The PhD thesis project is based on the assumption that the violence of the Nazi occupation was less intense in Alsace than elsewhere in Europe. It aims to answer the question: with what means did the Nazi occupiers manage to establish a relatively stable domination? In this context, the project will analyse both the structures of the National Socialist regime and the daily behavior of the occupants and the occupied, at the regional level of Gau Baden-Elsass then set up, but also at the level of different municipalities. In this way, the different forms of interaction between the occupants and the occupied will be highlighted, interactions strongly influenced not only by the political and administrative structures, but also by the motivations of the local actors. The project aims to combine approaches of political history, social history and daily history by analyzing the motivations and the room for individual maneuver. The mobilized sources will be documents of political, administrative, legal, police, military and journalistic origin, but also pertaining to private and intimate life. Reading of the scientific literature is necessary to put the research results into a European context.
The research must be based on a solid knowledge of the history of Alsace in the French and German contexts in 19th and 20th centuries. But the knowledge must also be solid in the history of the National-Socialist regime and of the National-Socialist occupation in Europe. The candidate should have a master’s degree in History and have excellent knowledge in the field of contemporary history in France and Germany. Thus, a solid knowledge of the French, German and English scientific literature is needed. Good language skills in French, German and English are needed. Complete mastery of German language is needed, as many original documents are in German, and important research work has to be done in German archives, but also in French archives and libraries, in Alsace and in Paris.
Research must be done primarily in the ARCHE (EA 3400) lab of the University of Strasbourg with Catherine Maurer, professor for contemporary history, as supervisor but the project must develop within a co-supervision of thesis established between the University of Strasbourg and the University of Freiburg im Breisgau (professor Sylvia Paletschek).
The scholarship amount is currently Euro 1769 gross a month.