Event

2025 International Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemorative Lecture

Monday, January 27, 2025 17:00to18:15

2025 International Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemorative Lecture

McGill's Office of the Deputy Provost Student Life and Learning, with the Department of Jewish Studies invite the McGill community to a special Commemorative Lecture on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This event seeks to honour the memory of Holocaust victims, raise awareness about antisemitism, and foster education and scholarship to combat hatred and promote understanding.

The lecture, entitled “The Counterfeit Countess”: The True Story of a Polish Jewish Woman Who Fooled the Nazis, will be delivered by Prof. Joanna Sliwa, an historian at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and expert on the Holocaust in Poland and compensation for Holocaust survivors.

Through this commemoration, we aim to remember and honour those affected by antisemitism, strengthen our collective commitment to combatting discrimination, and promote the dissemination of research and scholarship to foster understanding and unity.

The event is open to all members of the McGill community and welcomes the participation of the general public.

The event will be held at 5:00 pm on Monday, January 27, in the Thompson House Ballroom (3650 McTavish Street).

                                                            

"The Counterfeit Countess": The True Story of a Polish Jewish Woman Who Fooled the Nazis
What new information can be gleaned from the histories of Holocaust survivors? Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg, a prewar mathematics scholar, assumed the false identity of a Polish Christian Countess to survive the Holocaust. She used her role to save thousands of non-Jewish Poles from Nazi persecution. After the war, Mehlberg immigrated to Canada where only a few friends knew her astonishing story of wartime survival and resistance. The co-author of the book, “The Counterfeit Countess: The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles during the Holocaust” will explain how the story emerged, why it took so long to bring it to light, and what it teaches us about humanity in times in crisis.
 

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