The Order of Violence. Difficult heritage of Getto Benches in Polish Universities.
zoom
1/1
Event program
The Ghetto Benches (segregated seating in Universities between Jews and Non-Jews) was an institutionalized form of discrimination against the Jewish community inspired by the activities during the interwar period of the right-wing nationalist organizations: All-Poland Youth, Camp of Greater Poland, and the National Radical Camp. In the 1930s, ethno-religious segregation of students of Jewish origin was intensified, for example, by forcing them to take certain seats in lecture halls.
It was the university authorities of the time who were responsible for introducing these sanctions, and few know that these orders have, to this day, still not been repealed. Are they still a legal problem? Should they be officially repealed, and if so, should there be compensation or consequence again the universities? What actions have been taken so far, and what should be done to ensure that their significance is not purely symbolic?
This discussion will be attended by representatives of the academic community from Kraków, Warsaw and Poznań, who are involved in the process of restoring the memory of the Ghetto Benches, which has just begun. The meeting will be an opportunity to reflect on this specific example of difficult heritage – its complex history and far-reaching implications – in a multi-voiced, substantive discussion about this dark period in the history of Polish universities.
WEBINAR
06.06.2023
18.30
Introduction to the topic of segrated seating at Polish Universities and its history
Natalia Judzińska PhD
prof. Maciej Michalski
HISTORY
CONTEXT
19.15
Reckoning with difficult histories at Polish Universities.
Sebastian Słowiński
Agnieszka Zawisza
Mariia Varlygina
ACTIVISM
MEMORY
20.00
The memory of the segregated seating, yesterday and today.
Introduction to the topic of segrated seating at Polish Universities and its history
Natalia Judzińska PhD
Doctor of Humanities, cultural scholar, activist. Assistant professor at the Institute of Slavonic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She researches interwar anti-Semitism in universities and the Holocaust, as well as the material dimension of the ongoing humanitarian crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border. Since October 2021, she has been providing humanitarian assistance to people on the Polish-Belarusian border. Co-initiator (with Nina Boichenko) of the group Badacze i Badaczki na granicy ("Researchers on the Border"), which is engaged in the documentation and scientific processing of this crisis. Winner of the Artur Rojszczak Award for scientific and social activities. In July, the publishing house Krytyka Polityczna publishes her book "On the Left Side of the Room. The Ghetto Benches in the Interwar Vilnius".
prof. Maciej Michalski
Historian, professor at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań, at the History Department in the Cultural History Studio.
Researcher of history of the University of Poznań (The place of the university. University infrastructure in the urban space of Poznań and the surrounding area (1919-2019), Poznań 2019; Repressed histories. Anti-Semitism at the University of Poznań in the years 1919-1939, ed. M. Michalski, K. Podemski , Poznan 2022) Author of scientific articles and editor of collective monographs.
In the years 2013-2015, he participated in the project "Gender in textbooks", and from September 2018 in the project "When science is a woman". From November 2015, he was a member of the Organizing Committee of the XXIII International Congress of Historical Sciences, Poznań 2020/2022 (https://ichs2020poznan.pl/pl/).
In October 2019, he became a member of the official Committee for Investigating Persecution of Jews at the University of Poznań in the period before World War II.
06.06.202318.30
HISTORY
CONTEXT
The history of the bench ghettos in Kraków, Poznań, Warsaw and Vilnius.
Reckoning with difficult histories at Polish Universities.
Sebastian Słowiński
Anti-fascist activist, member of the Student Anti-Fascist Committee, democratic opposition activist, publicist. Scientifically, he deals with the criticism of ideology and the work of Henry Miller. Author of publications in the field of radical political philosophy. Curator of the Forum for the Future of Culture. One of the initiators of commemorating the victims of the bench ghetto at the University of Warsaw and co-organizer of the celebration. He was a member of the rector's team for commemorating the victims of the bench ghetto at the University of Warsaw.
Agnieszka Zawisza
Historian and literary scholar at the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań. She deals with the relationship between politics, urban space and culture in Central Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of literary sources in historical research, she researched the archives of Jewish students at the pre-war University of Poznań, and currently conducts research on the poetics of Polish literary texts on refugee topics. Historian and literary scholar at the University of Poznań. She deals with the relationship between politics, urban space and culture in Central Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, the use of literary sources in historical research, she researched the archives of Jewish students at the pre-war Poznań University, and is currently conducting research on the poetics of Polish literary texts on refugee topics.
Mariia Varlygina
Ukrainian curator, photographer, author of texts about Ukrainian art. A student of the Jagiellonian University in the field of anthropological and cultural Polish studies.
06.06.202319.15
ACTIVISM
MEMORY
Students will present various activities undertaken at three universities (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Warsaw University and Jagiellonian University) addressing the troublesome history of bench ghettos. Recent initiatives include: Appeal to Rectors and Senates of Polish universities to investigate and commemorate the history of bench ghettos and other forms of discrimination in the 1930s in April this year, and the unveiling of a plaque commemorating the victims of the bench ghetto at the University of Warsaw.
Link to the Appeal: https://www.petycjeonline.com/apel_do_rektorow_i_senatow_polskich_universities_for_research_and_commemoration_historii_ghetto_awkowy_and_other_form_diskryminacji_w_latach_30_xx_wieku?fbclid=IwAR0PpL4xyv5R3axHjiiDb0neDF7xHPW PBnOkDHsb6Jrzjg6rZOcL0L6hrI4
The memory of the segregated seating, yesterday and today.
prof. Roma Sendyka
Professor at the Jagiellonian University, head of the research team, works at the Department of Anthropology of Literature and Cultural Research at the Jagiellonian University. She is co-founder and head of the Research Centre for Memory Cultures. She specializes in cultural theory, visual culture studies, and memory studies. Her current work focuses on "non-sites of memory" and visual approaches to genocide representation.
prof. Joanna Wawrzyniak
A sociologist and historian, directs the Center for Research on Social Memory/Centrum Badań nad Pamięcią Społeczną at the Faculty of Sociology, University of Warsaw. She is the author of numerous books and articles on the social history and collective memory of Polish society in a comparative perspective. She is currently working on the memory of the neoliberal transformation after 1989 and on the transformation of cultural memory in the European and global context. Co-initiator of the "Appeal to the Rectors and Senates of Polish Universities to Research and Commemorate the History of the Ghetto Benches and Other Forms of Discrimination in the 1930s".
att. Marcin Parzyński
An attorney who has been running his own law office in Krakow for 27 years. Academic lecturer at the Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and lecturer in copyright at the Academy of Photography in Warsaw and Krakow. In the late 1990s he was a journalist at Gazeta Wyborcza.
06.06.202320.00
MEMORY
LAW
ORDER
The panel will summarize legal and memory issues related to the history of bench ghettos in Poland and ask why this conversation is particularly important today.
This site uses cookies. Read more about our Cookies Policy in which we inform about the purpose of cookies we use. If you click Accept – you agree to install marketing cookies on your device to adjust our ads to your needs.