Holocaust

(The funeral for the victims of the Kiecle Pogrom, Poland 1946)

                  Throughout my internship at the Holocaust Education Center, I have seen survival testimonials across Europe. One of the most common countries where people came from was Poland. Poland lost more of its Jewish population than any other country in Europe as 90% of the country’s Jewish population was killed. Through analyzing the testimonies I came upon the realization that while Poland was a victim of the German invasion of the Nazis, many Poles were not opposed to antisemitic beliefs of the Nazis. There are large instances of how antisemiticism persisted directly after the Holocaust such as the Kielce Pogrom of July 4, 1946, but I also saw Polish antisemitism in the survivor testimonials I viewed such as Sam Krongold, Chana Konopiski and Roman Zieglar.

By Matthew Halsall

The sole question I was asked at my PechaKucha presentation about was about how I cope in watching painful and emotional testimonies of survivors. After further consideration,  I felt I could expound upon my answer about what specifically makes these testimonies sad and how I cope with this sadness.  

As a student one has to learn how to make meals. There are many similarities between making the Jewish dish Knish, and constructing Oral History Excerpts at the Sarah and Chaim Neuberg Holocaust Education Center where my history internship is occurring.