International Conference: Operation "Reinhardt" and the Destruction of Polish Jews
fot. M. Starowieyska/Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich
This international conference has been organized to mark the 80th anniversary of ‘Operation Reinhardt.’ It seeks to present the latest research on the Holocaust in Poland. Although the Nazi operation to exterminate Jews in German-occupied Poland between 1942–1943 will remain the primary focus. The conference will also delve into the wider process of the destruction of Jews from 1941 until 1945 within the territory of the pre-war Second Polish Republic.
- 27-29 November 2022, POLIN Museum
- Admission free
On the first day of the conference, we invite you to attend the opening lecture, "Aktion Reinhardt: Research in the 21st century," by Prof. Dieter Pohl from Alpen-Adria Universität (Austria). The conference will have thematic panels featuring: Prof. Omer Bartov, (a Samuel Pisar Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies), Prof. Michael Fleming (Polish University Abroad, PUNO), Prof. John Paul Himka (University of Alberta), Prof. Ingo Loose (Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History Munich-Berlin, IfZ), Prof. Johannes Steinert (University of Wolverhampton), Prof. Antoni Sułek (University of Warsaw), Prof. Dr Hab. Jacek Tebinka (Institute of Political Science, University of Gdańsk), Dr Hab. Prof. UP Anna Zapalec (Institute of History and Archival Studies in Kraków) and many other guests.
Post-conference materials (videos) will be available at www.polin.pl/en
Conference themes >>
Consequently, this conference seeks to present innovative historical research approaches to the destruction of Polish Jewry, including:
- The status of Polish Jews on the eve of Operation "Reinhardt."
- The mass executions after the German invasion of the USRR.
- How and why German perpetrators and their collaborators committed mass murder?
- The actions of non-German auxiliary formations under German command.
- Beneficiaries who drew profit from Jewish forced labor or property.
- The progression of Operation "Reinhardt" across Polish towns and rural areas.
- The destruction of particular Jewish communities.
- Jewish interpretations of Operation "Reinhardt." Their response through resistance, escape, as well as Jewish strategies of survival.
- How information about the Holocaust circulated within and outside occupied Poland.
- Attitudes of non-Jewish bystanders, including individuals or organizations, attempts to rescue and assist Jews.
- The final stages of the annihilation of Polish Jews.
- New methodological approaches to the investigation of the Holocaust in Poland, and new scholarship on the Holocaust in Poland.
Conference program >>
Sunday, 27 November 2022
- 18:00-18:15 – Opening remarks
- 18:15-19:30 – Keynote lecture
Dieter Pohl – "Aktion Reinhardt": Research in the 21st century.
Monday, 28 November 2022
- 9:00-10:30 – Panel 1: Between the Reich and the General Government.
Chair Michał Trębacz
Aleksandra Namysło – "All elements that cannot be Germanized must be absolutely removed...". The situation of the Jews in the General Government and in the territories incorporated into the Third Reich on the eve of the Operation "Reinhardt."
Hannah Riedler – "They lived there before": Jews deported from the Incorporated Areas to the General Government during Operation "Reinhardt."
Andrea Löw – German speaking Jews deported to the Lublin District: Expectations and Experiences.
- 10:30-10:50 – Coffee break
- 10:50-12:20 – Panel 2: Deportations
Chair: Dariusz Libionka
Anna Wylegała – Operation "Reinhardt" in the countryside of District Galicia: towards the new sources and new methodological approaches.
Agnieszka Wierzcholska – "Street-corner" – Genocide. The "Resettlement Action" in one Polish Town and the role of the Baudienst.
Marta Marzańska-Mishani – Deportations of Jews from villages in the Biłgoraj and Zamość counties: Presenting Yad Vashem's digital research project and database "Transports to Extinction."
- 12:20-12:40 – Coffee break
- 12:40-13:40 – Panel 3: Perpetrators
Chair: Michael Fleming
Sara Berger – The German perpetrators of the "Aktion Reinhardt" death camps: From "Euthanasia" to the Holocaust.
Ingo Loose – The role of the Kulmhof extermination camp for the Holocaust in occupied Poland, 1941-1945.
