International Research Workshop
The US Military and the Holocaust
July 15–26, 2024
USHMM, Washington, D.C.
Applications due 2/2/24

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum invites applications for a research workshop entitled The US Military and the Holocaust. The Mandel Center will co-convene this workshop with Kaete O’Connell, Yale University, and Adam Seipp, Texas A&M University. The workshop is scheduled for July 15–26, 2024, and will take place at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

On the last day of World War II in Europe, more than 1.8 million American military personnel found themselves on the territory of Hitler’s collapsed Reich. During the invasion of German- occupied Europe and for years thereafter, American military personnel encountered and interacted in a variety of ways with the millions of surviving victims of the Holocaust, forced labor, and other crimes of the Nazi regime. While the military was sometimes reluctant to take on responsibilities beyond their traditional war-fighting tasks, the armed forces played a critical role in managing the chaotic and uncertain transition from war to peace after 1945.

The goal of this workshop is to stimulate conversation about the US military’s engagement with the Holocaust before, during, and after the murderous years of the Second World War. The past decade has seen a flourishing of scholarship in many languages on what Frank Stern memorably called the “historic triangle” of Jews, Germans, and occupiers. This contemporary scholarship has complicated Stern’s triangle and simultaneously opened new avenues for thinking about the complex web of relationships that developed across postwar Germany and Europe.

Our workshop will thus explore the US military’s involvement in the Holocaust from several thematic and chronological angles: 1) the invasion and occupation of Europe, including debates over the bombing of concentration camps, the internment of American prisoners of war in the Nazi camp system, and the liberation of camps in the West, 2) refugee management and humanitarian assistance, 3) the identification, prosecution, and punishment of perpetrators, 4) the post-1945 experiences of refugees and survivors who served in the US military, 5) the Holocaust and race, including the Civil Rights Movement, in the United States, and 6) the memory of war and liberation and the study of trauma. We welcome contributions that discuss the role of the Holocaust in shaping ongoing discussions of American foreign policy and military affairs.

Daily sessions of the workshop will consist of presentations and roundtable discussions led by participants, as well as discussions with Museum staff and research in the Museum’s collections. The workshop will be conducted in English.

Museum Resources
The Museum's David M. Rubinstein National Institute for Holocaust Documentation houses an unparalleled repository of Holocaust evidence that documents the fate of victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others. The Museum’s comprehensive collection contains millions of documents, artifacts, photos, films, books, and testimonies. The Museum’s Database of Holocaust Survivor and Victim Names contains records on people persecuted during World War II under the Nazi regime, including Jews and Roma and Sinti. In addition, the Museum possesses the holdings of the International Tracing Service (ITS), which contains more than 200 million digitized pages with information on the fates of 17.5 million people who were subject to incarceration, forced labor, and displacement as a result of World War II. Many of these records have not been examined by scholars, offering unprecedented opportunities to advance the field of Holocaust and genocide studies.

Participants will have access to both the Museum’s downtown campus and the David and Fela Shapell Family Collections, Conservation and Research Center in Bowie, MD. To search the Museum's collections, please visit collections.ushmm.org/search.

Participants will also have the opportunity to pursue research in the National Archives and Records Administration and the Library of Congress.

To Apply
Applications are welcome from scholars affiliated with universities, research institutions, federal government agencies, or memorial sites and in any relevant academic discipline, including anthropology, art history, economics, genocide studies, geography, history, Jewish studies, law, literature, philosophy, political science, psychology, sociology, religion, and Romani studies, and others. Applications are encouraged from scholars at all levels of their careers, from Ph.D. candidates to senior faculty. Scholars working at the intersections of military history, the history of humanitarianism, Jewish and Romani studies, public history, medical history, memory studies, and/or the history of the federal government are especially encouraged to apply.

The Mandel Center will reimburse the costs of round-trip economy-class air tickets to/from the Washington, D.C. metro area, and related incidental expenses, up to a maximum reimbursable amount calculated by home institution location, which will be distributed within 6–8 weeks of the workshop’s conclusion. The Mandel Center will also provide hotel accommodation for the duration of the workshop. Participants are required to attend the full duration of the workshop and to circulate a draft paper in advance of the program. Participants must commit to attending the entire workshop.

The deadline for receipt of applications is Friday, February 2, 2024. Applications must include a short biography (one paragraph), a CV, and an abstract of no more than 300 words outlining the specific project that the applicant is working on, plans to research, and is prepared to present during the program. All application materials must be submitted in English online at ushmm.org/research-workshops.

Admission will be determined without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender (sexual orientation or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or reprisal. The Museum also prohibits any form of workplace discrimination or harassment.

