Unknown testimonies, forgotten archives and thousands of sisters who operated in the shadows. The National Academic Conference of Religious Historians, co-organized by the Heschel Center of the Catholic University of Lublin, will be held in Warsaw on October 22-23. The event will highlight the role of female religious congregations in helping Jews during World War II. Reflections on the situation of nuns during the People's Republic of Poland will also be featured.
Decades of research and new challenges
The October conference is a continuation of similar events initiated in the 1970s by the Historical Commission at the Conference of Major Superiors of Women Religious Congregations in Poland. “Every year, the premise of the commission, which I have had the honor of chairing since 2023, is a nationwide conference where we deal with current anniversary events,” Sr. Dr. Monika Kupczewska of the Congregation of the Servants of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an assistant professor at the Center for Research on the Historical Geography of the Church in Poland at the Catholic University of Lublin, tells Heschel Center News.
This year's conference will be held in Warsaw to, as the organizers point out, show the scope of the research being conducted not only to scholars in Poland, but also worldwide.
Helping Jews and fighting repressions in the People's Republic of Poland
The event will have two main thematic blocks. The first topic will show the state of research on the attitudes of nuns toward the Jewish population in the Polish lands under the German occupation. “The second day of the conference will be devoted to the situation of women's religious orders after 1945, as well as their struggles with the communist repressive apparatus,” says Sr. Kupczewska.
On October 22, the session will be held in the plenary hall of the Polish Bishops' Conference. “There will be an opportunity for researchers and people interested in this topic to participate in these deliberations,” - notes the event's organizer. On October 23, the conference will move to the IPN's Central History Stop named after President Lech Kaczynski in Warsaw.
Archives not widely known
"Immediately after the war, the nuns began archival and documentary work to collect the facts of aid of various kinds - because it was not only direct aid, such as hiding Jewish children. All this these sisters recorded in their archives and documented in historical studies," explains Sr. Kupczewska.
The result of this work is, among other things, the scientific series “Female Religious Congregations in Poland 1939-1947.” “It is worth showing this research, even though the series was published by the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), it must be said that it is little known among researchers.” - adds the chairwoman of the Historical Commission at the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious Congregations in Poland.
More than 2,000 sisters delivering aid
“As of today, we can tell - the involvement of 2345 sisters is documented,” stresses Sr. Monika Kupczewska, when asked about the scale of aid to Jews within female religious congregations. The names of the nuns who rescued Jews have been commemorated at the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of the New Evangelization, and St. John Paul II in Torun, among others.
"It is known that Yad Vashem has honored 67 nuns with the Righteous Among the Nations medal, but these were diplomas, decorations awarded to superiors, but also not to all those who provided help. And it is known that in order for such a superior to take Jewish children under her roof, for example, sometimes the whole community, more communities or provinces had to be involved." - explained the assistant professor at the Research Center for the Historical Geography of the Church in Poland at the Catholic University of Lublin.
Cooperation and further research
The October conference in Warsaw is a joint initiative of the Center for Research on the Historical Geography of the Church in Poland of the Catholic University of Lublin, the Heschel Center of the Catholic University of Lublin, the Institute of National Remembrance and the aforementioned Historical Commission. “We will share and promote our knowledge about the involvement of nuns precisely with the help of the Heschel Center, which also conducts this kind of research,” announces Sr. Kupczewska, declaring that she will continue her work on the history of the rescue of Jews by female religious congregations in German-occupied Poland.
First English-language monograph on clergy aid in Poland
As part of the work of the Abraham J. Heschel Center for Catholic-Jewish Relations at the Catholic University of Lublin, the first English-language monograph on aid given to Jews during the Holocaust by the Polish clergy has been published. The two-volume publication, published by KUL Publishing House, titled. “Wartime Rescue of Jews by the Polish Catholic Clergy,” was written by attorney Ryszard Tyndorf. It is available online for free download at: https://tiny.pl/s8xxn5vc. The book is more than 1,200 pages long and mainly contains testimonies of rescued Jews by nuns and priests in Poland during the Holocaust. It includes an index containing thousands of locations and names of rescued and rescuers.
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Heschel Center News