The Legacy Project: A Conversation with Director of Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw Monika Krawczyk

Monika Krawczyk, lawyer and international speaker, discusses The Ringelblum Archive, a collection of thousands of handwritten messages from people who knew they were about to die. Generally recognized as the most important personal testimony of World War II, these crumbling scraps of paper were originally hidden in milk cans and buried inside the Warsaw ghetto. Discovered and carefully excavated from the rubble of war in 1946 – 1950, they were included on UNESCO’s Memory of the World list in 1999, and were publish as a 38-volume set of books in 2017. They are in the process of being translated into English now.

Krawczyk was appointed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage to serve as custodian of this legacy, which is on permanent exhibit in Warsaw. Her talk provides an overview of the field by showing how a group of personal writings, when taken as a whole, enrich history.

Speaker:
Monika Krawczyk, Director of Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw

Moderator:
Diane Fener, Chair, Senior Lawyers Committee

Sponsoring Committee:
Senior Lawyers, Diane Fener and Gertrude Pfaffenbach, Co-Chairs

Co-Sponsoring Committee:
Civil Rights, Kathleen Rubenstein & Kevin Eli Jason, Co-Chairs
Council on International Affairs, Mark A. Meyer, Chair
International Human Rights, Ramya Jawahar Kudekallu, Chair
Rule of Law Task Force, Marcy Kahn, Chair