Till June 22, 1941, Nazis and Soviets were allies and fruitfully cooperated. It is widely known that Nazis benefited from expelled Jews and Jewish transit, but not so much about Soviet side, since Soviet travelling agency Intourist was one of the NKVD camouflages and some direct negotiations and agreements were done between Gestapo and NKVD.
Other transit countries as Italy, Greece and their private companies had financial interest in the transit as well. Since desired places – Palestine and USA – were difficult to reach, Shanghai and Far East seemed like a safe option for temporary stay.
The conference will aim at:
- Soviet, Nazi and other secret services activities on Jewish transit
- International politics and diplomatic attempts to solve Jewish transit question
- International Jewish community’s attitude towards European Jewry migration and (non)taken actions
- Creating escape routes: ideas, actors, possibilities
- Japanese secret services information about Jewish situation in Europe
- Shifting memories of transit experiences and changing attitudes towards its actors
- Visual and literary representations of transit
Each presentation at the conference should last no more than 25 minutes. Scholars interested in presenting at the conference are asked to send abstract proposals of no more than 500 words ) with a short bio by March 18, 2022 to the following address: ww2refugeesconfKaunas@gmail.com.
Deadline for submission of proposals: insert date March 18, 2022
Notification due: insert date, April 1, 2022
Conference committee:
- Dr. Linas Venclauskas, Vytautas Magnus University, Sugihara Diplomats for Life Foundation
- Prof. habil. dr. Egidijus Aleksandravičius, Vytautas Magnus University
- Prof. dr. Ruth Leiserowitz, GHI Warsaw
- Dr. Gintarė Malinauskaitė, Branch Office Vilnius of the GHI Warsaw
- Prof. dr. Šarūnas Liekis, Vytautas Magnus University
- Dr. Simonas Strelcovas, Vilnius University
- Prof. Saulius Sužiedėlis, Millersville University
- Dr. Ilya Altman, Russian State University for Humanities
- Dr. Olga Barbasiewicz, Jagiellonian University