Samuel Kassow

Who is Samuel Kassow?

Dr. Samuel D. Kassow is an American historian of the history of Ashkenazi Jewry. He was born in a displaced persons' camp in Stuttgart, Germany. His mother survived because a classmate hid her and her sister in a dug-out underneath the barn on his family's farm, his father was arrested by the Russians and spent the duration of the war in a Soviet prison camp. He grew up in New Haven, Connecticut. Kassow earned his B.A. from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, in 1966, his M.Sc. from the London School of Economics in 1968, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1976. He is married to Lisa Kassow, director of the Zachs Hillel House at Trinity College. He has two daughters named Miri and Serena. Kassow was the Charles Northam Professor at Trinity College for many years. He is a consultant to the Museum of History of the Polish Jews opened on the site of the Warsaw Ghetto.

In his books, Who Will Write Our History? Rediscovering a Hidden Archive From the Warsaw Ghetto and Who Will Write Our History? Emanuel Ringelblum, the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Oyneg Shabes Archive, Kassow speaks about the importance of preserving historical documents and the past.