Arts and Humanities Commons^™

From Schmelt Camp To “Little Auschwitz”: Blechhammer’S Role In The Holocaust, Susanne Barth

Purdue University Press Books

From Schmelt Camp to “Little Auschwitz”: Blechhammer’s Role in the Holocaust is the first in-depth study of the second largest Auschwitz subcamp, Blechhammer (Blachownia Śląska), and its lesser known yet significant prehistory as a so-called Schmelt camp, a forced labor camp for Jews operating outside the concentration camp system. Drawing on previously untapped archival documents and a wide array of survivor testimonies, the book provides novel findings on Blechhammer’s role in the Holocaust in Eastern Upper Silesia, a formerly Polish territory annexed to Nazi Germany in the fall of 1939, where 120,000 Jews lived.

Established in the spring of 1942 …

The Holocaust's Legacy: Influencing Jewish Political Identity, Jordan Eskew

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis addresses the intricate relationship between the historical persecution of the Holocaust and its enduring influence on contemporary Jewish political engagement, a subject of significant contemporary relevance in political and international relations. Despite broad recognition of the Holocaust’s impact, the specific ways in which its memory affects Jewish political attitudes and actions around the world in the modern day have not been sufficiently thoroughly examined. Utilizing qualitative methods, including interviews with 20 individuals—public figures, Holocaust survivors, their descendants, and broader members of the Jewish diaspora— this study focuses on understanding the interplay between historical trauma, community cohesion, and the …

Facing Catholic Antisemitism In Post-War France, The Finaly Affair: 1945-1953, Elizabeth Jane Spaide

Theses and Dissertations

In February 1944, Dr. Fritz and Anni Finaly, Jewish Austrians who had fled the Nazi regime for France in 1939, made a desperate decision. To protect their sons Robert and Gérald from persecution, they placed them in the care of others. The boys were eventually confined to a municipal nursery run by Antoinette Brun in Grenoble, France. After the war, Brun’s refusal to return the children to their relatives led to protracted court proceedings, rendering what came to be called the Finaly Affair, the most highly publicized post-war custody case in France. This thesis will analyze how the press coverage …

Sites Of Incarceration And Forced Labour Under The Nazi Regime And Its Allies, 1933-1945, Maja Kruse, Anne Kelly Knowles

History Faculty Scholarship

This map was commissioned by the United Nations Education Outreach Section to be part of a refreshed permanent Holocaust exhibition at UN headquarters in New York City. The contents of the map draw on years of research by Anne Kelly Knowles, Maja Kruse, and other members of the Holocaust Project research team at the University of Maine, Duke University, Washington University at St. Louis, and Middlebury College. This research was supported chiefly by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, with additional support from team members' institutions. No territorial boundaries are shown because they changed many times from 1938 …

Hogan's Heroes: Fact Or Fiction?, Mark Granicke

Undergraduate Research Symposium

When it first debuted in 1965, Hogan’s Heroes was not met with the fondness it later garnered. Set in Stalag 13, a fictional German Luftwaffe (Air Force) prisoner of war (POW) camp during World War II (WWII), the show follows the American POW Colonel Robert E. Hogan and his band of compatriots as they run a secret sabotage operation within the camp under the nose of the inept camp commandant Colonel Wilhelm Klink. Hilarity ensues as Hogan and crew outwit the Germans, portrayed as bumbling idiots, in all sorts of missions, from smuggling prisoners, stealing plans, blowing up trains, and …

Paul Celan And The Processes Of Survival In Post-Shoah Jewish Writing, Ari Savage

Theses

The following is a study of the poetry of Paul Celan as a representation of psychological and social processes present in the written works of Shoah survivors. It begins with an analysis of the place of writing in Jewish culture, then identifies three primary processes which operate in sequence: alienation, individuation, and integration. By examining Paul Celan’s highly personal and autobiographical texts in the context of his life experience as a Shoah survivor it is possible to discern the social and psychological forces at work which compel survivors to express their traumas in written form, and to gain a better …

Dogma: How A Convenient Narrative Led To The Holocaust, Morgan R. Schroeder

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

No abstract provided.

