Unruly Acts: Polish and Polish Jewish Women Resisting War and Persecution

Session Submission Type: Panel

Affiliate Organization: Polish Studies Association

Brief Description

New research on “resistance” in times of war and persecution has raised questions about the breadth and scope of that concept. What counts as resistance? This panel revisits the concept of resistance, exploring its evolving definitions, complexities, and contextual applications. Panelists will examine these questions through new research on Polish and Polish Jewish women during World War II. They will highlight specific cases of gender and resistance, including of Polish Jewish combatants in the Spanish Civil War, Polish forced laborers, and Polish networks of assistance for Nazi victims. The panel seeks to problematize and refine our understanding of resistance by addressing questions of agency, intent, and the very nature of what resistance ultimately resists. By revisiting this concept within historical and theoretical contexts, the discussion aims to deepen our insights into resistance as both an analytical tool and a lived experience.

Sub Unit

• History: 1900-1945

Chair

• Elizabeth Anthony, US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Papers

• Radical Care: Polish Jewish Women, Doctors, Nurses, and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 - Anna Muller, U of Michigan, Dearborn

• The Circulation of Unsanctioned Writing in Labor Camps During World War II: Genre and Gendered Strategies of Resistance - Janine P Holc, Loyola U Maryland

• Aristocrats, Bakers, Doctors: Polish Women's Networks that Defied the Nazis - Joanna Sliwa, Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany

Discussant

• Katherine Lebow, U of Oxford (UK)