Polish Jewish History After the Holocaust, 1944 - Present

Tuition: $450 | YIVO members: $350**
Students: $225 (Must register with valid university email address)

This is a live, online seminar held weekly on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 15 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, etc.) will be posted to Canvas. Students will be granted access to the class on Canvas after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in English.

Instructor: Frankee Lyons

Course Description:
During the communist period in Poland (1948-1989), Polish Jews redefined their communities and identities as a result of migration, antisemitism, nationalism, and diasporic connection after the Holocaust. What dreams and challenges characterize the postwar Polish Jewish community, and what debates shape the study of Polish Jewry under communism? This course will provide a narrative of the period and examine the origins, processes, and consequences of: (1) the evolution and nuances of Jewish identity under communism and postcommunism; (2) the development of postwar political antisemitism in Poland; and (3) contemporary dimensions of Polish-Jewish relations.

This course traces postwar Polish Jewish history with a particular focus on the period beginning with the Kielce pogrom in July 1946 and ending with the antisemitic campaign of 1968. Course participants will engage primarily with secondary historical literature, testimony, and memoir. The readings will consider both the perspectives of Polish Jews, including Holocaust survivors and Soviet repatriates, as well as the Polish state’s policies regarding Jewish belonging. In the last weeks of the course, we will discuss postcommunist debates over Holocaust memory, Polish-Jewish relations, and beyond.

Who should take this course?
This class is open to anyone interested in the topic as outlined in the course description. The class discussion will be conducted in English, and all course materials will be read in English or in English translation. No previous background knowledge or specific education level is required.

Course Materials:
The instructor will provide all course materials digitally throughout the class on Canvas.

Frankee Lyons is a PhD candidate in Modern Eastern European History at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she has also taught the history of the Holocaust. Her dissertation examines perceptions of Jewish belonging in post-Stalinist Poland, focusing on the Polish Thaw and the migration policies it generated from 1953 to the early 1960s. Lyons was a 2018 Auschwitz Jewish Center Fellow and a 2020 honors graduate of the Academy of Young Diplomats at the European Academy of Diplomacy. With the support of Fulbright and Title VIII fellowships, in 2019-20 Lyons was a visiting researcher at the Institute of Political Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland. In 2020-21 Lyons was a Sarah and Nathan Chesin JDC Archives Fellow, and in spring 2022 she completed her Fulbright grant as a visiting researcher in Wrocław, Poland.

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