Nechama Tec (née Bawnik, 15 May 1931 – 3 August 2023) was a Polish-American historian who was professor emerita of

Sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

. She received her Ph.D. in sociology at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, where she studied and worked with the sociologist

Daniel Bell Daniel Bell (May 10, 1919 – January 25, 2011) was an American sociologist, writer, editor, and professor at Harvard University, best known for his contributions to the study of post-industrialism. He has been described as "one of the leading ...

, and was a

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

scholar. Her book ''When Light Pierced the Darkness'' (1986) and her memoir ''Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood'' (1984) both received the Merit of Distinction Award from the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. She is also the author of the book ''Defiance: The Bielski Partisans'' on which the film ''Defiance'' (2008) is based, as well as a study of women in the Holocaust. She was awarded the 1994 International

Anne Frank Annelies Marie Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – February or March 1945)Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new li ...

Special Recognition prize for it.

Biography

Nechama Tec was born in

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

, Poland to a family of Polish Jews in 1931 and was 8 years old when

Nazi Germany invaded Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet ...

in 1939.''Author gains new exposure from Holocaust film''
26 January 2009 article in JTA. She survived the

thanks to her life being saved by Polish Catholics. After the war she emigrated to Israel and later moved to the United States, where she earned a doctorate at

. Tec was the mother of film director Roland Tec. Her daughter, Leora Tec, is the founder and Director of Bridge To Poland, an organization she created to break down stereotypes between Jews and non-Jewish Poles. Her husband, Dr. Leon Tec, was a noted child psychiatrist and author of ''Fear of Success'' and the autobiography, ''Adventure and Destiny''. Nechama Tec was initially shocked by the changes made in adapting her book to make the film ''Defiance''. The

Bielski partisans The Bielski partisans were a unit of Polish Jewish partisans who rescued Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancie ...

, for example, never actually went into battle against German tanks. However, after seeing the film a number of times, she confessed to liking it "more and more." Tec was appointed to the Council of the

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust, dedicated to the documentation, study, and interpretation of the Holocaust. Opened in 1993, the museum explores the Holocaust through p ...

and served in 1995 as a Scholar in Residence at the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, in Israel. Nechama Tec died in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on 3 August 2023, at the age of 92.

Works

* ''Resistance: Jews and Christians Who Defied the Nazi Terror''. University Press: Oxford 2013. * ''Letters of Hope and Despair''. University Press: Cambridge 2007. * ''Resilience and Courage: Women, Men, and the Holocaust''. University Press: Yale 2003. * ''Defiance: The Bielski Partisans''. University Press: Oxford 1993. * ''In The Lion's Den: The Life of Oswald Rufeisen''. University Press: Oxford 1990. * ''When Light Pierced the Darkness: Christian Rescue of Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland''. University Press: Oxford 1986. * ''Dry Tears: The Story of a Lost Childhood''. University Press: Oxford 1984. * ''Grass Is Green in Suburbia: A Sociological Study of Adolescent Usage of Illicit Drugs''. Libra Pub 1974.

Lectures and articles

''Jewish Children: Between Protectors and Murderers''
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies - US Holocaust Memorial Museum: 2005.
“Jewish Resistance: Fact, Omissions, and Distortions,”
Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance. 1997. *

Awards

* 2002

National Jewish Book Award The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1943, is an American organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature. The goal of the council, as stated on its website, is "to promote the reading, writing and publishing of qual ...

in the Holocaust category for ''Resilience and Courage: Women, Men and the Holocaust'' *2012 Prakhin International Literary Award "The Truth about Holocaust & Stalinist Repression" for the book'' Defiance: The Bielski Partisans.''

References

External links

''Studio portrait of Nechama Bawnik taken in the Lublin ghetto''.
Photo Archives of US Holocaust Memorial Museum. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tec, Nechama 1931 births 2023 deaths American sociologists American women sociologists Jewish American social scientists Jewish American historians American historians of the Holocaust Holocaust survivors American memoirists University of Connecticut faculty Columbia University alumni People from Lublin American people of Polish-Jewish descent Jewish women writers Polish emigrants to Israel Israeli emigrants to the United States