This workshop brings together historians and social scientists to examine a single core problem: how pre-war socioeconomic structures interacted with discrimination and wartime institutions of violence to shape exposure to persecution and survival strategies, the appropriation and redistribution of Jewish property, and postwar social stratification, mobility, and urban change.
A menorah from the Museum of the History of Polish Jews collection
Organizational information
Date: October 19-22, 2026
Organizers: SGH Warsaw School of Economics & POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Organizing committee: Marcin Wroński (SGH) & Zachary Mazur (POLIN)
POLIN’s Global Education Outreach Program supports the event.
Contact: [email protected]
The workshop will involve 10-15 participants. The papers will be pre-circulated prior to the workshop. Each piece will be allotted a 45-60 minute discussion slot. Each paper session will be assigned a chair who is responsible for starting off the discussion with a few key points and keeping order.
The potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- economic & social foundations of Jewish life during the interwar period (e.g., position in occupational, income, wealth distribution; the cooperation and competition with non-Jewish people; Jewish business community, working class);
- the impact of rising antisemitism and economic nationalism on Jewish economic and social life (e.g., the evolution of the position of Jewish minority in the economy/income distribution, change in the occupational structure of Jewish minority, access to liberal professions, education, public administration, the prospect of Jewish youth);
- the Jewish response to rising antisemitism in the 1930s (e.g., emigration, political coalitions, professional decisions, business strategies & asset allocation);
- the economic & social selection during the Holocaust (e.g., the role of income/wealth/class/occupation for the survival strategy & their impact on the survival rate; Jewish elite vs. masses, tensions within the Jewish community);
- the plunder of Jewish wealth during Holocaust (e.g., Jewish economic institutions in the years 1939–1945, Jews as partial-owners of companies, the relations between Jewish and non-Jewish people; the role of Germans/Nazis vs. the local/native population; architecture of plunder & legislative dimension; notarial & business archives; the value of plundered wealth);
- the post-war property transfers (e.g., the fate of Jewish wealth after the mass murder of European Jewry; the post-war legislative approach to assets previously owned by Jews; real estate; business wealth; financial assets, banks & financial institutions; communal assets; the restitution of Jewish property after 1945/after 1989; judicial cases);
- the social & economic legacy of the Holocaust (impact on economic development; social stratification; spatial & social mobility; social void; legacy in urban life; short-run and long-run impact).
The workshop is open to diverse disciplinary approaches, including (but not limited to): microhistory, cases studies, local & regional studies; comparative research quantitative history/empirical social sciences, economic history & cliometrics, business history; digital humanities, economics, legal studies.
The workshop will be conducted in English. Selected contributions will be invited for submission to a special issue of Historical Social Research (to be confirmed). All submissions will undergo internal screening and external peer review, and final publication decisions will be based on the outcome of the review process.
Please submit an extended abstract to [email protected] by April 15th.
Deadlines
- Submission of extended abstract (500 – 1,000 words) April 15th
- Notification of selection decision April 26th 2026
- Submission of completed papers: August 15th 2026
- Peer-review August – September 2026
- Workshop: October 19th – 22th 2026
- Submission of revised papers: November 30th 2026
- Publication of special issue: 2027
The workshop will take place at SGH Warsaw School of Economics. Organizers do not cover travel & accommodation costs.
Workshop is supported by POLIN’s Global Education Outreach Program.
The workshop is made possible with support from Taube Philanthropies, William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation, Libitzky Family Foundation and the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland.