Sonic Salvation: A Neuroscientific Exploration Of Music's Role In Cultural Preservation In The Wake Of The Holocaust, Regan K. Recklaus

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

As easy as it would be to begin this essay with a succinct “music is” statement (e.g. “music is life” or “music is power”), it would be akin to encapsulating the boundless expanse of the cosmos in a single photograph. It would fail to honor the immeasurable richness and complexity of the force which has transformed humanity from a group of disparate apes into a symphony of interconnected souls. For all of history, music has served as a means for humans to tap into and express the very things that make them human—their emotions, culture, and individual identities. Its profound …

Esra Özyürek. Subcontractors Of Guilt: Holocaust Memory & Muslim Belonging In Postwar Germany, Stefan Gunther

Comparative Civilizations Review

As early as 1995, James E. Young, referring to the “social effects of public memorial spaces” (p.20) in Germany, stated that “Holocaust memorial work in Germany today remains a tortured, self-reflective, even paralyzing preoccupation.” (p.21) He continues with a series of questions: “How does a state recite, much less commemorate, the litany of its misdeeds, making them part of its reason for being? Under what memorial aegis, whose rules, does a nation remember its own barbarity? Where is the tradition for memorial mea culpa, when combined remembrance and self-indictment seem so hopelessly at odds?” (p.22)

Angst Uber Alles: The Role Of Fear In Nazi German Governance, Jacob R. Mahlkuch

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

Lasting from 1933 to 1945, the Third Reich governed not only Germany but vast sections of continental Europe. One of its principal tools in administering its “1,000-year Reich,” was the application of terror and fear to create a climate of paranoia, and obedience to the Nazi Party. To do this, the Party did everything that it could to take over national life and discourse, other its enemies, and maintain fear through an arbitrary and often changing system of enforcement. This essay utilizes a mix of sources from first person accounts to historical fiction to analyze the systems and applications of …

Preserving Sacred Memory: The Effort To Create The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Jessica Wachtel

Undergraduate Research Symposium

This poster attempts to provide insight on how the American government remembers the Holocaust through its formation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Topics include the physical structure of the museum, the history of the museum, and the relationship between original museum chairman Elie Wiesel and U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

"Killin' Nazis": How Jews Are Portrayed In Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, Skylar Baxter

Undergraduate Research Symposium

In Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, Jews are portrayed as violent, revenge-seeking Nazi hunters. This portrayal creates an ironic conflict within Tarantino's audience because Jews are seen as capable of the same atrocities of which they were victims. Under Hannah Arendt's definition of Nazis, the actions of the Jews in Inglorious Basterds are not equivalent to the crimes that Nazis committed. Jewish revenge fantasies are thereby not the same as the actual violence that Jews received from Nazis.

Unraveling The Truth: The Wannsee Conference And Holocaust Denial, Howie Parkes

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The Wannsee Conference, held in January 1942, marked a crucial turning point in the Holocaust, as it signified the Nazi regime's decision to systematically exterminate Europe's Jewish population on an industrial scale. This poster presentation examines the role of the Wannsee Conference in Holocaust denial narratives and the portrayal of the conference in the critically acclaimed film, Conspiracy (2001). I discuss how Holocaust deniers use the Wannsee Conference to argue against the existence of a plan to exterminate Jews or to suggest that the conference never took place. Through an analysis of the conference transcript, I demonstrate its significance in …

Swastikas At Swat And Student Holocaust Memorial Culture, Nathanael D. Brown

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

A series of antisemitic incidents on the campus of Swarthmore College in 2016 invoked a larger memory culture of the Holocaust for Jewish students. This phenomenon was not an aberration, but rather the product of a well-documented effort by Jewish organizations to create a Holocaust memorial culture that would leave a lasting impact on those who experienced it, especially students. By researching the larger picture of how Holocaust Memory culture was created, and using that and Maurice Halbwachs's “lieu de mémoire'' method of historiography as frameworks, we gain insight into how some Jewish students’ perceptions of antisemitism in 2016 were …

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Horst-Klaus Hofmann, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

Moral Exemplars of Note - Horst-Klaus Hofmann, Sam and Pearl Oliner

Review Of The Book Denial Of Genocides In The Twenty-First Century, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Denial of Genocides in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Bedross Der Matossian.

