Prelude to the Holocaust: The Anti-Jewish Pogroms of Summer 1941 – Jeffrey Kopstein
January 27, 2026 @ 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
This lecture examines a particularly brutal wave a violence that occurred across hundreds of predominantly Polish and Ukrainian communities in the aftermath of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. The dominant explanations for pogrom violence center around three most frequently cited causes: endemic antisemitism in Eastern European societies, a desire for revenge for alleged Jewish involvement in Soviet crimes during the occupation of 1939–1941, and opportunistic appropriation of Jewish property. But a difficult question needs to be posed: why did pogroms occur in some places and not in others? Situating pogroms within the long history of local intercommunal relations sheds light on the sources of mass ethnic violence and the ways in which such gruesome acts might be avoided.
Jeffrey Kopstein is Dean’s Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine. In his research, Professor Kopstein focuses on interethnic violence, voting patterns of minority groups, antisemitism, and anti-liberal tendencies in civil society. These interests are central topics in his latest books, Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve of the Holocaust (Cornell University Press, 2018), Politics, Memory, Violence: The New Social Science of the Holocaust (Cornell University Press, 2023), and The Assault on the State: How the Global Attack on Modern Government Endangers our Future (Polity, 2024). Professor Kopstein’s writings also appear in outlets like The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and The Washington Post.
Tuesday, January 27, 2026 • 314 Royce Hall • 2 PM
Prelude to the Holocaust: The Anti-Jewish Pogroms of Summer 1941
Jeffrey Kopstein (UCI)
Moderator: Jared McBride (UCLA)
The 1939 Society Program in Holocaust Studies