Holocaust and Genocide Studies Commons^™

Dónde Están: Searching For Desaparecidos Of The Argentine Dirty War, Paula Fleischer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project is a data physicalization textile representing the 30,000 'desaparecidos' from the Argentine Dirty War of late 1970s. The large quilt visualizes the official count of 9,000 missing persons in the shape of a headscarf worn by their mothers and grandmothers, while the overall dimensions of the quilt acknowledges 30,000 missing persons. The quilt and accompanying missing persons posters encourage the viewer to interact with the data, however the observed reluctance to engage influenced the direction of this discussion about the hegemonic disinclination to get involved when authority figures 'disappear' fellow residents of our communities.

The Weight Of Complicity: A Network Analysis Of Ecocide In Palestine, Marilyn Moy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper combines multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) with a network graph visualization to examine corporate and institutional involvement in ecocide in Palestine from 1917 to the present. Using a weighted sum model based on UN human rights principles and UNEP guidelines, actors are evaluated across three criteria: directness, scale, and duration of harm. A dataset of 50+ entities, including Caterpillar, Elbit Systems, and the Jewish National Fund, reveals a dense network of responsibility, with major enablers in the construction, tech, and military sectors. Findings highlight the severe impacts of the 2023–present assault on Gaza and demonstrate that ecocide is a …

From “Total Destruction” To “Total Dictatorship”: The Influence Of Ernst Jünger’S Visionary Fascism, Nick Schiff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper seeks to answer one central question: How can the life and work of Ernst Jünger help illuminate the development of fascist ideas, culture, politics, and power across Europe from 1920-1945? The components of that question are: what were the core elements of Jünger’s aesthetics, morality, and politics? How did he synthesize these elements to create his influential vision of German fascism? What were Jünger’s interactions and exchanges with other European fascists, as well as influential Nazis including Carl Schmitt, Joseph Goebbels, and Adolph Hitler himself? How did Jünger’s new Fascist politics and aesthetics affect them? I argue that …

Cultural Predicaments: Neorealism In The Netherlands, 1927–1945, Stephanie Huber

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation takes as its subject Dutch Magic Realism, also known as “Neorealism,” an unsettling style of figurative painting developed by Dutch painters Pyke Koch, Carel Willink, Charley Toorop, Raoul Hynckes, Dick Ket, and Wim Schuhmacher during a moment of rising totalitarian regimes in neighboring countries and the Nazi Occupation of The Netherlands. Like their European counterparts, these Dutch Magic Realists conveyed the experience of modern alienation by perversely appropriating stylistic characteristics and iconographic motifs of revered national schools of painting – in their case, Early Netherlandish and Northern Renaissance traditions.

The fortunes of Neorealism exemplify the pressures brought to …

Contextualizing Britain’S Holocaust Memorial And Museums: Form, Content, And Politics, Rebecca D. Pollack

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The quantity of Holocaust memorials in Britain and their prominence in public debates beseeches the question: Why does a country with a modest Jewish population, that was neither occupied by the Nazis nor lost its citizens in the horrors of the Holocaust, devote large quantities of resources and time to memorializing the events of the Holocaust? While there are private and synagogue-based Holocaust memorials in Britain, this dissertation centers on Britain’s statefunded Holocaust memorials and museums, a substantial network of memorials that is often left out of the abundant literature on Holocaust memory. Each memorial project is examined through the …

The Relationship Between Turks And Armenians Leading Up To And During The Great War, Kutay Agardici

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper examines the long-standing debate over the events that transpired during the late Ottoman Empire between local Armenians and their predominately Muslim neighbors as well as the government. The term, “Armenian Genocide” has been used often to describe these tragic events. My writing goes into depth regarding the background history of this term. I write about the narrative of what happened between the two major groups during the late 19th and early 20th centuries as told by multiple different scholars. Narratives included are of Abdul Hamid II’s reign, the political parties created by Armenians in order for protest, the …

Instrumentalizing The Past: The Politics Of Holocaust Memory In Contemporary Poland, Jonathan Zisook

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigates Poland’s politics of Holocaust memory from the contentious Jedwabne debate in the early 2000s through the present and shows how the history of the Holocaust has been both distorted and exploited in contemporary Polish politics and culture. It pays special attention to the most recent period of Law and Justice Party rule (2015-2020) and considers the varying ways that the government has constructed its approach to the past by asserting a “policy on history” (polityka historyczna) in state-sponsored research, the educational system, legislation, museum narratives, and more. In so doing, this work argues that the …

"Rivals And Partners”: The Competition For Control Of Judenpolitik In Reichskommissariat Ostland (1941–1944), Barbara Lynne Bailin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The dissertation recounts and investigates the impact of the bureaucratic conflicts inherent in the Nazi state apparatus in the implementation of Judenpolitik in an underdeveloped research area--the mass murder of Baltic Jews during World War II. It focuses specifically on Hinrich Lohse, the newly appointed Reichskommissar of the Reichskommissariat Ostland, the German-occupied Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia and parts of western Belorussia in the Soviet Union (known as the RKO), as he sought to navigate the bureaucratic clashes in what was, arguably, one of the most contentious conflicts within the senior Nazi leadership, that is, the Wehrmacht’s …

The Women That No One Wanted To See: The Duality Of The Women Within The Holocaust, Valerie Cabezas-Iacono

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper is a brief historiography of the complexities of unraveling how gender constructs inform how society perceives both female perpetrators of the Third Reich and victims of sexual assault during the Holocaust. The women within these categories experienced vastly different power dynamics from 1939-1945 with the implementation of anti-Semitic ideology that would go on to forge the genocidal policies of the Nazi State. Seemingly, Aryan and Jewish women had no traits that linked them besides their biological sex, and this one factor determined how their experiences would translate within the male-centered discourse of the Holocaust. The framework of Holocaust …

Spatial And Collective Memories Of Jewish Heritage Sites: A Comparative Study, Bryanna Caraballo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper is the first component of my capstone on the comparative study of the ghetto of Rome and Łódź ghetto in Poland. This project hopes to examine the importance of collective and spatial memory, and how these factors play a crucial role in our connection and understanding of identity, locations, and memory formation. The following paper will display the similarities between the occupation of the ghetto of Roman from 1555 to the unification of Italy in 1870, and the Łódź ghetto operation during World War II (1939-1945). The paper will also touch upon the differences between today’s Roman Jewish …

Dance Of Exile: The Sakharoffs’ Visual Performances In Montevideo (1935–1948), Pablo Munoz Ponzo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the life-work chronology of the dancers and choreographers Clotilde von Derp (whose surname then was Sakharoff) and Alexander Sakharoff, who were exiled in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 1941 and 1948. During their stay in the Rio de la Plata region, the Sakharoffs stirred up the art scene by performing extremely detailed dances with great attention to costume design. This thesis begins with a review of the reception of the dancers’ performances by the artistic and cultural circles in Montevideo, arguing that the Sakharoffs’ “queer” trajectory resonated with the Uruguayan artistic community, influencing the creation …