SUMMER Table of Contents

NEWSLETTER 2 Director’s Letter

3 Profile: Sue Vice
2 0 2 3 5 Profile: Benjamin Frommer
7 Featured Report:
Alessio Ponzio

9 Teaching the Holocaust in

War-Torn Ukraine

11 Regional Institute Reports

14 Announcements and Events

15 Personal and

Professional News

18 Publications
 DIRECTOR’S LETTER

Dear Friends and Colleagues, Reassessing the Memorialization of

Criminality in Germany.”
We hope that summer (for those in the
Northern Hemisphere) finds you well. Washington University in St. Louis and
We wish you a season of rest and reju- the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust
venation. Even as you continue research Museum welcomed 18 Fellows to the
and writing in the months ahead, we Regional Institute on “The Year of the
hope you return to campus in September Holocaust: Thirty Years Later” held
with renewed energy for the work of 28-30 April. Doris Bergen gave the key-
Holocaust teaching and learning. note titled, “Hindsight and Insight: Thirty
Years of Holocaust Studies, War, and
HEFNU also has a little break over the Genocide.”
summer to recover from a busy year and
gear up for the next. I take this opportu- We welcomed 24 Fellows to the 27th
nity to review our activities over recent months and annual Summer Institute on the Holocaust and
look forward to those ahead. Jewish Civilization. Our two-week (18-30 June) resi-
dential seminar held on the Northwestern University
We had a eventful spring - on campus and in our campus in Evanston prepares participants to develop
collaborations with others. Here at Northwestern a Holocaust course at their home institutions.
University, we invited two incredible scholars to
speak about different aspects of the Holocaust. The second European Lessons & Legacies Conference
will take place in Prague this coming November in
Anna Hájková (Warwick University, UK) screened a cooperation with the German Federal Agency for
film version of her play (co-written with Erika Hughes), Civic Engagement, Charles University, the Masaryk
“The Amazing Life of Margot Heuman,” which portrays Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of
conversations between Hájková and Heuman, one of Sciences, and the Institute for Contemporary History
the few out lesbian Holocaust survivors. (Munich). The Conference organizing committee –
Ildikó Barna, Michal Frankl, Hana Kubátová, Anna
Victoria Aarons (Trinity University) gave HEFNU’s Ullrich, Amy Wlodarski, and Florian Zabransky – looks
Theodore Zev Weiss Lecture in Holocaust Studies. forward to welcoming many of you to Prague.
Phyllis Lassner offered a wonderful introduction, plac-
ing Aarons’s lecture, “Generational Representations The next North American Lessons & Legacies will
of Trauma in Holocaust Graphic Narratives,” in the take place in Southern California in cooperation with
context of her decades long career. Claremont-McKenna College and the University of
Southern California. Please see the call for papers at
Both lectures welcomed students, faculty, staff, and this link. The deadline for proposals is 4 December 2023.
the greater Evanston community.
I wish each of you a relaxing and productive season.
HEFNU sponsored two Regional Institutes to foster Thank you for your work to advance Holocaust teach-
networks of Holocaust scholars and instructors. ing and research.

The University of Mississippi hosted a Regional With respect and gratitude,

Institute on “Visual Culture and the Holocaust”
from 13-15 April with 23 Fellows participating. The Sarah M. Cushman, PhD
outstanding faculty included Paul Jaskot (Duke
University), who also offered the keynote lec- Director
ture, “Public Monuments and Holocaust Memory:

Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University 2

 PROFILE
Sue Vice

Sue Vice is a renowned concludes with film and documentary. Through this
literary scholar whose approach, Vice endeavors to instill in her students
primary focus lies in the an appreciation for the unique contributions that
study of representa- literature and film can make to our understanding
tions of the Holocaust of the Holocaust, while learning to critically analyze
in fiction. She has ded- the various choices of the authors, poets, and film-
icated her academic makers being studied. She notes that, while stu-
career to exploring var- dents have “often learned about the Holocaust in
ious aspects of Holo- school, and some have even been to Auschwitz due
caust literature and its to educational travel programs in British schools,
impact on our under- they haven’t usually studied it from a literary or
standing of the histori- film studies perspective.” She finds that students
cal event, from her sec- “continue to really want to study this topic,” with a
ond book, titled Holocaust Fiction (Routledge, 2000), full classroom every year, “even though for these
to journal articles on fictionalized representations students the Holocaust is further and further away
of children’s perspectives in Holocaust literature in time.” Throughout the course, students “gain an
and, more recently, of Holocaust survivors with appreciation for what literature can contribute to
dementia. As she notes, “it can be quite a taboo our understanding of the Holocaust, and what they
to make fiction about the Holocaust,” but these can contribute as literary and film scholars.” While
works can nonetheless serve important functions, teaching this material, Vice strives to impart stu-
and offer valuable new perspectives for study. For dents with a sense of the intersectionality of the
example, Vice notes that, despite the “paradox Holocaust and its various categories of victims –
of trying to write from a child’s perspective as an the T4 program, and the targeting of homosexual
adult, lots of people have tried, either in fiction or in men and Roma populations, for example – while not
testimony, to reproduce the viewpoint of a child” – “losing track of the Jewishness of it,” the knowledge
a lens which “can be really helpful because it defa- that “a particular group of people – the Jews - were
miliarizes these events that as adults we’ve come to especially targeted.” She has also published on
be really oddly familiar with.” At the same time, she the pedagogical challenges of teaching Holocaust
points out that “unless you really are a child, then literature and film, contributing to the scholarship
you can’t do it – children don’t typically write that on Holocaust education and fostering improve-
way.” Rather, it’s “literature written by adults to be ment within the field through reflection on her own
read by adults, from the perspective of a child.” She teaching experience.
also explores embellished and outright false Holo-
caust testimony in publications like her book Tex- In recent years, Vice has taken on a significant role
tual Deceptions (2014, Edinburgh), noting the risks with HEFNU as a member of the Academic Council.
of “encouraging Holocaust denial and disparaging While she had long participated in the Lessons &
genuine survivor accounts.” Legacies conference, she notes that being on the
Council gave her “new insight into the huge array of
Vice’s scholarly interests carry over into her teaching opportunities offered by HEFNU, such as the bur-
as a professor at University of Sheffield, where she saries supporting younger scholars to develop their
has taught the course Representing the Holocaust research or teaching skills.” Through these grants,
for 25 years. The course starts with testimony HEFNU nurtures the next generation of Holocaust
and goes through poetry, fiction, graphic memoirs scholars. While HEFNU is a US-based organiza-
like Art Spiegelman’s renowned work Maus, and tion, Vice finds that she’s “come to feel that it’s a

Summer 2023 Newsletter 3

 PROFILE
Sue Vice

worldwide body,” connecting scholars around the Profile by Daniel Atwood.

world in the shared mission of advancing high-qual-
ity Holocaust curriculum and research. During the Daniel Atwood is a doctoral student in musicology,
Covid-19 pandemic, she notes, “more things were concentrating on theatrical music and popular cul-
offered online, such as regional symposia which ture in early modern England. His advisor is Linda
might have previously remained local.” A small sil- Phyllis Austern. He currently serves as graduate
ver lining to an otherwise deeply cloudy time, this assistant for the Holocaust Educational Foundation.
shift facilitated greater participation and engage-
ment from scholars globally, reinforcing the impor-
tance of international cooperation and knowledge
sharing. Despite the difficulties imposed by the
pandemic, Vice recognizes the resilience and
adaptability of the academic community in finding
alternative avenues for discourse and collaboration.
Her time on the Council has also given her a new
appreciation for “all of the amazing work that goes
into fundraising, advertising, and organizing the
Summer Institute and Regional Institutes.” These
Regional Institutes, a relatively recent addition to
HEFNU’s offerings, facilitate scholarly exchange of
ideas in localized contexts; this year, HEFNU has
coordinated Regional Institute meetings in Oxford,
Mississippi, and St. Louis, Missouri.

