Love in the Ruins: Jewish Life in Lower Silesia 1945-1968 in the voice of the oral history

Polish-born Yiddishist and oral historian Agnieszka Ilwicka will talk about her research project "Love in the Ruins: Jewish Life in Lower Silesia 1945-1968." After World War II, Lower Silesia was the largest Jewish settlement in Europe. Ilwicka will share her journey through Yiddish, Polish, Hebrew, and German stories recorded in the U.S., Israel, Germany, and Poland.

Agnieszka Ilwicka began learning Yiddish as an undergraduate at the University of Wroclaw, Poland, and she has continued her study of the language in Vilnius, Paris, London, Tel Aviv and New York. She holds a master’s degree in Polish philology and history from the University of Wroclaw, specializing in Jewish studies, and a Master of Research of the Eastern European Jewish History and Culture from the James Parkes Institute at the University of Southampton, England. She studied at the University College of London, Bar Ilan and Hebrew University in Israel. She works on her PhD at the University of Wroclaw. Since 2012 she works for the Yiddish Book Center, MA, as an oral historian. In 2016 she joined the team of the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture.