EHRI partners, the Polish Center for Holocaust Research and the Jewish Historical Institute, both located in Warsaw, together with the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN organise an Academic Conference "…the news came like a bolt from the blue." 80th Anniversary of Sealing Off the Warsaw Ghetto on November 16th, 10.00 AM (CET).

On 16 November 1940, armed guards appeared in the streets leading to the „Jewish residential district” established by the Germans in Warsaw. This symbolic date marks the creation of the largest Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe. The 80th anniversary of the event has given rise to the idea of organizing an academic conference.

You are cordially invited to participate in the online conference. The event will be broadcast live on the Center, POLIN Museum and Jewish Historical Institute websites, POLIN Museum YouTube channel and Polish Center for Holocaust Research Facebok page. All proceedings will be simultaneously translated into ENGLISH.

The first ghettos in occupied Poland were established as early as the autumn of 1939. The Warsaw Ghetto was established a year later. Its creation was a complex, dynamic process. A large section of Warsaw's city centre was transformed into a prison where 450,000 Jews lived and died.

The conference aims at discussing various aspects connected with the establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto. The issues to be raised include changing plans of the Germans and their actions, the dilemmas of the Jewish population as well as the perception of ghettoization by Jews and their Polish neighbors. The little-known stories of non-Jewish Poles who found themselves imprisoned in the ghetto will also be discussed.

Download the conference programme.