Professor Spotlight: Mikhal Dekel talks new book Tehran Children: A Holocaust Refugee Tragedy
By Jada Gordon
The following article appeared in the November 2019 edition of The Campus.
“I wanted to know more about him so I could also know more about myself.”
Throughout history, individualexperiences have become the touchstone for collective experiences among people.In Professor Mikhal Dekel’s new book TehranChildren: A Holocaust Refugee Tragedy, readers get an in-depth look notonly at The City College of New York’s own Professor Dekel’s story about herfather and aunt, Polish-Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi terror to find refuge inMuslim lands, but also the tales that echo the voices of over a million PolishJews who embarked on similar journeys.
Professor Dekel’s book has helped her gain more of an understanding of her family, specifically her late father, Hannan Teitel. “In a deeper way, the motivation for this book came from a wish to understand a man whom I saw every morning and evening for the first eighteen years of my life, but about whose past I knew nearly nothing: my father,” commented Professor Dekel.
Professor Dekel is an English and Comparative Literature professor at both City College and the CUNY Graduate Center. She is also the director of the Rifkind Center within the Department of Humanities and the Arts, with a Bachelor’s of Law degree from Tel Aviv University, a Master’s from City College, and both a Master’s and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University. Professor Dekel has been an educator for nineteen years.
The ideafor TehranChildren came about in 2007 at a facultygathering, and Professor Dekel has been working on the book for over a decadesince then.
“I was chatting casually with myIranian-American colleague, Salar Abdoh, who asked me if I knew anything aboutJewish refugees who were in Tehran during the war. These were the days of theHolocaust denying Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which spurreddiscussions of Iran’s Nazi affiliation during the war. In response to theseallegations, an article in an Iranian paper claimed that Iran was not only not pro-Nazi,but it sheltered Jewish children during the war. My colleague asked me about itand was of course stunned when I told him that my own father was in Iran duringthe war, and his questions were the catalyst for what is now this book.”remarked Professor Dekel.
TehranChildren explores and gives a larger contextto children refugee stories within Holocaust discourse, which includes works suchas Night by Elie Wiesel, “An Experiment in Group Upbringing” byAnna Freud and Sophie Dann, and The Diaryof Anne Frank by Anne Frank. However, Professor Dekel wanted to examine thedifferences between children and adults as portrayed in Holocaust discourse,she states, “There are many memoirs of survivors who were children during theHolocaust but I do think that looking at the differences between children's andadult's experiences, or between women and men, is essential. We now know, forexample, that there was a great deal of sexual violence that was not reportedon in testimonies because of shame. That needs to be unearthed.”
In discussing childhood trauma inHolocaust discourse, there is concern of becoming borderline exploitative. Thisis something that Professor Dekel found to be difficult; “It's very hard, andas a writer you always feel a little exploitative. From my experienceinterviewing these former child refugees, including my aunt -- my dad died in1993 -- they appreciate it and will feel more honored if you know a lot abouttheir ordeal, if you are not asking them dumb, insensitive questions out ofyour ignorance, and are not patronizing them.”
Professor Dekel hopes that readerswill gain more knowledge and perspective about an often-unexplored portion ofHolocaust history. She adds, “The story of mostPolish Jewish survivors, those who survived in Central Asia and the MiddleEast, their story is nearly unknown. Secondly, to understand the experience ofrefugees, and especially child refugees, more broadly. And I think the bookoffers a Holocaust story that is not all horrible. It is horrible, but thereare glimmers of light in the help these refugees received along the way, andthe help I received in my research in Poland, Russia, Uzbekistan, Iran andIsrael.”
More about Prof. Dekel:
CCNY Faculty & Staff Profile:
https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/profiles/mikhal-dekel
Personal Website:
