Visiting scholar will give Holocaust Memorial Lecture at Wash U

Natalia+Aleksiun

Natalia Aleksiun

Washington University’s Center for the Humanities will present its annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 10, focusing this year on “Jewish Physicians and Their Patients: Rescue Strategies in Nazi Occupied Poland.”

The guest speaker will be Natalia Aleksiun, professor of Modern Jewish History, Touro College / Incoming Harry Rich Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Florida-Gainesville.

The relationships between Jewish physicians, non-Jewish medical professionals and patients offer a window into rescue efforts in Nazi-occupied Poland. Jewish testimonies, diaries, memoirs and witness statements in postwar trials tell a story of how communities came together to organize hiding places and aid for Jewish doctors who were threatened by violence and murder.

In the lecture, Aleksiun will discuss how pre-existing professional relationships, a sense of gratitude for medical services rendered in the past and an ongoing need for Jewish physicians’ expertise laid the foundation for a network of support that allowed Jewish physicians to continue to work in the face of the Holocaust and — in the case of some — survive.

Details about the event and a registration button to receive the ZOOM link are at https://bit.ly/WU-Holocaust-lecture.

The Holocaust Memorial Lecture is an annual event that is administered by Washington U’s Center for the Humanities.  Held on or near Nov. 9th, the anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogroms in Nazi Germany, the lecture aims not only to commemorate the Holocaust but also to address its broader implications for other instances of systematic persecution, mass murder and genocide.