Jewish Studies Commons^™

In Spite Of You, We Live On: A Commemorative Painting, Goldie Gross

Publications and Research

This painting is the product of a Yiddish language independent study with Professor Debra Caplan. It depicts a war portrait of Hitler with a stumbling stone inscribed with the words "אויף צו להכעיס דיר לעבן מיר נאך" (in spite of you, we live on) in the center of his face. It is accompanied by an explanation of the painting.

Lessons From The Treblinka Archive: Transnational Collections And Their Implications For Historical Research, Chad S.A. Gibbs

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

In work for his 1979 book The Death Camp Treblinka, Alexander Donat began the process of locating survivors of the camp and recording their histories. In a telling testament to the lethality of this place, he could identify only sixty-eight survivors. Analysis of Donat’s early findings—emerging six years prior to the publication of any major academic monograph on the subject—offers a window into the difficulties of conducting research on this Nazi extermination camp and its widely-scattered witnesses.

Treblinka’s disembarkation ramp was effectively the eye of a transnational needle through which so many passed and so few emerged. Victims of …

Soap From Human Fat: The Case Of Professor Spanner, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Soap from Human Fat: The Case of Professor Spanner, by Monika Tomkiewicz and Piotr Semków (Gdynia: Wydawnictwo Róza Wiatrów, 2013).

Tolerance As A Way To Remember, Natalie Figueroa

Voces Novae

This project examines the topic of Holocaust memorialization with a specific focus on the Simon Wiesenthal Center and their Los Angeles Museum of Tolerance. It posits that the mission and design of the museum were shaped by two major factors, first, the values of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal for whom the Center was named, and second, racial and ethnic tensions within the City of Los Angeles during the late 1980s and early 1990s, which culminated in the Los Angeles riots in 1992 following the acquittal of four white police officers in the 1991 beating of Rodney King. The museum opened …

Through The Eyes Of Children: Social Oppression Under Nazi Rule From 1933 To 1938 Reflections Of Three Holocaust Survivors, Lauren Ashley Bradford

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

This paper discusses the experiences of three Berlin native child survivors of the Holocaust through analysis of their oral testimonies. Their unique voices help shed light on the various ways in which lives were forever changed for those who were legally identified as Jewish in Nazi Germany by way of social oppression. This paper highlights three key years that each survivor discussed at length in their testimonies: Hitler’s Chancellorship in 1933, the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, and Kristallnacht in 1938. Ultimately, this paper argues for the importance of these years and labels them as being a crucial part in the …

A Mission At 311, Nan Li

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis intends to look at how the aftermath of Holocaust has a tremendous life-changing impact on the children of Holocaust survivors, and to explore how these people has carried these misfortunes and burden to be resilient and joyful in their everyday lives.

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures: Anti-Semitism, Hopelessness, And The Rise Of The Nazi Party, Benjamin E. Bruster

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

This paper explores the rise the Nazi Party (NSDAP) as a function of compounded poverty, unemployment, economic stagnation, and long-tenured anti-Semitism. In doing so, I aim to understand the Nazis and their supporters not as demons, but as products of their unique historical situation. This perspective offers a greater understanding of Nazism's rise, and it also offers helpful means of thinking about possible fascist regimes in the future.

Vicarious Victimhood As Post-Holocaust Jewish Identity In Erica Fischer's Auto/Biography Aimée And Jaguar, Anne Rothe

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Vicarious Victimhood as Post-Holocaust Jewish Identity in Erica Fischer's Auto/Biography Aimée and Jaguar" Anne Rothe reads the Austrian-Jewish journalist's interview-based dual biography in autobiographical terms. Taking recourse to such para-texts as the preface and epilogue, in which Fischer reflects on her own subject position, in addition to the auto/biographical narrative itself, Rothe critiques the notion of constructing secular Jewish identity based on the notion of vicarious or hereditary Holocaust victimhood. This provocative new reading reveals that the biography Fischer wrote constitutes a counter-narrative to the story her main collaborator, Lilly Wust, told the author about her …

Groupthink Among German, British, American, And Soviet Leaders During The Holocaust, Alan Woolf

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Understanding the psychology behind the perpetrators of the Holocaust has been difficult because experiments on conformity and obedience cannot readily simulate the reality of the Holocaust. There exists historical documentation surrounding the leaders of the Nazi organization instrumental for the perpetration of the Holocaust, but the underlying motives of Hitler's leaders relating to governmental policies of systematic extermination of the Jews in Europe, are not known, as the strategy and operationalization of the actions were kept extremely secret, disguised by euphemisms, or only discussed verbally. This research study was to further understand the thought processes behind the manipulation tactics applied …

Book Review: Representing Genocide: The Holocaust As Paradigm?, Emily Sample

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Museum Approaches To Judaica: The Forgotten Spoils Of The Nazi Plunder Of Europe, Derek Butler

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Museum professionals are faced with many legal and ethical issues on a daily basis, many of which are rooted in the actions of people in the past. One of the largest issues discussed in our community over the last several decades stems from the mass looting of artwork across Europe by the Nazis during World War Two. While much attention has been given to the procedures and practices museums must go through in order to identify potential stolen works and return them to their rightful owners, Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues were also ransacked by German soldiers and anything of …

Summer Haven: The Catskills, The Holocaust, And The Literary Imagination (Jews Of Russia & Eastern Europe And Their Legacy), Holli Levitsky

Faculty Pub Night

No abstract provided.

