Women and Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto

Registration is open for

Women and Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto

Brought to you by the Jewish Women's Archive and

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

Course Info

Tuesdays April 18 - May 16, 2023 12-1 PM Eastern Time

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was one of the most famous acts of Jewish rebellion during the Holocaust. What was daily life like for women in the Ghetto? What forms did their resistance take, and how did it reinforce or challenge gender roles? How are historians and activists today broadening our understanding of this critical moment in history? 

This Spring, join JWA and POLIN for this special Online History Course focusing on women’s lives and resistance in the Ghetto.

April 18: Warsaw Ghetto Through Women’s Eyes, with Katarzyna Person

Discover the history of the Warsaw Ghetto from the perspective of women who lived and died there, including writers, students, vegetable sellers, and homemakers. Their experiences, choices, and fates make up a complex chapter in the history of the Holocaust.

Katarzyna Person is an assistant professor at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. She is the editor of the complete edition of the Ringelblum Archives and author of several books.

April 25: Rachela Auerbach at the Frontline of the Struggle, with Karolina Szymaniak

Polish Yiddish writer Rachela Auerbach was a member of the underground ghetto Ringelblum Archive. Learn about her work for Jewish Social Self-Help, her documentation efforts as a means of civil resistance, and her post-war works on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Karolina Szymaniak is an assistant professor at the University of Wrocław and research fellow at the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. Her edited collection of Auerbach’s ghetto writings received the 2016 Polityka History Award.

May 2: Dorka Goldkorn and other Communists in the Ghetto, with Joanna Ostrowska  

 The Warsaw Ghetto’s female fighters, especially those of communist leanings, have been mostly forgotten. Dorka Goldman’s life offers a window into their collective story, giving a unique glimpse into the lives of young Jewish women involved in the radical leftist movement before World War II.

Joanna Ostrowska researches forgotten victims of the Holocaust and the queer history of World War II. She is the author of Unmentioned: Sexual Forced Labor during World War II.

May 9: The Interwar Roots of Military Resistance of Jewish Women in the Ghetto, with Katarzyna Czerwonogóra 

 During the Nazi occupation of Europe, Jewish women took on new roles as military fighters. Explore the background of women in the resistance, including preparation in the Zionist movement and new models of Jewish femininity that emerged in interwar Poland.

Katarzyna Czerwonogóra is a scholar of Jewish women who lives in Jerusalem and Warsaw. She studies local and international mobilization of Zionist women in Germany and Poland. 

May 16: Herstories of Resistance, with Zuzanna Hertzberg  

How did Jewish women acquire skills to fight oppression during the Holocaust? Trace their resistance to its roots in 19th-century anarchist groups and interwar anti-fascist international Brigades. How can these women’s strategies be applied to contemporary battles? How can we move the archive into the streets?

Zuzanna Hertzberg is a Polish-Jewish interdisciplinary artist, activist, and research. She is interested in the interweaving of individual and collective memory, the restitution of minority heritage, and the marginalization of uncomfortable narratives.

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April 19, 2023, Marks the 80th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.