- 13:40-15:00 – Lunch break
- 15:00-16:30 – Panel 4: Forced labour camps
Chair: Natalia Aleksiun
Waitman Beorn – The Janowska Camp and the Holocaust in Galicia.
Wojciech Lenarczyk – Old Airfield Camp in Lublin, and its role and functions in the Operation "Reinhardt."
Martin Winter – Company Killers: HASAG staff and the "Werkschutz" as non-governmental perpetrators of the Holocaust.
- 16:30-17:00 – Coffee break
- 17:00-18:30 – Panel 5: Visual documentation
Chair: Agnieszka Haska
Andreas Kahrs – Making the invisible visible: Perpetrator pictures from Sobibor and survivors testimonies.
Iwona Kurz – Primary images: Visual evidence of Operation "Reinhardt."
Tomasz Butkiewicz – Operation "Reinhardt": The last days of the Jewish enclave of Bialystok in the iconography of German soldiers in 1942-1943.
- 19:00 – Dinner for panelists and invited guests
Tuesday, 29 November 2022
- 9:00-10:30 – Panel 6: Local administrations and the Holocaust
Chair: Andrea Löw
Miranda Brethour – The ‘Jewish question’ and the village united: Sołtysi in the aftermath of Operation "Reinhardt" in the Lublin District.
John-Paul Himka – The role of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police in the liquidation of the Jewish population of Distrikt Galizien.
Katarzyna Person – Jewish Councils and the Jewish Ghetto Police and the implementation of Operation "Reinhardt."
- 10:30-10:50 – Coffee break
- 10:50-12:20 – Panel 7: Bystanders
Chair: Krzysztof Persak
Omer Bartov – Local genocide and the question of bystanders.
Dariusz Libionka – The extermination of Jews in the light of the diary of the administrator of Lublin diocese priest Józef Kruszyński.
Jacek Tebinka, Anna Zapalec – SOE’s activity in occupied Poland and the extermination of Jews during the Operation "Reinhardt."
- 12:20-12:40 – Coffee break
- 12:40-13:40 – Panel 8: Around Operation "Reinhardt"
Chair: Suzanne Brown-Fleming
Klemen Kocjančič – Beyond and after Poland: Operation "Reinhardt" and Sonderaktion 1005 in Italian, Slovenian, and Croatian territory
Michael Fleming – International jurists, the Polish War Crimes Office and the destruction of Polish Jews.
- 13:40-15:00 – Lunch break
- 15:00-16:30 – Panel 9: Jewish survival strategies
Chair: Barbara Engelking
Natalia Aleksiun – Circumscribed agency: Jews hiding in Eastern Galicia during the Holocaust.
Agnieszka Haska – "Happy citizens of foreign countries": Foreign citizenship as a method of survival.
Antoni Sułek – Refugees from a Jewish town in the villages of the Lublin District of the General Government before Operation "Reinhardt."
- 16:30-17:00 – Coffee break
- 17:00-18:30 – Panel 10: Microhistories
Chair: Omer Bartov
Bożena Iwanowska, Peter Lawson – Massacres of Jews in seven small villages near Kletsk, in German-occupied Poland during the years 1941-1942.
Johannes Steinert – Jewish child slave labourers in the camps of Operation "Reinhardt."
Sylwia Szymańska-Smolkin – Spreading "impossible" news: The role of couriers in raising the awareness of mass murder and establishing Jewish resistance movements.
- 18:30 – Conference closure
Organization >>
The conference will be conducted in English and Polish with simultaneous translation. For additional information please contact us at: [email protected]
Steering committee >>
- Suzanne Brown-Fleming (USHMM).
- Barbara Engelking (Polish Center for Holocaust Research).
- Dariusz Libionka (State Museum at Majdanek).
- Andrea Löw (Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History).
- Daniel Newman (USHMM).
- Krzysztof Persak (POLIN Museum).
- Michał Trębacz (POLIN Museum).
- Anna Ullrich (Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History).
Conference organizers:
- POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw.
- Polish Center for Holocaust Research, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw.
- State Museum at Majdanek - German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp (1941-1944), Lublin.
- The Center for Holocaust Studies at the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History, Munich-Berlin.
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.
The conference is organized within the the Global Education Outreach Program.
The conference is made possible with support from Taube Philanthropies, William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation and the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland.
Organizers