Juristische Und Epische Verfremdung. Fritz Bauers Kritik Am Frankfurter Auschwitz-Prozess (1963–1965) Und Peter Weiss’ Dramatische Prozessbearbeitung Die Ermittlung. Oratorium In 11 Gesängen (1965), Kerstin Steitz

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

Beginning with the influences of Schiller's humanist ideals on Hessian Attorney General Fritz Bauer's expectations of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial as legal working through of the past, this article compares the Holocaust narrative created by the West German criminal trial to Peter Weiss's reworking of the transcripts Die Ermittlung. Oratorium in 11 Gesangen. The article aims to show that literature is able to convey and commemorate aspects of the Holocaust that German criminal law misrepresents and omits.

Belsen Silence, Monica Gil

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

I often look to text for musical inspiration, and after searching through swaths of Holocaust poetry online, I discovered "Belsen Silence" by Iolo Lewis. Its message is less graphic than some of the other texts I found, but that in no way detracts from its power of emotion. It is about looking back, tending to old wounds that are no longer fresh but are still healing. The Holocaust may have happened over fifty years ago, but it is still relevant, even alarmingly so at times. Today's reflections on yesterday's shortcomings are arguably the only way we learn, and that is …

S.S. Schatten Schmidt, Emma Albers-Lopez

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

This poem attempts to display the horrors that prisoners in Auschwitz endured, but also the internal struggles of S.S. guards. It has a large focus on music in the camp.

This poem has a personal connection to my family. My great-grandmother did steal Nazi flags to make clothes for her six children. The seventh child was killed in the way that is explained in the poem. That seventh child is where I received my name "Emma". It was a privilege to honor my namesake through this poem.

To See In Color, Sarah Rebban

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Book Harmful And Undesirable: Book Censorship In Nazi Germany, John A. Drobnicki

Publications and Research

Review of the book Harmful and undesirable: Book censorship in Nazi Germany.

The Writers, Artists, Singers, And Musicians Of The National Hungarian Jewish Cultural Association (Omike), 1939–1944, Frederick Bondy

Purdue University Press Book Previews

In May 1938, Hungary passed anti-Semitic laws causing hundreds of Jewish artists to lose their jobs. In response, Budapest’s Jewish community leaders organized an Artistic Enterprise under the aegis of OMIKE Országos Magyar Izraelita Közművelődési Egyesület (Hungarian Jewish Education Association) to provide employment and livelihood for actors, singers, musicians, conductors, composers, writers, playwrights, painters, graphic artists, and sculptors.

Between 1939 and 1944, activities were centered in Goldmark Hall beside the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest. Hundreds of artists from all over Hungary took part in about one thousand performances, including plays, concerts, cabaret, ballet, operas, and operettas. These performances appealed …

Realtors, Resistance, And White Roses, Casey Trattner

SURGE

I remember driving to school with my mother, eyes wide. I thought, as we passed by buildings and stores and little cafes with seats outside, that the small suburban town we were driving through was beautiful.

And when I told my mom, she looked at me out of the corner of her eyes and told me:

“Did I ever tell you how Dad and I were going to move here?”

“Here?” I said. “No… I don’t think so.”

“We were looking at a house that we both liked, but when I asked the real estate agent about how I heard …

A Boy In Hiding: Surviving The Nazis, Amsterdam 1940-1945, Stan Rubens

Zea E-Books Collection

A Boy in Hiding: Surviving the Nazis is a poignant, true-survival story of a young boy who hid for four years underground in Holland during World War II. A Boy in Hiding sheds a light on the difficult road that lay ahead for Anne Frank—had she survived. This book is written from the point of view of an eight-year-old boy growing up too fast during the five years of the war. Now, sixty years later, Rubens gives a voice to the young boy, who—despite the hard times and difficulties he encountered, never lost his positive view on life.

