A Family Annihilation Tour

In 2019, the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnographic Sciences (IUAES) held its Inter-Congress in Poznan, Poland, from August 27th to 31st. As chair of the IUAES Commission on Risk and Disaster, I attended, conducted panels on my topic, and gave an overview of critical issues in the field of risk and disaster today. By happenstance, the day after the conference ended, September 1, 2019, marked the eightieth anniversary of the Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland and the start of World War II. A major ceremony commemorating that fraught and weighty day was held in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, with the heads of many countries attending.