“Such a Beautiful Sunny Day” by Prof. Barbara Engelking
EJF is glad to have supported Yad Vashem’s project of the English translation of the groundbreaking study “Such a Beautiful Sunny Day” by Prof. Barbara Engelking. In January 2017, Yad Vashem published 1,000 copies of the English version of this study.
The translation from Polish into English enables students, researchers and the wider public around the world to access the study’s previously sparsely known but very significant findings, shedding light on an aspect of the Holocaust in Poland that until now had not been systematically investigated: Jews seeking refuge in the Polish countryside in the years 1942-1945.
While many books discuss the suffering and murder of Jews in the various ghettos and camps during WWII, relatively little was known about the struggle of those who managed to escape to the Polish countryside and the threats and challenges they faced there.
On 15 March 2017, Yad Vashem’s Center for Research on the Holocaust in Poland held a Symposium marking the publication of the new book.
The Symposium significantly increased awareness of this publication among world academia and featured several renowned scholars: Prof. Havi Dreifuss – Director of the Center for Research on the Holocaust in Poland at Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research and professor at Tel Aviv University, Mr. Laurence Weinbaum – World Jewish Congress, Dr. Robert Rozett – Director of the Yad Vashem Libraries, Ms. Natalie Beige – Tel Aviv University, and Prof. Dina Porat – Yad Vashem Historian and professor at Tel Aviv University.
The event ended with a roundtable discussion of prominent scholars including Prof. Barbara Engelking – Yad Vashem Academic Advisor, Prof. Yehuda Bauer and Prof. Havi Dreifuss. Dr. David Silberklang, Senior Historian at the International Institute for Holocaust Research moderated the discussion.