“The Memory of Rescue in Poland”
Professional Background
Ms. Alicja Podbielska is currently PhD Candidate in history at Clark University. She holds a Master’s Degree in Polish Philology from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Poland). As the Fred and Maria Devinki Memorial Fellow, at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Dr. Podbielska will be conducting research for her study “The Memory of Rescue in Poland.”
Ms. Podbielska is fluent in English, Polish, and German.
Aside from her previous work at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), Ms. Podbielska has held several Fellowships, including at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies and Yad Vashem, and will be a future Fellow at the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich (Germany) later this year. Ms. Podbielska is also the author of several articles on topics involving memory work and rescue during the Holocaust. She most recently presented her paper “The Aftermath of Rescue, Work in Progress. Poland, Post-war Trials, and DPs,” in Trento (Italy) in 2018.
Fellowship Research
Drawing on the Museum’s resources, Ms. Podbielska analyzed the Polish narrative of aid from the postwar years through present day, tracing the development of the popular myth of universal and disinterested help. Her research questioned whether or not narratives about the rescuers help to challenge the traditional Polish discourse of innocent victimhood and universal resistance, strengthen it. She also initiated research to explain when, how, and why Polish Holocaust rescuers became national heroes.
Ms. Podbielska was in residence from April to August 31, 2018.