Sue Vice’s involvement in the field of Holocaust

literature and education reflect her dedication
and expertise as a literary scholar and pedagogue.
Through her research and publications, she has
shed light on the complexities of representing the
Holocaust in fiction. Her extensive experience
teaching the course Representing the Holocaust
has provided generations of students with an
appreciation for the contributions of literature
and film in Holocaust studies and provided them
with the appropriate critical apparatus for assess-
ing these representations. Her contributions as a
scholar, educator, and HEFNU Academic Council
member continue to advance the field and ensure
that future generations continue to engage with
and learn from this crucial historical event.

Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University 4

 PROFILE
Benjamin Frommer

As former director of “lived and worked in the same places as non-

HEFNU during the pivot- Jews and ate the same things in the same places.”
al time of its transition Frommer notes, “from the Nazi point of view, this
to Northwestern Uni- makes it more laborious and even potentially dan-
versity, Benjamin From- gerous to identify and separate people out from
mer’s association with the community,” since such a significant propor-
this organization is likely tion of Jews in the region had non-Jewish relatives
well-known to long-time or relations with the non-Jewish community. The
readers of this newslet- book “takes a ground-level perspective to explore
ter. He played a prima- the daily life experiences and participation of the
ry role in establishing local population and government, and how it was
HEF within the universi- experienced by Jews in the region.” By delving
ty, providing important into the lives of individuals in this unique context,
groundwork for the years to follow. Frommer formal- Frommer seeks to unveil the intricacies of daily
ized the organization’s grant application and review existence during this time, and to offer a nuanced
processes and increased their amount. He also es- understanding of the Holocaust’s impact on Jews
tablished the position of the HEFNU graduate assis- and the broader community.
tant. In addition to his impressive contributions to
the success of this organization, Frommer’s exten- Beyond his research endeavors, Frommer is also
sive research and thought-provoking publications known for his exceptional dedication to teaching
have reshaped scholarly understanding of Central and mentoring, engaging students with the same
and Eastern European history. Notably, his book rigor and intellectual curiosity that defines his
National Cleansing: Retribution Against Nazi Col- research. He finds it critical to “bring students to
laborators in Postwar Czechoslovakia (Cambridge, the extent possible into the dynamics and the dilem-
2005) explored the complex dynamics of vengeance mas of the time, to try and understand the histori-
and justice in the aftermath of World War II, and it cal actors, the limited choices they faced, and the
reflects a generation of scholarship made possible consequences of those choices.” He incorporates
with the opening of the archives after the fall of the numerous primary sources, such as first-person
Soviet Union. Through meticulous analysis, From- memoirs and diaries, to help students “understand
mer shed light on the social and political process- the difficulty of living in times where people could
es that shaped post-war trials, challenging conven- not determine the general outlines of their own
tional narratives and provided nuanced insights into fates, and had to make individual decisions within
of this crucial period in history. a very small, unpredictable, and uncontrollable
set of options.” Frommer’s pedagogical approach
Currently, Frommer is working on a book titled The instills in students a profound empathy for and a
Ghetto Without Walls: The Holocaust in the Nazi nuanced understanding of these historical actors.
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, a territory in One aspect of this historical complexity that
which 80,000 Jews were murdered. “What makes Frommer finds resonates with today’s students lies
this region particularly interesting,” he says, “is in the intersectionality of targeted groups during
that this was perhaps the most assimilated Jewish the Holocaust. “The genocide of the European Jews
community in the world at the time.” Intermarriage was part of an encompassing worldview that also
rates were around 40% in the western part of the included the murder of the disabled, Roma, and
territory in the 1930s – “a figure that isn’t reached gay men,” Frommer notes, adding that “a lot of
in the USA until the 1980s.” In other words, Jews the major figures who ran the killing centers that

Summer 2023 Newsletter 5

 PROFILE
Benjamin Frommer

murdered millions of Jews had previously worked Profile by Daniel Atwood.

