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YU News

Zimmerman Presents Paper at Conference

Dr. Joshua ZimmermanDr. Joshua D. Zimmerman, professor of history and Eli and Diana Zborowski Professorial Chair in Holocaust Studies and East European Jewish History, presented a paper at “November Hopes: Jews and the Independence of Poland in 1918,” a conference organized by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the Institute of History of the University of Warsaw from Nov. 29-30, 2018. Dr. Zimmerman’s paper was titled “A Black Spot in Polish-Jewish Relations that Won’t Go Away: the 1920 Internment Camp for Jewish Soldiers at Jabłonna.” “My paper looked at the decision of the Minister of War in the Polish government to intern Jewish soldiers of the Polish Army at the moment the armed forces of the Bolshevik government were approaching Warsaw and wanted take over the country,” he noted. “I found one document showing that the head of state, Joseph Pilsudski, considered to this day a great friend of the Jews (Polish Jews affectionately referred to him as ‘grandfather’), does not seem to have opposed the order, a revelation that seems to have surprised many of the people attending the session.”