Meeting with Dr. Helena Datner, co-author of the book “Zagłada Białegostoku i Białostocczyzny. Notatki dokumentalne”

Meeting with Dr. Helena Datner, co-author of the book “Zagłada Białegostoku i Białostocczyzny. Notatki dokumentalne” (“The Destruction of Białystok and the Białystok Region. Documentary Notes”)

Led by: Jacek Stawiski

“These stories are flowing, dripping with blood, drowning in human torment, which for several years have become my daily food, my profession, my life goal. When I work it all out, I will pass it on to those after us, even if they don’t want to listen…?” – Szymon Datner

Szymon Datner was an anthropologist, historian, documentarian, teacher, writer, composter, zionist, partisan, a leader of the Jewish community before, during, and after the war, and a person who played many roles in various Jewish and Polish institutions dealing with Jewish topics. He testified in post-war trials in Germany, which dealt with the atrocity of the Shoah. He publicly demanded safety for Jews who were Holocaust Survivors living in Poland and strongly opposed post-war murders and pogroms of the Jewish population. He was most closely associated with Kraków, Bialystok, and Warsaw.

His life’s work, described in the book “The Destruction of Białystok and the Białystok Region. Documentary Notes” (published by the Jewish Historical Institute in 2024) will be presented by Dr. Helena Datner, his daughter – a sociologist, historian, and scientist, whose work focuses on the social history of Jews in Poland in the 19th and 20th centuries and the phenomenon of antisemitism (historically and nowadays). Dr. Helena Datner is an author of books and of a selection of documents about the 19th-century Jewish intelligentsia in Warsaw, Jewish orphanages after the war, and the post-war social awareness in Poland regarding the Shoah. She is the co-author of the concept of the post-war section of the permanent exhibition at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw (until the exhibition was censored by the authorities connected to the previous government). As a leader of the Jewish community, she was the first woman to serve as the head of the Jewish Community in Warsaw, and she has often been the first person many have contacted in order to find their Jewish identity. As the director of the Educational Center for Jewish Culture (Joint), she conducted seminars for local Jewish communities in Poland.

This event is part of the project “20 for 20. A Series of Meetings with 20 Authors for the Galicia Jewish Museum 20th Anniversary”. The project was financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland from the Fund for Promoting Culture.

In Polish. Free admission.