“We are far, very far from our former home”: German and Austrian Jews after Deportation to “the East”

2022 J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Annual Lecture

In 1939, the year after the Nazis annexed Austria, Wilhelm and Johanna Schischa sent their daughter to England on a rescue transport for children. Any hope of reuniting with her ended with their deportation to “the East,” along with tens of thousands of other German-speaking Jews. They suddenly found themselves in a foreign place with few possessions, little food, and no money.

Masses of deportees died or were murdered far from home in places like Minsk and Riga and in killing centers in German-occupied Poland. But others survived ghettos, forced labor, and death marches. Join us to learn what diaries and letters reveal about their experiences.

Opening remarks
Dr. Lisa Leff, Director, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies

Speaker
Dr. Andrea Löw, 2021–22 J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Senior Scholar-in-Residence; Deputy Director, Center for Holocaust Studies, Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History, Munich

Moderator
Dr. Elizabeth Anthony, Director, Visiting Scholar Programs, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

This program is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Register here.

For more information, please contact calendar@ushmm.org.

The J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Senior Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship, endowed by the J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Charitable Trust, enables the Mandel Center to bring a distinguished scholar to the Museum each year to conduct innovative research about the Holocaust and disseminate this work to the public. The scholar in residence also leads seminars, lectures at universities in the United States and serves as a resource for the Museum, educators, students, and the general public.

_{The Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center’s mission is to ensure the long-term growth and vitality of Holocaust Studies. To do that, it is essential to provide opportunities for new generations of scholars. The vitality and the integrity of Holocaust Studies require openness, independence, and free inquiry so that new ideas are generated and tested through peer review and public debate. The opinions of scholars expressed before, during the course of, or after their activities with the Mandel Center do not represent and are not endorsed by the Museum or its Mandel Center.}