Saving our Survivors: How American Jews Learned about the Holocaust – Rachel Deblinger

Drawing on previously unexamined archives and postwar cultural materials, Saving Our Survivors explores how American Jews constructed meaning out of devastation—and how humanitarian aid became intertwined with public memory. The book uncovers how American Jewish communities first came to learn about and respond to the Holocaust through communal campaigns, radio broadcasts, speeches, short films, and urgent calls to action. Rachel Deblinger highlights the messy, diffuse, and contested nature of memory construction in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust and raises larger questions about how historical tragedies are narrated in moments of crisis.

Rachel Deblinger is the author of Saving Our Survivors: How American Jews learned about the Holocaust (2025, Indiana University Press). Her research focuses on Holocaust memory in America, media technology, and the intersection of philanthropy and representation. Deblinger is also the Director of the Modern Endangered Archives Program (MEAP) at the UCLA Library, a granting program that funds the digitization and preservation of at-risk cultural heritage materials from around the world. MEAP grants facilitate archival documentation and open access to diverse global collections.

Tuesday, November 18, 2025 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM  
Saving our Survivors: How American Jews Learned about the Holocaust

Rachel Deblinger (UCLA)

The 1939 Society Program in Holocaust Studies
The Alan D. Leve Program for Public History

RSVP