Isaak (John) Najmann was born in Breslau, then Germany, in 1924. The son of Blima and Chuno, he was the eldest of four children, and the product of, in his words, an “intensely Jewish and Zionist family.” In 1939, he was sent to England on the Kindertransport, as were his siblings. John Najmann had a fervent interest in the Holocaust. A cornerstone of his life was a determination to give meaning to the Holocaust through study, research and preservation of the memory of the victims. John Najmann passed away in 1998. In 2003, his wife and children established the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies, whose purpose is to support the activities of the International Institute for Holocaust Research – Yad Vashem. The Head of the Institute and incumbent of the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies is Prof. Dan Michman. Each year the Institute hosts an annual lecture in John Najmann’s memory.
Activities of the John Najmann Chair
The John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies provides gracious support to the International Institute for Holocaust Research – Yad Vashem so that the Head of the Institute may carry out his important and varied tasks such as the supervision of the numerous research projects on the Holocaust being conducted in the Institute and scholarly guidance offered to the Institute’s postdoctoral research fellows each semester. The Chair provides the means for the incumbent to present lectures on the Holocaust both in Israel and abroad, to plan international symposia, workshops, and conferences, and to participate in international commissions. All research and activities conducted by the Institute are carried out under the guidance of the Chair’s incumbent. Prof. Dan Michman is the current incumbent of the Chair and Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research – Yad Vashem.
Past Annual Lectures of the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies
27 October 2016
Speaker: Dr. Sharon Kangisser Cohen, The Diana and Eli Zborowski Center for the Study of the Aftermath of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem; The Central Archives for the Jewish People
Lecture: A Child’s View: Children’s Depositions of the Central Jewish Historical Commission
26 November 2015
Speaker: Dr. Angel Chorapchiev, Yad Vashem Archive
Lecture: Forced Labor and Survival – Jewish Labor Camps in Bulgaria during World War II
21 October 2014
Speker: Prof. Guy Miron, The Center for Research on the Holocaust in Germany, Yad Vashem; The Open University of Israel
Lecture: The “Lived Time” of German Jews under the Nazi Regine
07 November 2013
Speaker: Prof. Dina Porat, Chief Historian of Yad Vashem; Tel Aviv University
Lecture: The Christian Roots of Holocaust Denial
31 December 2012
Speaker: Prof. Dan Michman, Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research
Lecture: The Judenrat Phenomenon: Why and How did it Emerge and How was it Implemented by the Nazi Regine and Its Satellite States
15 December 2011
Speaker: Dr. Katarzyna Person, Research Fellow
Lecture: The “Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst” in the Warsaw Ghetto: The Creation of the Jewish Police
30 December 2010
Speaker: Dr. Joel Zisenwine, Director of the Deportation Data Base Project
Lecture: Public Mood in Nazi Germany as Reflected in Britiish Intelligence Reports
22 December 2009
Speaker: Dr. Bella Gutterman, Director of the International Institute for Holocaust Research
Lecture: A Poignant Account: The Life Story of Zivia Lubetkin
19 June 2008
Speaker: Prof. David Bankier, Incumbent of the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies and Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research
Lecture: The Jewish Question in the anti-Nazi Political Discourse: New Findings on the Attitudes Toward Antisemitism and Zionism
3 May 2007
Speaker: Prof. Dan Michman, Chief Historian of Yad Vashem
Lecture: The Ghetto Phenomenon During the Shoah: An Attempt at a New Explanation
13 February 2006
Speaker: Prof. David Bankier, Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research and Incumbent of the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies
Lecture: Shaping the Memory of the Holocaust: Germany 1945-1947
11 October 2004
Speaker: Mr. Leonid Rein, University of Haifa
Lecture: Collaboration in Byelorussia and Its Place in German Occupation Policies
18 September 2003
Ceremony marking the establishment of the Chair