COVID-19 Safety Measures
The health and safety of Museum guests and staff are always the Museum's top priority. The Museum takes all reasonable safety precautions but cannot guarantee the safety of any participant. Participants acknowledge that their risk of COVID-19 exposure may increase by participating in the program or by engaging in any other travel. By participating in the program, you voluntarily assume all risks related to COVID-19 exposure and release the Museum from any associated liability.

Per guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Museum encourages all participants to stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccinations. The Museum’s safety measures are based on CDC COVID-19 Community Levels and will be adjusted to reflect any changes in the level. Prior to the program, the Museum will provide updates regarding the latest guidelines related to health and safety protocols. Participants agree to abide by all health and safety protocols required by the United States, the Museum, and/or the local jurisdiction rules applicable to the program.

Questions should be directed to researchworkshops@ushmm.org.

This international research workshop was made possible by the William J. Lowenberg Memorial Endowment on America, the Holocaust, and the Jews.

Jacob and Yetta Gelman International Research Workshop
From the Atlantic to the Black Sea: Local Relief and Rescue Operations on the Margins of the Holocaust
August 19–30, 2024
Washington, D.C.
Applications due 2/2/24

Jacob and Yetta Gelman International Research Workshop
From the Atlantic to the Black Sea: Local Relief and Rescue Operations on the Margins of the Holocaust
August 19–30, 2024
USHMM, Washington, D.C.
Applications due 2/2/24

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum invites applications for the 2024 Jacob and Yetta Gelman International Research Workshop From the Atlantic to the Black Sea: Local Relief and Rescue Operations on the Margins of the Holocaust. The Mandel Center will co-convene this workshop with Gaëlle Fisher, Bielefeld University, and Sebastian Musch, University of Osnabrück. The workshop is scheduled for August 19–30, 2024, and will take place at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

In the last couple of decades, the role of non-governmental organizations and their relief and rescue activities for those seeking to flee Nazi-dominated Europe have received considerable scholarly attention. While the history of major global organizations—such as the World Jewish Congress and the International Committee of the Red Cross—has become integral to the study of the Holocaust, the decisive role of local actors in humanitarian operations has been neglected and, in many cases, overlooked entirely. With their distinct practical knowledge and connections, local actors often played a crucial role in relief and rescue for persecuted Jews, Roma, and others seeking to flee Nazi-dominated Europe. Navigating the space between highly specific local contexts and global politics, and filling the interstices between state actors and larger rescue and relief organizations, these individuals and groups proved to be skilled operators, with their own distinctive incentives, interests, and problems.

This workshop advances research on rescue and relief in World War II by foregrounding these smaller local actors and organizations, particularly in locations on the perimeters of the main theaters of the Holocaust and on the peripheries of power. We will consider a range of non-governmental actors and networks from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, from Lisbon to Helsinki to Tbilisi to Cairo, often small-scale and grassroots, organized from below and inhabiting the margins. How and why did they attempt to provide rescue and relief for those in danger of persecution, deportation, and extermination by Nazi Germany and its allies? What challenges and constraints, material, ideological, or otherwise, did they face? What were the stakes, priorities, and possibilities for such actors at the margins and how did they differ from those in what are often regarded as the epicenters of the Holocaust? What were the global dimensions and effects of this civilian activism during the Holocaust?

By linking the nascent field of humanitarian studies with the local turn in the study of the Holocaust, we seek to provide a more theoretically informed, transnational, and comparative picture of relief and rescue activities that sheds new light on the structures, networks, and relationships that mattered and made a difference. Highlighting the interactions of these local actors with both local state authorities and larger global rescue and relief organizations will, for instance, contribute to a broader understanding of flight and forced migration during the Holocaust. This research, in turn, will enhance our understanding of how the war, violence, and the mass murder of European Jews and Roma has shaped beliefs, narratives, and conceptions of individual and collective agency––and continues to shape them to this day.

We welcome contributions that address specific individuals and organizations, issues of scale, hierarchies and asymmetries of power in different local contexts, and regional and/or urban case studies from a broad range of sites on the margins.

Daily sessions of the workshop will consist of presentations and roundtable discussions led by participants, as well as discussions with Museum staff, and research in the Museum’s collections. The workshop will be conducted in English.

Museum Resources
The Museum's David M. Rubinstein National Institute for Holocaust Documentation houses an unparalleled repository of Holocaust evidence that documents the fate of victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others. The Museum’s comprehensive collection contains millions of documents, artifacts, photos, films, books, and testimonies. The Museum’s Database of Holocaust Survivor and Victim Names contains records on people persecuted during World War II under the Nazi regime, including Jews and Roma and Sinti. In addition, the Museum possesses the holdings of the International Tracing Service (ITS), which contains more than 200 million digitized pages with information on the fates of 17.5 million people who were subject to incarceration, forced labor, and displacement as a result of World War II. Many of these records have not been examined by scholars, offering unprecedented opportunities to advance the field of Holocaust and genocide studies.

