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Polish Studies
Israel Studies June 6, 2023

A Train to Palestine

The Tehran Children, Anders' Army and Their Escape from Stalin's Siberia, 1939-1943

Randy Grigsby

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
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In October 1938, eight-year-old Josef Rosenbaum, his mother, and his younger sister set out from Germany on a cruel odyssey, fleeing into eastern Europe along with thousands of other refugees …

Polish Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Poland about their new books

Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel May 10, 2023

Bruno Schulz

An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History

Benjamin Balint

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
The twentieth-century artist Bruno Schulz was born an Austrian, lived as a Pole, and died a Jew. First a citizen of the Habsburg monarchy, he would, without moving, become the …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones April 22, 2023

The Future of Eastern Europe

A Discussion with Zsuzsanna Szelényi

Zsuzsanna Szelényi

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has been met with a range of responses in Eastern Europe – with some leaders offering muted solace to Vladimir Putin and others arming Ukraine …
Eastern European Studies April 16, 2023

Auschwitz

A Monograph on the Human

Piotr M. A. Cywiński

Hosted by Piotr Kosicki
Auschwitz is perhaps the best-known memorial site in the world. Epicenter of the Nazi extermination campaign of Europe’s Jewish population, the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp system also held over 400,000 inmates (Jews …
Jewish Studies April 7, 2023

The Atrocity of Hunger

Starvation in the Warsaw, Lodz and Krakow Ghettos during World War II

Helene J. Sinnreich

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
During World War II, the Germans put the Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland into ghettos which restricted their movement and, most crucially for their survival, access to food. The Germans saw …
Jewish Studies March 29, 2023

Memory Is Our Home

Loss and Remembering--Three Generations in Poland and Russia 1917-1960s

Suzanna Eibuszyc

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
A courageous young woman escaping Nazi Germany, with no choice other than to leave her family behind... Roma Talasiewicz-Eibuszyc was born in Warsaw near the end of World War I …
Military History March 13, 2023

Birds of Prey

Hitler's Luftwaffe, Ordinary Soldiers, and the Holocaust in Poland

Philip W. Blood

Hosted by AJ Woodhams
Birds of Prey: Hitler's Luftwaffe, Ordinary Soldiers, and the Holocaust in Poland (Ibidem Press, 2021) is a microhistory of the Nazi occupation of Białowieźa Forest, Poland’s national park. The narrative …
Eastern European Studies March 1, 2023

Communism's Public Sphere

Culture As Politics in Cold War Poland and East Germany

Kyrill Kunakhovich

Hosted by Piotr Kosicki
In Communism’s Public Sphere: Culture as Politics in Cold War Poland and East Germany (Cornell University Press, 2022), historian Kyrill Kunakhovich explores communist Poland and East Germany as laboratories of …
Jewish Studies February 22, 2023

This Was Not America

A Wrangle Through Jewish-Polish-American History

Elżbieta Janicka and Michael Steinlauf

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
From fleeing the Warsaw Ghetto and living underground to fighting for social justice in 1960s' Seattle and helping smash the communist system in 1980s' Poland, this is a narrative that …
Eastern European Studies February 3, 2023

Resurrecting the Jew

Nationalism, Philosemitism, and Poland’s Jewish Revival

Geneviève Zubrzycki

Hosted by Piotr Kosicki
Since the early 2000s, Poland has experienced a remarkable Jewish revival. Klezmer music, Jewish-style restaurants, kosher vodka, and festivals of Jewish culture have become popular, while new museums, memorials, Jewish …
Eastern European Studies January 25, 2023

In the Shadow of the Holocaust

Poland, the United Nations War Crimes Commission, and the Search for Justice

Michael Fleming

Hosted by Piotr Kosicki
In the midst of the Second World War, Central and East European governments-in-exile struggled to make their voices heard as they reported back to the Allies and sought to reach …
Jewish Studies December 24, 2022

An Unchosen People

Jewish Political Reckoning in Interwar Poland

Kenneth B. Moss

Hosted by James Nadel
The early 1930s constituted an ambiguous moment for the roughly three million Jews that resided in the Polish Republic. On the one hand, as recent scholars have emphasized, Polish Jews …
Eastern European Studies December 9, 2022

Socialism Goes Global

The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the Age of Decolonisation

James Mark and Paul Betts

Hosted by Jill Massino
Socialism Goes Global: The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the Age of Decolonisation (Oxford UP, 2022) is the first work to provide a broad history of the relationship between …
Jewish Studies December 6, 2022

The Heresy of Jacob Frank

From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth

Jay Michaelson

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
In The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Messianism to Esoteric Myth (Oxford University Press, 2022), Jay Michaelson explores the religious philosophy of the mercurial eighteenth-century figure Jacob Frank, who …
Jewish Studies November 23, 2022

A Ukrainian Chapter

A Jewish Aid Worker’s Memoir Of Sorrow

Eli Gumener (trans. Michael Eli Nutkiewicz)

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Today I talked to Michael Eli Nutkiewicz about his translation A Ukrainian Chapter: A Jewish Aid Worker’s Memoir Of Sorrow (Slavica, 2022).  Eli Gumener’s 1921 Yiddish memoir, A Ukrainian Chapter, is …
Eastern European Studies October 25, 2022

Transitional Justice in Post-Communist Europe

A Discussion with Monika Nalepa

Monika Nalepa

Hosted by Keith Krueger
An alienated society divided into groups and classes suspicious of one another does not pose an especially great problem for an authoritarian regime that does not legitimize itself through fair …
International Horizons October 24, 2022

A Most Similar Comparison: The Authoritarianism of Poland and Hungary

A Discussion with Edit Zgut-Przybylska

Edit Zgut-Przybylska

Hosted by International Horizons
The leadership of Hungary and Poland seemingly shared the same playbook when it came to undermining judicial independence, consolidating electoral power, regulating media ownership and enacting laws against LGBTQ rights …
Writ Large October 14, 2022

On Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"

A Discussion with Maya Jassanoff

Maya Jassanoff

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Joseph Conrad, who published 20 books and several best-sellers by the time of his death, was also a sailor. Heart of Darkness follows seaman Charles Marlow’s journey down a river …
Eastern European Studies October 11, 2022

Comics and Nation

Power, Pop Culture, and Political Transformation in Poland

Ewa Stańczyk

Hosted by Roland Clark
Comics and Nation: Power, Pop Culture, and Political Transformation in Poland (Ohio State UP, 2022) offers a fresh perspective on the role of popular culture in the one-hundred-year history of …
Writ Large September 9, 2022

On Maciej Miechowita's "Treatise on the Two Sarmatias"

A Discussion with Michael Tworek

Michael Tworek

Hosted by Zachary Davis
In Treatise on the Two Sarmatias, Polish scholar Maciej Miechowita argued that two mountain ranges that were described on maps dating back to antiquity did not, in fact, exist. This …