Dr. Natalia Aleksiun, the Harry Rich Professor of Holocaust Studies and Interim Director of the Bud Shorstein Center for Jewish Studies, will deliver the keynote address this week at the distinguished international conference Year Zero: The Experience of 1945 – Endings, Transformations, and Renewal, held in Vienna. The lecture, entitled “When the Great Day Comes: Polish Jews Envision the Future After the Holocaust,” will examine the ways in which Jewish survivors conceptualized the rebuilding of their lives following the devastation of the Shoah.
The Year Zero conference convenes international scholars to reflect on 1945 as a watershed moment in world history—a year that signified not only the conclusion of the Second World War in Europe but also the commencement of various national and regional efforts aimed at reconstruction and the commemoration of recent atrocities.
An expert in modern Jewish history, with a particular emphasis on Eastern Europe, Dr. Aleksiun’s address seeks to integrate the perspectives of Jewish survivors into the broader scholarly discourse surrounding postwar European society. Her lecture embodies the Shorstein Center’s commitment to advancing scholarly inquiry into Jewish history and culture.