Alina Skibińska will receive the Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Prize

KJ, 16 November 2016
This year’s recipient of the Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Prize is Alina Skibińska, a historian and researcher of the history and culture of Polish Jews, and especially of Polish-Jewish relations in the 20th century. The award ceremony will take place on 16 October 2012 at 6:00 PM in the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

The Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Prize is awarded annually to authors of publications documenting Jewish life in Poland and the contributions of Jews into Polish culture.

Professor Jan Karski founded the award in 1992 in conjunction with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. The award is meant to honor the memory of Pola Nireńska, Karski’s wife, and an eminent dancer and choreographer.

Alina Skibińska’s latest publication (prepared together with the eyewitness of the events, Tadeusz Markiel) titled “Who cares if they did it out of greed? The destruction of the Trynczers’ house,” deals with the wartime fates of the Polish and Jewish communities in the village of Gniewczyna (in the Tryńcza municipality, Przeworsk county)  and the crimes committed against the Jews by their Polish neighbors.

The Award Committee of the Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Prize was composed of: Prof. Jerzy Tomaszewski, Prof. Feliks Tych, Prof. Paweł Śpiewak (director of the Jewish Historical Institute), Dr. Jonathan Brent (director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research), and Marek Web.