Nechama Tec (née Bawnik) (born 15 May 1931) is a Professor Emerita of
Sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
at the
University of Connecticut
The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...
. She received her Ph.D. in sociology at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, 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 Am ...
, and is a
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
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
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...
. She is also 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 "Anne" Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – )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 light on Anne Fra ...
Special Recognition prize for it.
Biography
She was born in
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...
, Poland to a family of Polish Jews in 1931 and was 8 years old when
Nazi Germany invaded Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...
in 1939.''Author gains new exposure from Holocaust film'' January 26, 2009 article in JTA. She survived the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
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
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.
She is the mother of film director
Roland Tec
Roland Tec is an American writer and movie director. His 1997 film '' All the Rage'' is widely considered a hallmark of the Queer Indie Film Movement of the '90s for what was then its unprecedented critical view of A-list gay male culture of perfec ...
. 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 Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought the German occupiers and their collaborators around Novogrudok and Lida in German-occupied Poland (now western Belarus). The partisan unit ...
, 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."
Dr. Tec was appointed to the Council of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and served in 1995 as a Scholar in Residence at the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, in Israel.
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.