Referring to her book, “Torn Out Memories,” Dr. Hutchins tells the experiences of a child living under the Nazi occupation of Poland and during the Warsaw Uprising. She relates her personal trauma to the terrors suffered by the victims of 9/11 attacks.

Danuta Zamojska Hutchins, of Storm Lake, was born in Warsaw, Poland and experienced the ravages of Nazi occupation, their reprisals for the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 and Poland’s fall to communism after its liberation by the Soviet Army. Dr. Hutchins left Poland in 1962 to study American literature and language at the University of Minnesota. She received her Ph.D. in Modern Languages, Education and Linguistics from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Dr. Hutchins has taught Slavic Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Buena Vista College (now University) at Storm Lake, Iowa; Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana; Iowa State University at Ames, Iowa and Ohio State University at Columbus, Ohio. She has also taught courses in German Language, Literature and History and Russian Language and Literature at Teikyo-Westmar University and Westmar University at Le Mars, Iowa from which she retired at its closure in 1995. She has authored many papers and book chapters in her field and has written four books of general interest. Her early retirement enabled her to devote her time to her artwork, resulting in several successful group and solo exhibits of paintings, etchings and sculpture.

Before or after the program, view our newest exhibition, Immigration Then and Now: Finding Refuge in the Quad Cities. This exhibition explores the Quad Cities' history of welcoming immigrants from Europe in the past centuries and its current role as a sanctuary for immigrants and refugees from around the world. This shared history creates a global connection through the universal experience of starting anew in a foreign land.

This exhibition is in partnership with World Relief Quad Cities and supported by the Moline Regional Community Foundation.