The first seminar in the Twentieth Century Polish History Seminar series will take place on 2 December at 6:15pm. Due to the pandemic, the seminar will take place online. Our speaker, Dr Lukasz Krzyzanowski (Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw), will provide a brief introduction to his new book, Ghost Citizens: Jewish Return to a Postwar City, published by Harvard University Press. This will be followed by an extended question and answer session.

Ghost Citizens recounts the story of the largely forgotten group of Holocaust survivors who returned to their hometowns in Poland in the wake of the Nazi genocide. Focusing on Radom, an industrial city about sixty miles south of Warsaw, Krzyzanowski tells the story of what happened throughout provincial Poland as returnees faced new ordeals along with massive political, social, and legal change in a country within the Soviet zone of influence. Ghost Citizens examines the daily struggles of numerous Jewish survivors returning home. The book tells the story of fear, loneliness, and violence but also of Holocaust survivors’ agency and resilience.

Further details about the book can be found at www.hup.harvard.edu

Direct link to the seminar on Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com (make sure you have individual Microsoft account to join on 2 DEC at 6:15pm).