Painting of Peter Misch by D. Molenaar surrounded by some of Peter Misch’s paintings, displayed at the Department of Geological Sciences (now Earth and Space Sciences), University of Washington
On 8 December 2021 our own Dr Rudolph Ng, Lecturer in Global History, presented a fascinating paper tracing the extraordinary journey of a young geologist who fled Nazi Germany in 1936 and then taught for a decade in wartime China, before making a successful postwar academic career in the United States. If you missed the paper, we have a recording available, so do get in touch with one of us (rudolph.ng@port.ac.uk, robert.james@port.ac.uk, fiona.mccall@port.ac.u)
Misch’s narrow escapes from the Holocaust and the Japanese invasion of China (1937), his capture by the Chinese Nationalists (1942), and the impending Communist takeover in China (1946) highlight the tumultuous reality of academic pursuits in wartime. While conventional wisdom suggests scholarship suffered in war zones due to geographical displacements and lack of material necessities, this paper examines how teaching and research often flourished under such challenging circumstances. Misch’s story not only demonstrates his personal resilience and scholarly passion, but also how academics collaborated creatively, in the most trying conditions, in order to save lives and continue with their research.
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