Participants will have access to both the Museum’s downtown campus and the David and Fela Shapell Family Collections, Conservation and Research Center in Bowie, MD. To search the Museum's collections, please visit collections.ushmm.org/search.

To Apply
Applications are welcome from scholars affiliated with universities, research institutions, or memorial sites and in any relevant academic discipline, including anthropology, art history, economics, genocide studies, geography, history, Jewish studies, law, literature, philosophy, political science, psychology, sociology, religion, and Romani studies, and others. Applications are encouraged from scholars at all levels of their careers, from Ph.D. candidates to senior faculty. Scholars in the Global South are especially encouraged to apply.

The Mandel Center will reimburse the costs of round-trip economy-class air tickets to/from the Washington, D.C. metro area, and related incidental expenses, up to a maximum reimbursable amount calculated by home institution location, which will be distributed within 6–8 weeks of the workshop’s conclusion. The Mandel Center will also provide hotel accommodation for the duration of the workshop. Participants are required to attend the full duration of the workshop and to circulate a draft paper in advance of the program. Participants must commit to attending the entire workshop.

The deadline for receipt of applications is Friday, February 2, 2024. Applications must include a short biography (one paragraph), a list of related publications (if any), and an abstract of no more than 300 words outlining the specific project that the applicant is working on, plans to research, and is prepared to present during the program. All application materials must be submitted in English online at ushmm.org/research-workshops.

Admission will be determined without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender (sexual orientation or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or reprisal. The Museum also prohibits any form of workplace discrimination or harassment.

COVID-19 Safety Measures
The health and safety of Museum guests and staff are always the Museum's top priority. The Museum takes all reasonable safety precautions but cannot guarantee the safety of any participant. Participants acknowledge that their risk of COVID-19 exposure may increase by participating in the program or by engaging in any other travel. By participating in the program, you voluntarily assume all risks related to COVID-19 exposure and release the Museum from any associated liability.

Per guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Museum encourages all participants to stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccinations. The Museum’s safety measures are based on CDC COVID-19 Community Levels and will be adjusted to reflect any changes in the level. Prior to the program, the Museum will provide updates regarding the latest guidelines related to health and safety protocols. Participants agree to abide by all health and safety protocols required by the United States, the Museum, and/or the local jurisdiction rules applicable to the program.

Questions should be directed to researchworkshops@ushmm.org.

This workshop has been made possible through the generosity of the Yetta and Jacob Gelman Endowment at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Moskowitz/Rafalowicz International Research Workshop
Property, Possessions, and the Moral Materialities of Holocaust Justice
August 5–16, 2024
Washington, D.C.
Applications due 2/2/24

Moskowitz/Rafalowicz International Research Workshop
Property, Possessions, and the Moral Materialities of Holocaust Justice
August 5–16, 2024
USHMM, Washington, D.C.
Applications due 2/2/24

The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum invites applications for the 2024 Moskowitz/Rafalowicz International Research Workshop Property, Possessions, and the Moral Materialities of Holocaust Justice. The Mandel Center will co-convene this workshop with Dovile Budrytė, Georgia Gwinnett College and Vilnius University, and Neringa Klumbytė, Miami University. The workshop is scheduled for August 5–16, 2024, and will take place at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Throughout Europe, dispossession was an integral component of the mass murder of Jews and Roma during the Holocaust. Interviews with survivors, eyewitnesses, and collaborators in Eastern Europe affirm that theft was a common reason for the active participation of local populations in the mass killings known as the “Holocaust by bullets.” The personal belongings of victims ended up in the families and homes of those who conducted the killings or assisted the perpetrators. Others were redistributed to local populations or sold at auctions; locals moved into houses previously owned by their Jewish neighbors.

Despite efforts at property restitution following the 2009 Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues, both academic study and public awareness of the scope of the looting by local populations and the massive losses of Jewish and Romani immovable property in the Holocaust remains scant. Furthermore, it also remains unclear how attempts at property restitution are perceived by their intended recipients—the descendants of the victims.

This workshop focuses on historical justice through the lens of things and property. Ethnographic research with families of Holocaust survivors and victims indicates that they understand justice in terms of moral materialities—that is, restitution is, for them, inextricable from recognition, the restoration of personal dignity, and inclusion into society. Their experiences lead us to ask: How do possessions and property feature in claims about identity and social belonging made by the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors and victims? How do stories of theft and appropriation raise public awareness of the material annihilation of Jewish and Romani communities? What sorts of social dynamics and historical relationships are prompted by the discovery of Jewish and Romani things and property in non-Jewish/non-Romani homes? How do understanding of historical justice articulated in stories about possessions and property in local Jewish and Romani communities differ from conceptualizations of historical justice in national and transnational projects that focus on restitution of Jewish property?

