The Ghetto Fighters’ House invites you to a timely Talking Memory program:

Treblinka and the Politics of Memory
November 22nd

Opening Remarks:
Dr. David Silberklang
Head, International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem

Guest Speaker:
Prof. Jan Grabowski
Historian, University of Ottawa

Treblinka, the site of the murder of approximately 900,000 Jews, has become in recent decades a contested landscape of Holocaust memory and commemoration. Current developments surrounding the site raise fundamental questions about how its history is interpreted, whose experiences are represented, and who shapes the way it will be remembered.

In his opening remarks, Dr. David Silberklang will discuss the work of the International Treblinka Council within the challenging Polish political and social context. He will address plans for a new museum as part of the broader revision of the memorial site, the Council’s role and activities, the challenges it faces, and its hopes for the future.

Prof. Jan Grabowski will examine the growing emphasis on the memory and commemoration of Treblinka I, the labor camp, in relation to Treblinka II, the extermination camp. He will explore how the Treblinka State Museum, together with other Polish state institutions, including the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) and the Pilecki Institute, as well as local secular and religious authorities, is advancing a memorial policy that raises concerns about the de-Judaization of the Holocaust.

Bringing these perspectives together, the program will explore the historical, political, and institutional debates surrounding the future of Treblinka. It will consider the representation of Jewish and Polish victims, the complex history of Polish-Jewish relations during the Holocaust, and the responsibilities involved in preserving historical accuracy and safeguarding the memory of the site.

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/6DnOkmbyRRGsZmUEdEY-oQ

2 PM EST | 8 PM CET | 9 PM SAST | 9 PM Israel Time

This program is in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation, the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) at Indiana University, the Max and Tessie Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies at Carleton University, Classrooms without Borders, and the Rabin Chair Forum at George Washington University.