How WWII Changed Iran’s Social, Political, and Cultural Landscape

The Center is pleased to co-host this event with the Center for the Middle East and Islamic Studies:

How WWII Changed Iran’s Social, Political, and Cultural Landscape: Nationalism, Political Participation, and Anti-Semitism

with Lior Sternfeld, Pennsylvania State University

April 2, 2025, time TBA, location TBA.

Please check back in spring semester for updates.
UNC CLE credit will be available for undergraduates

This talk places Iran in the center of the story of WWII in the Middle East, and examines how the war transformed Iran’s political sphere and attitudes towards Iranian Jews and refugees.

During World War II, millions of refugees fled their homes and were displaced across Europe, central Asia, and the Middle East. In September 1939, Nazi and Soviet armies invaded Poland, resulting in countless individuals being deported or “resettled”—forcibly exiled to labor camps in Siberia and Soviet central Asia. This talk examines the story of a large wave of Polish refugees granted amnesty by the Soviets after they allied with Great Britain in June 1941. Between 1941 and 1943, hundreds of thousands of Poles were allowed into Iran, where social and political conditions helped them rebuild their lives, establish thriving Polish institutions, and leave a lasting impact on Iranian urban culture. Polish exiles in Iran established newspapers, art galleries, cafés, orchestras, theaters, and salons that catered first and foremost to the Polish community but later became central to the myriad of Allied army soldiers stationed in Iran, as well as to the emerging Iranian urban middle class.

Prof. Lior Sternfeld is the William J. and Charlotte K. Duddy University Endowed Fellow in the Humanities and Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at Pennsylvania State University.