Natalia Aleksiun Delivers Holocaust Lecture on Hidden Survivors of Nazi Occupation at Stetson

In its longstanding commitment to examining the lessons and legacies of the Holocaust, Stetson University will host its 2025 Holocaust Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, April 22, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Stetson Room, located inside the Carlton Student Union building on Stetson’s DeLand campus.

The lecture features renowned historian and Holocaust Studies scholar Natalia Aleksiun. The event is free and open to the public, and will also be available virtually for those who RSVP via email.

Aleksiun, the Harry Rich Professor of Holocaust Studies at the University of Florida and author of “Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians before the Holocaust,” will present a talk titled “Invisible Jews: Hiding and Passing in Western Ukraine during the Holocaust.” Based on research for her upcoming book, the lecture draws from Jewish diaries, testimonies, memoirs and interviews to explore how Jews survived Nazi occupation by concealing their identities and living in hiding.

One story Aleksiun will share is that of Dr. Ludwik Landau, who survived the last nine months of the German occupation by hiding in a village called Kratowce near Zbaraż in Eastern Galicia (today Zbarazh in Ukraine). He was sheltered by a poor widow who shared with him her meager resources. Landau’s daughters survived by passing as non-Jews using false identification papers provided by his non-Jewish friends. Their survival was a rare exception in a region that saw an almost complete destruction of Jewish life.

The lecture will focus on the personal entanglements of Jewish men, women and children as they sought to evade murderous roundups and survive by hiding or passing, and the few who succeeded.

“This lecture provides an opportunity for attendees to learn about and reflect on lesser-known survival strategies during one of history’s darkest periods,” said Eric Kurlander, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History at Stetson and a co-organizer of the event. “By hosting speakers like Dr. Aleksiun for this annual lecture, Stetson reaffirms its commitment to honoring the memory of those who perished and to fostering rigorous scholarship that keeps their stories and the lessons of the Shoah alive.”

For those who would like to attend virtually, RSVP by emailing [email protected].

In addition to the evening lecture, a follow-up discussion titled “Writing Jewish History during the Holocaust: Sources and Methodological Approaches” will take place on Wednesday, April 23, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. on the second floor of the Carlton Student Union. This interactive session will delve into how historians approach a diverse range of primary sources to document Jewish experiences during the Holocaust. The discussion is also free and open to the public.

Both events are sponsored by Stetson Hillel, the university’s Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, the Program in Jewish Studies, the Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies, the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Religious Studies, the Department of History, the Honors Program, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Music.