in the euthanasia facilities to kill the disabled.” He
finds that students are highly responsive to these Daniel Atwood is a doctoral student in musicology,
intersectional connections, constituting “a meet- concentrating on theatrical music and popular cul-
ing point of people’s interests today, and histori- ture in early modern England. His advisor is Linda
cally sound research.” Phyllis Austern. He currently serves as graduate
assistant for the Holocaust Educational Foundation.
Benjamin Frommer’s multifaceted contributions
to the field of Holocaust studies through his role
as former director of HEFNU, his groundbreak-
ing research in Central European history, and his
dedication to teaching have solidified his rep-
utation as a prominent scholar and educator.
Frommer’s instrumental role in establishing HEF
within Northwestern University and his efforts
to strengthen the foundation exemplify his com-
mitment to advancing Holocaust education and
research. His thought-provoking publications con-
tinue to reshape our understanding of post-war
retribution and justice. His teaching philosophy
fosters a deep appreciation for the complexities
of decision-making in historical contexts. Through
his invaluable contributions, Frommer continues to
shape the field of Holocaust studies, both through
his own research and, through his work at HEFNU
and his teaching, by creating a space for future
generations of scholars to explore the complexities
of this dark chapter in history with intellectual rigor
and empathy.

Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University 6

 FEATURED REPORT
Alessio Ponzio

I earned my PhD from and pedagogical techniques. The conversation with

the University of Mich- Holocaust Survivor Irene Hasenberg Butter, orga-
igan. During that time, nized by HEFNU and Professor Debórah Dwork, was
I was a graduate stu- a unique experience that deeply affected me as a
dent instructor for a scholar and as a person.
class on the origins of
Nazism – which gave In the Winter of 2023, I was able to teach “History
extensive consideration of the Holocaust” for the first time. To reach as
to anti-Jewish polices many first-year students as possible, the course
and practices – and two was offered at the 100-level. Given my scholarly
classes focused on the expertise, I hope to offer soon an upper-level class
history of the Holocaust. devoted to gender, sexuality, and the Holocaust.
As an Assistant Profes- My course, a much-needed contribution to the aca-
sor in Modern European History and the History of demic offerings of my university, attracted – and
Gender and Sexuality at the University of Saskatch- hopefully will continue to attract – many students
ewan, I have devoted lectures and discussions to interested in learning about and understanding the
Nazi anti-Jewish policies, the Holocaust, and the history of the Holocaust.
post-war Jewish Diaspora. While teaching my sur-
vey courses on Modern Europe in 2019 and 2020, I The teaching grant I received for the academic
realized that these topics attracted the attention of year 2022-2023 from the Holocaust Educational
students who wanted to understand why and how Foundation of Northwestern University was an
the Holocaust happened. important contribution to launching my class. It
not only funded the organization of two lectures
In 2020, browsing the courses offered at the by Professor Doris Bergen, but it also endowed our
University of Saskatchewan, I noticed that only library with new material.
three made a clear reference to the Holocaust in
their descriptions: my two survey courses and a Prof. Bergen, former member of the HEFNU
course devoted to the history of mass killings and Academic Council, is not only a world-leading
genocides. Another course, “Holocaust in German scholar in Holocaust Studies but also an alumna
Literature and Film,” previously offered by the of the University of Saskatchewan. Her fantastic
Department of Languages, had not been taught public lecture, held on March 6, 2023, titled No
for a few years. Further research confirmed that Secret: Sex in Holocaust Survivor Accounts and
a course completely devoted to the history of the Why It Matters, attracted students, faculty, staff,
Holocaust had never been offered. I decided that it and members of the Saskatoon community. Prof.
was time for my university to have a class devoted Bergen gave another lecture to my class that,
to study of the Holocaust. according to the response papers written by a few
students after her visit, was a source of inspiration
In 2021, to conceptualize my syllabus, I partici- for many.
pated in the “Silberman Seminar” organized by the
US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Summer Much of the teaching grant generously offered by
Institute of the Holocaust Educational Foundation HEFNU was designated to buy new books, pay for
of Northwestern University. The lectures delivered journal subscriptions, and purchase film resources.
by established scholars and discussions with other The University of Saskatchewan already held many
enthusiastic USHMM and HEFNU fellows provided outstanding titles related to the Holocaust and had
me with invaluable bibliographies, teaching sources, online subscriptions to a few journals. However,

