We would like to invite you to a discussion from the series “New Perspectives. A Contemporary Reading of History”. The panellists of this debate will be Prof. Barbara Engelking and Prof. Joanna Tokarska-Bakir.

Led by: Prof. Roma Sendyka

Prof. Barbara Engelking – psychologist and sociologist, head of the Center for Holocaust Research at the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. From 2012 to 2018, she was a member of the International Auschwitz Council. Since 2025, she has chaired the council of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. In her renowned publications such as “The Warsaw Ghetto: A Guide to a Non-Existent City” (with Jacek Leociak), “Dear Mr. Gistapo,” “Outline of the Landscape” (with Jan Grabowski and Alina Skibińska), and “Further Is Night” (ed. Barbara Engelking, Jan Grabowski), she addresses not only the subjects of the Holocaust, the Warsaw Ghetto, and everyday life in occupied Poland, but also the functioning of the Holocaust in the collective memory of Jews and the postwar fate of survivors, particularly the experience of persecution.

Prof. Joanna Tokarska-Bakir is a cultural anthropologist and head of the Ethnographic Museum at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Warsaw, and the Institute of Social Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences. She is the originator and, since 2006, author of the introductions to the PIW Anthropological Series. In her research and acclaimed publications such as “Legends of Blood: The Anthropology of Superstition” (2008), “Pogrom Cries” (2012), “Under the Curse: A Social Portrait of the Kielce Pogrom” (2019), and “Caterwauling: A Choral History of the Krakow Pogrom” (2024), she studies not only the Holocaust and postwar pogroms, but also the anthropology of religion and Polish folk religiosity. Her book “Under the Curse” debunked the myths and superstitions surrounding the Kielce pogrom, for which she received the Jan Długosz Award and the Yad Vashem International Book Prize.

The discussion, from the series “New Perspectives. A Contemporary Reading of History,” offers an opportunity to meet three distinguished scholars of the Holocaust and its aftermath, whose research has not only resonated within the academic community but also reached a broader audience. Their publications have led to lively discussions on important and challenging topics and a real shift in the narrative of the Holocaust, yet they have also become the target of politically motivated attacks.

The project “New Perspectives. A Contemporary Reading of History” is a series of discussions on the most important research and publications, which, during the last 20 years, changed our views on Polish history and society by reorganizing the directions of scientific research and significantly contributing to the development of a specific group of publications. Open, admission-free panel discussions will be participated in by scientists, historians, non-fiction writers, and journalists.

The project was financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland from the Fund for Promoting Culture.