Dr. Lidia Zessin-Jurek

Lidia Zessin-Jurek is a historian, researcher of memory (Holocaust, Gulag) and of refugee movements in the Polish lands. She holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence and has held fellowships from a number of international research institutions, including Imre Kertesz Kolleg, the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure, Fordham University and the New York Public Library. She's employed at the European Research Council project "Unlikely refuge"  (2019-2025) at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. As of Fall 2024, she takes up a position in the Master of Holocaust and Genocide Studies with the Focus on Displacement at Stockton University in New Jersey.

In collaboration with Viadrina University, she has published a book describing the experiences of Polish Jews who survived deportation to the Soviet Union during World War II: Syberiada Żydów polskich. Losy uchodźców z Zagłady (2020, with Katarzyna Friedla). In the field of teaching, she received grants from the DAAD and the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University, which she held at the European University Viadrina.