Lee, Sherry Coman

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Lee (2023) directed by Ellen Kuras.

Dogma: How A Convenient Narrative Led To The Holocaust, Morgan Rynn Schroeder

History: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

I developed this research paper as a result of my study abroad experience in Germany in June of 2023. In this paper I weave a combination of personal experience, primary sources, and works by historians to explain how Nazi ideology developed into genocide. I also emphasize the importance of how history is remembered in the form of monuments and museums.

Survivor Accounts Of Sexual Violence In The Holocaust And Rwandan Genocide: A Comparative History, Marisa Silva

Honors Projects

This research seeks to analyze and understand the approach and treatment of victims of sexual assaults stories and accounts using case studies of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. Research was conducted by collecting and reading first-hand accounts of survivors and their experiences of sexual assault, then analyzing the historical response following the events. The two case studies are synthesized and compared in this project to understand which attributes of political and social policy effected the reception of stories of victims and witnesses of rape and assault. Both genocides are affected by unique struggles in collecting witness accounts, as well …

Raising The Iron Curtain: Healing Collective Oppression Through Literature, Alisa Chirkova-Holland

Student Works

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by former gulag prisoner Alexander Solzhenitsyn, is a short novel that entails an ordinary day for a prisoner, Shukhov, in a Siberian gulag. Although the work is a typical skaz, a traditional Russian narrative form, the novel was well-received by Russians at the time of publishing in 1962. This paper will explore the reason for such acclamation, understanding how Solzhenitsyn’s innovations to the skaz allowed readers to connect with their past. The paper also mentions theories such as Traumatic Realism to comprehend how such a bleak novel positively impacted post-Stalinist readers. …

Blood Cries Out From The Ground: The Einsatzgruppen And The Holocaust In Ukraine, Lauren R. Letizia

Student Publications

After the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the Wehrmacht occupied much of the western Soviet regions. The Third Reich deployed special killing squads known as the Einsatzgruppen to protect its military and ideological interests. These units were responsible for murdering over two million Jews from 1941 to 1944, primarily through mass shootings. Ukraine was one of the most afflicted countries by this “Holocaust by Bullets.” Because of the efficient genocidal techniques of Einsatzgruppen units operating in the region, one in four Jews who perished in the Holocaust was Ukrainian. The scale on which these killings …

Redefining The Agency Of Jewish Communities Through Ghetto Humor, Addison E. Lomax

Student Publications

While the Holocaust is remembered by historians and victims as a time of suffering and genocide, Jewish ghetto survivors recall numerous occasions in which humor was used to combat the oppression of Nazi authorities. Although many historians emphasized the physical hardships and tragic conditions faced by Jewish victims of the Holocaust, the existence of jokes throughout Eastern European ghettos articulated the legitimacy of humor within the greater context and discussion of coping, resistance, and unification for the preservation of Jewish life and identity in the post-war period. Rather than depicting Jews as solely victims, humor returns agency to the Jews …

Stolperstein/Stumbling Stone For Holocaust Survivor Otto Heimann/Bob Hymann, Bochum/German, Toronto/Kanada Und New York, Ny, Usa, Courtney Conte, Mona Eikel-Pohen

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics - All Scholarship

The documentation tries to capture the life of Holocaust survivor Otto Heimann/Bob Hyman who spent his youth in Bochum-Langendreer, Germany, and was forced by the National Socialists to leave parents, home, and country. The documentation does not claim to give a full picture, just an insight into Otto Heimann's/Bob Hyman's life.