Addressing these questions in our workshop, our goal is to develop a comprehensive approach to historical justice that accounts for the fate of possessions and property and their biographies of new “ownership,” and foregrounds articulations of history and justice by Jewish and Romani communities in terms of moral materialities in the context of national and international perspectives on historical justice. To do so, we will consider these topics from several interrelated angles: 1) object biographies of the things and property looted during the Holocaust, including items in museum collections, 2) individual experiences in reclaiming possessions and property after the war, processes and practices related to large-scale restitution programs, and theorizations of justice through restitution, 3) public cognizance, recollection, remembrance, and/or denial of local involvement in the appropriation of possessions and property through theft, looting, redistribution, or (re)sale during the Holocaust, and 4) the stories of theft and appropriation passed down in the family realm or shared within Jewish and Romani communities.

In addition to shedding light on the processes related to historical justice after the Holocaust, we hope to contribute to discussions about Holocaust restitution in various public spheres and expand conceptualizations of transnational and state-level justice to include the perspectives of their intended beneficiaries.

Daily sessions of the workshop will consist of presentations and roundtable discussions led by participants, as well as discussions with Museum staff and research in the Museum’s collections. The workshop will be conducted in English.

Museum Resources
The Museum's David M. Rubinstein National Institute for Holocaust Documentation houses an unparalleled repository of Holocaust evidence that documents the fate of victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others. The Museum’s comprehensive collection contains millions of documents, artifacts, photos, films, books, and testimonies. The Museum’s Database of Holocaust Survivor and Victim Names contains records on people persecuted during World War II under the Nazi regime, including Jews and Roma and Sinti. In addition, the Museum possesses the holdings of the International Tracing Service (ITS), which contains more than 200 million digitized pages with information on the fates of 17.5 million people who were subject to incarceration, forced labor, and displacement as a result of World War II. Many of these records have not been examined by scholars, offering unprecedented opportunities to advance the field of Holocaust and genocide studies.

Participants will have access to both the Museum’s downtown campus and the David and Fela Shapell Family Collections, Conservation and Research Center in Bowie, MD. To search the Museum's collections, please visit collections.ushmm.org/search.

To Apply
Applications are welcome from scholars affiliated with universities, research institutions, or memorial sites and in any relevant academic discipline, including anthropology, art history, economics, genocide studies, geography, history, Jewish studies, law, literature, philosophy, political science, psychology, sociology, religion, and Romani studies, and others. Applications are encouraged from scholars at all levels of their careers, from Ph.D. candidates to senior faculty. While our focus is on Eastern Europe, we welcome applications that address these issues in Western Europe, whether in stand-alone case studies or a comparative vein. Scholars whose projects incorporate field research are especially encouraged to apply.

The Mandel Center will reimburse the costs of round-trip economy-class air tickets to/from the Washington, D.C. metro area, and related incidental expenses, up to a maximum reimbursable amount calculated by home institution location, which will be distributed within 6–8 weeks of the workshop’s conclusion. The Mandel Center will also provide hotel accommodation for the duration of the workshop. Participants are required to attend the full duration of the workshop and to circulate a draft paper in advance of the program. Participants must commit to attending the entire workshop.

The deadline for receipt of applications is Friday, February 2, 2024. Applications must include a short biography, a CV, a list of any related publications and/or on-going research projects, and an abstract of no more than 500 words outlining the specific project that the applicant plans to research and is prepared to present during the program. All application materials must be submitted in English online at ushmm.org/research-workshops.

Admission will be determined without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender (sexual orientation or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, or reprisal. The Museum also prohibits any form of workplace discrimination or harassment.

COVID-19 Safety Measures
The health and safety of Museum guests and staff are always the Museum's top priority. The Museum takes all reasonable safety precautions but cannot guarantee the safety of any participant. Participants acknowledge that their risk of COVID-19 exposure may increase by participating in the program or by engaging in any other travel. By participating in the program, you voluntarily assume all risks related to COVID-19 exposure and release the Museum from any associated liability.

Per guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Museum encourages all participants to stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccinations. The Museum’s safety measures are based on CDC COVID-19 Community Levels and will be adjusted to reflect any changes in the level. Prior to the program, the Museum will provide updates regarding the latest guidelines related to health and safety protocols. Participants agree to abide by all health and safety protocols required by the United States, the Museum, and/or the local jurisdiction rules applicable to the program.

Questions should be directed to researchworkshops@ushmm.org.

This workshop has been made possible through the generosity of the Moskowitz/Rafalowicz Endowment at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.