Shortly after the start of World War II, the Soviet Union invaded Poland and annexed its Eastern territories. This talk examines Jewish experiences in former Eastern Galicia (now Western Ukraine), based on the files of the Soviet internal security apparatus (NKVD). Among those arrested by the NKVD were Polish Jews — comprising both pre-war residents of Eastern Polish territories and refugees from areas under German occupation — as well as former Jewish citizens of Austria, Czechoslovakia and Jews from Germany, Hungary and Romania. This presentation aims to illustrate the extensive data available in the NKVD files, revealing confiscated personal artefacts and various documents, which provide insights into Jewish experience of that period, along with opportunities for future research.

Dr. Andrew Zalewski is a former professor of medicine at Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He has written two books on Austrian Galicia: Galician Trails: The Forgotten Story of One Family and Galician Portraits: In Search of Jewish Roots, both of which reconstruct the story of his ancestors within a broader historical context. During his term as vice president of Gesher Galicia, a non-profit Jewish genealogy organization, he led archival research on Jewish physicians, Jewish cultural transformation and legal rights in Galicia. Currently, as a research advisor to Gesher Galicia, he coordinates a multi-year project that examines the Jewish experiences in the Soviet-occupied former eastern Galicia. His previous research received support from the National Fund of the Republic of Austria; the Malcolm Stern grant; and contributions of Gesher Galicia members.
Dr. Zalewski is a frequent speaker at cultural and academic institutions. His annual course, “The Path to Modernity: The Jews of Galicia,” examines internal and external forces influencing Jewish acculturation, offering a comprehensive overview of multiethnic Galicia.