Meeting with Ewa Koźmińska-Fejlak, author of the book “Po Zagładzie. Praktyki asymilacyjne ocalałych jako strategie zadomawiania się w Polsce (1944/45-1950)” (“After the Shoah. Assimilation Practices of Holocaust Survivors as Strategies of Settling in Poland (1944/45-1950)”

Led by: Dr. Monika Stępień

The book by Ewa Koźmińska-Frejlak describes methods of coping with reality after the Shoah used by Polish Jews who were Holocaust Survivors and decided to stay in the country after the war. By using a broad source material, some of which is often omitted by researchers (e.g. church archives), and sociological tools, the author conducts a meticulous analysis of assimilation practices such as Jewish conversions to Catholicism, the efforts to change one’s family name, or mixed Polish-Jewish marriages. The author focuses on the post-war period but with a precise description of war and pre-war contexts.

Ewa Koźmińska-Fejlak – sociologist, alumni of the School of Social Sciences at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Science, employee of the Research Department of the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, a Yad Vashem stipendist. In her work, she has been focusing on the social history of Jews in Poland after the Shoah and early historiography of the Shoah. She has been a participant of numerous Polish and international research projects in these fields. She is also conducting the work of the Editorial Committee of the series “Wydanie Krytyczne Prac Centralnej Żydowskiej Komisji Historycznej” (“The Critical Edition of Works by the Central Jewish Historical Committee”). She has been publishing her articles in Polish and English volumes, the yearly “Zagłada Żydów. Studia i materiały”, the quarterly “Kultura i społeczeństwo”, and “Kwartalnik historii Żydów”.

Partner: Jewish Historical Institute Publishing House

In Polish. Free admission.