Final Stop vs. Gateway to Life: Between Refugee Geography of Małkinia and Holocaust Memory of Treblinka

• In Event: Microhistories of the Holocaust in Occupied Poland

Abstract

Małkinia and Treblinka occupy a prominent place in the grim geography of the Holocaust. Yet, before they became the final destinations for hundreds of thousands of Jews, the region along the Bug River had a very different significance. In 1939-1940, as part of the German-Soviet demarcation line that split Poland, Małkinia was a primary crossing point for refugees fleeing the German-occupied sector. Though many perished in the dangerous no man’s land between the two occupying forces, and those who crossed often carried haunting memories of this passage, Małkinian narrow gateway offered a crucial route for tens of thousands of Jewish refugees. Drawing on survivors’ testimonies, my presentation integrates refugee studies with a microhistorical examination of the geographies of violence. It explores border violence—resonating with today’s abandonment and uses of the environment against refugees—and investigates why this space, which displayed early signs of eliminationist policies, but also once offered refuge, has never become a public lieu de mémoire.

Author

• Lidia Zessin-Jurek, Stockton U