Conference Agenda

In 1963, Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, launched a global initiative to honour the Righteous Among the Nations (RAN) - non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. While some rescuers acted alone, historical evidence suggests that many operated within rescue communities - loosely connected or structured networks that provided shelter, forged documents, illegal transfer, food, and other life-saving assistance.

This study applies Social Network Analysis (SNA), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Large Language Models (LLMs) to examine the structure and evolution of these networks. Using 10,903 rescue cases from the Yad Vashem Archives, it constructs a dynamic multiplex network of rescuers in Poland, integrating ties based on shared rescue activities, family relationships, organizational affiliations, and common narratives. A novel text-based entity extraction method uncovers previously undetected connections, enhancing the reconstruction of social ties.

The analysis examines two key periods: June 1941 - Late 1942, marked by Operation Barbarossa, mass murder escalation, and ghetto liquidations, and Late 1942 - January 1945, when intensified Nazi persecution led to evolving rescue efforts. Findings suggest that document forgery and illegal transfer were likely facilitated by previously undocumented rescue communities, while mixed-gender collaborations and family networks played a crucial role in sustaining rescue operations.

This study advances historical network research by demonstrating how computational approaches can address gaps in incomplete and ambiguous historical data. It offers a scalable framework for analysing rescue networks in extreme conditions, with broader implications for historical and contemporary humanitarian studies.

The jackal-headed god Anubis was worshipped alongside a small group of other Egyptian gods across the Mediterranean during the Roman period, part of a religious movement that at one point rivalled Christianity in popularity. The other Egyptian gods revered within this movement (Isis, Serapis, Osiris and Harpocrates) were all depicted in human form, in contrast to their depiction in Egypt. Only Anubis retained his animal shape. Much previous scholarship has assumed that Anubis, as an animal god, was aberrant to the vast majority of people in the Roman empire. The literary evidence certainly presents a negative view of him. Yet a closer analysis of other forms of evidence shows that the lived reality was more complex and Anubis was warmly received by many people across a wide social spectrum and in different regions across the Roman Empire.

I have analysed the god Anubis within three different case studies: Alexandria, Delos and Pompeii. I have chosen these regions for two reasons. First, the nature of the evidence is especially strong for Delos and Pompeii, which enables me to analyse Anubis within a local context and create networks of the different gods attested in surviving evidence from the two towns. Second, these three points are nodes on the supposed route of transmission of the Isiac cults via the maritime trade network from Alexandria via Delos (an important trading port in the Aegean) and on to Pompeii (close to Pozzuoli which was the major international port in Italy at the time). If this theory holds true, we would expect a similar network in the three locations, but there are crucial differences.

I looked at centrality measures to understand embeddedness in local pantheons (or groups of gods). The network connections are formed when the gods are mentioned together in the same piece of evidence. For example, in inscriptions carved on walls in buildings or temples, often recording donations, dedicated to groups of gods. Creating a network of such connections, means I have been able to analyse how entities were believed to relate to one another within a local pantheon. By doing this, I have been able to understand: how connected was Anubis to other gods; whether Anubis replaced Greco-Roman gods; the relative importance of different gods and powers. As a result of this approach, I am able to identify powers and qualities associated with Anubis that are different to those put forward in previous scholarship.