From the Ghetto to the Forest: Surviving the Holocaust in Belarus

From the Ghetto to the Forest:

Surviving the Holocaust in Belarus

This talk is co-sponsored by the Department of History and the Dietrich Dean’s Office.

Eighty-one years ago, on October 21, 1943, the Minsk ghetto was “liquidated” by German forces. They rounded up the remaining Jewish prisoners, killing many in the surrounding forests or deporting others to concentration camps further west. However, a group of 13 Jews survived by hiding in the basement of a home in the city, living to see the end of World War II. Their survival is a testament to the brutal force of the Nazi murder campaigns in and around the ghetto. It also highlights the agency and resilience of Jewish children, women, and men, who, despite marginalization, abuse, and horrific violence, found ways to survive—whether in hiding or as part of partisan units in the forests and swamps around Minsk and other Belarusian cities and towns.

In this lecture, Professor Anika Walke will discuss how Soviet Jews experienced the Holocaust and how they made sense of their lives in the years that followed. The lecture will take place in the Posner Grand Room 340, Posner Hall, on Friday, October 25th, from 12:15 to 1:00 PM. This talk is co-sponsored by the Department of History and the Dietrich Dean’s Office. Anika Walke’s current research focuses on the long aftermath of the Nazi genocide in Belarus, particularly how people remember and live with the repercussions of systematic violence. She has recently taught courses on the Holocaust and Soviet Union history and will join the History Department as the inaugural Askwith Family Professor in fall 2025.

THIS IS AN IN PERSON EVENT: Posner Grand Room 340, Posner Hall

5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890