It will be read out on June 6, 2023 in Bochum, Germany when a Stolperstein, a stumbling stone, will be place near Alte Bahnhstraße 6 in Bochum-Langendreer, Germany, to commemorate Otto Heimann/Bob Hyman, so that we and future generations may learn from history.

Diese Dokumentation versucht, das Leben Bob …

The Nazis, The Vatican, And The Jews Of Rome, Patrick J. Gallo

Purdue University Press Books

On October 16, 1943, the Jews of Rome were targeted for arrest and deportation. The Nazis, the Vatican, and the Jews of Rome examines why—and more importantly how—it could have been avoided, featuring new evidence and insight into the Vatican’s involvement. At the time, Rome was within reach of the Allies, but the overwhelming force of the Wehrmacht, Gestapo, and SS in Rome precluded direct confrontation. Moral condemnations would not have worked, nor would direct confrontation by the Italians, Jewish leadership, or even the Vatican.

Gallo underscores the necessity of determining what courses of actions most likely would have spared …

Wikipedia’S Intentional Distortion Of The History Of The Holocaust, Jan Grabowski, Shira Klein

History Faculty Articles and Research

This essay uncovers the systematic, intentional distortion of Holocaust history on the English-language Wikipedia, the world’s largest encyclopedia. In the last decade, a group of committed Wikipedia editors have been promoting a skewed version of history on Wikipedia, one touted by right-wing Polish nationalists, which whitewashes the role of Polish society in the Holocaust and bolsters stereotypes about Jews. Due to this group’s zealous handiwork, Wikipedia’s articles on the Holocaust in Poland minimize Polish antisemitism, exaggerate the Poles’ role in saving Jews, insinuate that most Jews supported Communism and conspired with Communists to betray Poles (Żydokomuna or Judeo–Bolshevism), blame …

Where Words Cannot Express, Abigale E. Ernst

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

This research paper takes a closer look into art created during the Holocaust, specifically by children and its significance in terms of art therapy, and how expressions through the arts could have help/ provided comfort to children going through such a traumatizing experience.

Soviet Commemoration And Myth-Making Of The Nazi Extermination Camps: Case Studies On Treblinka, Sobibór, And Majdanek, Isaac Bluestein

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The Nazi extermination camps of Treblinka, Sobibór, and Majdanek, all located in Eastern Europe, are understudied, underdiscussed, and undermemorialized in public and scholarly memory. In this paper, I seek to conduct case studies of these three camps, their histories, and their commemoration efforts. Ultimately, four main factors prevented these camps from achieving the solemn recognizability they deserve and from having their victims’ stories adequately told; little remains of these camps compared to concentration camps in Germany, fewer individuals survived them to emphasize their importance, the Soviet Union possessed near complete control of their study and commemoration, which allowed for them …

The History Of Teaching The Holocaust In Public Secondary Schools In The United States, From The 1960s To The Present, Julia Highbury Spenser

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

An Ill-Suited Memorial? Nazi Atrocities In Publications On The American Right, 1930-1985, Sandor Farkas

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

From 1930 to 1985, reactions to Nazi atrocities in the Saturday Evening Post, Wall Street Journal, and National Review represent a sampling of the American political right’s understanding, memory, and use of the Holocaust. A touchstone for evil in American culture and politics, few scholarly works have explored the origins of the Holocaust’s outsized role in American political discourse, and fewer have seriously considered the American right’s role in this evolution. Nazi atrocities assumed their role in American politics because the novelty of Nazi crimes against Jews and their post-war consequences received persistent media attention. On the American political right, …

From Massachusetts To Ravensbrück: Betty Laurie, The United States, And The Holocaust, Delainey Bostley

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The United States has taken a large responsibility in regards to the remembrance and legacy of the Holocaust and World War II, yet the way in which the U.S. remembers the event is fairly narrow. Despite both the war and the Holocaust being a transnational event, remembrance in the United States is so focused on American triumphs and victories that it ignores many elements that give insight into the the overall understanding of the events. Why is that? The life and story of Betty Laurie will provide insight into the answer. Born in the 1890’s in Scotland, she immigrated to …