Retrospective Emotional Interpretation Of Holocaust Victims: Case Studies Of Usc Shoah Foundation Testimonies, Rachel Gaufberg

Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal at Clark (SURJ)

Extensive research has been conducted on the emotional/psychological conditions of survivors post-Holocaust, specifically symptoms of trauma of which many have been grouped and coined into terms such as “survivor syndrome” and “concentration camp syndrome” (USHMM, 2015). In addition, the treatment of such conditions have been studied and implemented. Conversely, significantly less research has been conducted regarding the emotional/psychological experiences of victims during these events, as recollected by victims in the present. Personal narratives of Holocaust survivors shed light on the emotional and psychological implications of the Holocaust’s traumatic events on individuals. In this paper, Holocaust survivors’ retrospective descriptions of …

The Scapegoat, Katherine Ludwig

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

This essay responds to a claim made in the aftermath of an Anti-Semitic attack. It discusses the treatment of Jews in Europe around the time of the Holocaust and what may have motivated this treatment.

The Tragedy Of Deportation: An Analysis Of Jewish Survivor Testimony On Holocaust Train Deportations, Connor Schonta

Senior Honors Theses

Over the course of World War II, trains carried three million Jews to extermination centers. The deportation journey was an integral aspect of the Nazis’ Final Solution and the cause of insufferable torment to Jewish deportees. While on the trains, Jews endured an onslaught of physical and psychological misery.

Though most Jews were immediately killed upon arriving at the death camps, a small number were chosen to work, and an even smaller number survived through liberation. The basis of this study comes from the testimonies of those who survived, specifically in regard to their recorded experiences and memories of the …

Commandant Of Lubizec: Fiction And The Holocaust In The Twilight Of The Survivor Era, Stephen J. Gaies

UNIversitas: Journal of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Seventy years after the liberation of the camps, Holocaust scholarship remains as vibrant and self-renewing as ever. Important works have been published in recent years; many have helped to shift the spotlight onto topics to which too little attention had been paid. For example, researchers like Omer Bartov, Timothy Snyder and Robert DesBois have focused on the war in the East and mass murder in the western Soviet Union, where some one and a half million Jews were shot by firing squads in what is now often referred to, following DesBois and the title of his book, as the Holocaust …

A Female Adolescent Bystander's Diary And The Jewish Hungarian Holocaust, Gergely Kunt

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "A Female Adolescent Bystander's Diary and the Jewish Hungarian Holocaust" Gergely Kunt analyzes the unpublished diary manuscript of Margit Molnár, a Hungarian Roman Catholic adolescent girl born in 1927 who kept a diary between 1941 and 1949. Kunt's analysis shows how Molnár viewed Jews, the persecution of Jews, and the anti-Jewish terror in Budapest. As the diary documents, Molnár's views of the Jews temporarily changed during the Arrow Cross's reign of terror in October 1944 when she received news of the Arrow Cross murdering Jews en masse in Budapest. However, once the war was over, Molnár's deep-seated …

Sobrevivimos … Al Fin Hablo, Leon Malmed

Zea E-Books Collection

Esta es la historia real de Leon Malmed quien, junto a su hermana Rachel, escapó de Francia durante la época del Holocausto gracias a sus valientes y heroicos vecinos quienes, después de haber presenciado el arresto de los padres de nuestro protagonista en 1942, se ofrecieron a cuidarlo a él y a su hermana hasta que regresaran. Primero, los padres de Leon fueron llevados a Drancy, después a Auschwitz-Birkenau, y nunca volvieron. Mientras tanto sus vecinos, que vivían en el piso de abajo, Henri y Suzanne Ribouleau, los acogieron dándoles un hogar y una familia; protegiéndolos mientras la ocupación los …

Refugees And Relief: The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee And European Jews In Cuba And Shanghai 1938-1943, Zhava Litvac Glaser

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traditionally, pre-modern Jewish communities sensed an obligation to bind together to provide aid to Jews who found themselves in catastrophic situations; however, with the advent of modernity and the dissolution of Jewish communal authority, the fragmentation of Jewish communities, and the unprecedented stresses of the Holocaust, communal dynamics grew far more complex. The Jews of Cuba and Shanghai were two small and relatively remote communities overwhelmed by Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazis. At their request, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee stepped in and provided both the funding and leadership that both of these locations so desperately needed.

The Jewish …

Walking In A Burnt Hole, Sophia Friedman

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Holocaust stems from the Greek word “burnt hole,” but when the word Holocaust is mentioned today it refers to the rise of Nazi Germany in 1933 until the fall in 1945 (Skloot). More specifically, the Holocaust refers to the 11 million persecutions through concentration camps. The Holocaust is widely studied for various reasons, but the biggest reason is that “’we are seekers of understanding in the territory defined by those events” (Skloot 9). Through written work, such as poetry and plays, the Holocaust is brought to life in a more realistic way.

Through art we are able to connect to …

The Becker Family Inaugural Learning Journey, Noreen Brand

Jan Karski Conference

No abstract provided.

Education By Example, Lawrence Frizzell

Department of Religion Publications

This is the keynote address Lawrence E. Frizzell delivered at the Yom HaShoah Remembrance at the Diocese of Venice’s Epiphany Cathedral in Venice, Florida on May 4, 2014.