10/13/2026
Join us on Wednesday, November 11th at 12PM (ET) for a book talk with Joanna Michlic.
Register today: https://jdc-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_H3OlELkuT6K9BGQzPhQVbg #/registration
In this book talk, Michlic will introduce her new book "Through the Eyes of Jewish Child Survivors from Poland: Rethinking Rescue and Children's Agency in the Holocaust" (University of Nebraska Press, 2026), which examines children’s agency and the role of child survivors’ testimonies in a historical reconstruction, including self-help among youth, Polish-Jewish relations during and after the war, reconstruction of Jewish families, identity crisis, and medical and mental health concerns in the immediate aftermath.
Drawing on children’s diaries, letters, testimonies, and memoirs, as well as material from the JDC Archives, Michlic illuminates how children experienced and remembered trauma: the destruction of their families, the loss of their prewar worlds, and the struggle to adapt to a new reality, challenging myths that sentimentalize the children’s endurance and portray the Holocaust as neatly concluded. This powerful study shows why the history of Holocaust child survivors remains a vital resource for understanding vulnerability, agency, and the enduring impact of war and genocide.
Prof. Joanna Beata Michlic is an internationally recognized social and cultural historian of the Holocaust and its aftermath whose work focuses on Jewish children and families, memory, antisemitism, and nationalism in East Central Europe, particularly Poland. She is the founder and first director of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute Project on Families, Children, and the Holocaust at Brandeis University. She is serving as Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Program Director of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Graduate Programs, and Associate Director of the Center for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights Gratz College. She also serves as one of the Editors-in-Chief of Genealogy and as one of the editors of the Journal of Holocaust Research.
