An international conference exploring "hiding, sheltering and borrowing identities as avenues of rescue during the Holocaust" will take place at Yad Vashem’s International Institute for Holocaust Research in Jerusalem next week.
Researchers from a dozen countries will explore such issues as the motivation behind rescue, repercussions of hiding for so many years, Jews rescuing Jews, nannies as rescuers, bounty hunters, hiding in exchange for money, how the Gestapo treated people discovered hiding Jews, rescuers facing the courts, coping with informants, day to day life in hiding, Righteous Among the Nations.
The conference takes place December 19-21.
"This important conference looks both at individual countries and episodes of rescue as case studies, while at the same time offering a closer look at the broad issues that are true for the overall phenomenon," said Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem.
The conference will bring together researchers from Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Nigeria, Poland, Serbia and the United States.
Prof. Dan Michman, Chief Historian of Yad Vashem, said: "In in the past, research has focused primarily on efforts at rescue by governments, organizations and the Righteous Among the Nations. The goal of this conference is to look at new aspects of research about rescue and efforts at rescue throughout Europe, and especially on the grassroots level: conditions, circumstances and methods of action of individuals and organizations."
The full program see here.