia
Jewish Refugees from Macedonia in Albania during the Shoah
Nikolaos Tzafleris, University of Thessaly, Greece
The Role of the Italians in the Fate of the Pentcho Jewish Refugees
Krinka Vidaković-Petrov, Institute for Literature and Art, Serbia
Jewish Refugees from Yugoslavia: Context, Policies and Personal Experiences
Discussion
11:00-11:30 Break
11:30-13:30 Session 6: Jewish Refugees in the Soviet Union
Special session taking place with the Moshe Mirilashvili Center for Research on the Holocaust in the Soviet Union
Chair: Arkadi Zeltser, Yad Vashem, Israel
Eliyana Adler, Pennsylvania State University, USA
“I Became a Nomad in the Land of Nomadic Tribes": Polish Jewish Refugees in Central Asia during the Shoah
Natalie Belsky, University of Minnesota, Duluth, USA
The Shifting Meanings of Jewishness in Displacement: Evacuees and Refugees in Siberia and Central Asia
Sara Bender, University of Haifa, Israel
The Flight to the East: Polish Jews’ Refugee Problem in East Poland Territories Annexed to the USSR, 1939-1944
Sigita Zemaityte, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Waiting for Coming Home: Lithuanian Jewish Refugees in the USSR
Discussion
** This session will be held in Hebrew, English and Russian, with simultaneous translation
13:30-14:30 Lunch Break
14:30-15:30 Session 7 – The Refugee Question during the Shoah: New Methodological Approaches
Chair: Dalia Ofer, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Susanne Urban, SchUM-Cities Association, Germany
Adventurers Against Their Will: Exchanges on Dxperiences During Exile
Pedro Correa Martin-Arroyo, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
Rescue Through Cooperation: A New Methodological Approach to the Jewish Refugee Crisis in South-Western Europe, 1940-1944
Discussion
15:30-15:45 Break
15:45-17:00 Closing Panel – Round Table: The Jewish Refugee Crisis of the Nazi Era and the Current Refugee Problem – Recurring Patterns?
Yehuda Bauer, Yad Vashem; The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Israel
Deborah Dwork, Clark University, USA
Dina Porat, Yad Vashem; Tel Aviv University, Israel
Guy Miron, Yad Vashem; Open University, Israel
Moderator: Dan Michman, Yad Vashem; Bar-Ilan University, Israel