Summer 2023 Newsletter 7

 FEATURED REPORT
Alessio Ponzio

thanks to the grant we were able to acquire addi- Alessio Ponzio holds a PhD in History and Political
tional material to bolster our library collections Science from Università Roma Tre and a second PhD
in support of the new course. The University of in History and Women Studies from the University
Saskatchewan’s subject librarian for History, Dr. of Michigan. He is currently Assistant professor in
David Smith, inspired by the new course and to sup- Modern European History and History of Gender and
port our students, created a research guide aimed Sexuality at the University of Saskatchewan and an
at connecting students and faculty to the full range adjunct professor in History of Homosexuality at
of the library’s collections related to Holocaust the Università di Torino. Ponzio is the author of two
Studies, from articles, books, and reference titles books and several articles devoted to youth edu-
to websites, literature, and film. cation in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. In recent
years he has focused his research on non-normative
During the first iteration of my class, thanks to the sexualities in post-World War II Italy. After publishing
financial support of the College of Arts and Science, a few articles about male homosexuality in post-Fas-
the Department of History, and the Department of cist Italy, Ponzio is currently working on his third
Drama of the University of Saskatchewan, I was also book titled Scandalous Practices. Homosexuality,
able to organize a screening of The Amazing Life of Male Prostitution, and Sexual Citizenship in Post-
Margot Heuman on March 17, 2023. The viewing was Fascist Italy (Temple University Press).
followed by a very inspiring virtual Q&A session with
Dr. Anna Hájková and Dr. Erika Hughes, creators of
this play, who captivated the young audience in dis-
cussing the importance of recovering the histories
of queer Holocaust survivors.

Reading the evaluations for this class I was partic-

ularly happy about one comment. A student wrote
that they had discovered a true passion for the
study of the Holocaust, wanted to learn more about
this subject, and in the future would like to special-
ize in Holocaust studies. Comments like this one
validate my efforts, highlighting once again why
teaching the Holocaust matters and making clear
why HEFNU’s work can make a real difference.

Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University 8

TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST IN WAR-TORN UKRAINE
Anastasiia Simferovska

I began the seventh ses- Holocaust studies into the UCU curriculum. The
sion of my Holocaust art course was scheduled for the fall semester of 2022.
and literature class on On February 24, 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine. The
Thursday, November 19, war began.
2022. I stared into my
Zoom screen, divided Amidst the unsettling reality in which one could not
into thirteen black predict anything on an hourly basis, UCU not only
squares with my stu- continued to operate, but also set its academic
dents’ names on them. schedule for the fall semester of 2022. Initially
“Can you hear me?” I planned in person, my class was now moved online.
asked. “If you cannot Fourteen students enrolled. Trying to overcome
switch on your camera, anxiety over my own parents who remained in
just put a ‘thumb up’ in Ukraine, I set to work on my course syllabus. The
the chat box so that I know you are there and alive.” onslaught of Russia’s war brought new challenges
The only one to have my camera on, I felt embar- to the increasingly difficult task of teaching the
rassed Zooming from a cozy room in Evanston while Holocaust and particularly Holocaust representa-
my students in Lviv hid in the basements of their tion to a Ukrainian audience. How does one teach
dorms, the only relatively safe place during air raid a Holocaust class amid an unfolding war, which
sirens and Russian missile attacks. After a mas- obsessively uses the language, terminology, and
sive shelling disrupted our previous session, the propaganda narratives of WWII? How does one
Internet connection in Ukraine became unstable, teach a genocide class while a new genocide is
so my students kept their cameras off. Cheered by unfolding in front of one’s eyes?
their electronic thumbs on the black backdrop, I
started the class. I saw my teaching goals as trifold. First, I aimed
to introduce Ukrainian students to the diversity of
I could never imagine that my teaching career in Jewish and non-Jewish responses to the Holocaust
the field of the Holocaust Studies would coincide in poetry, literature, and art. Second, I sought to
with the outbreak of a major war in Eastern Europe. teach them how to close-read and contextualize
In late January 2022, I was honored to receive the visual images and literary narratives concerning
Holocaust Educational Foundation Teaching Grant. mass atrocities to better understand the forms and
The grant fulfilled my long-lasting dream to teach a functions of art, poetry, and literature in times of
Holocaust class of my own design at the Ukrainian war and its aftermath. Third, I planned to train stu-
Catholic University (UCU) in Lviv, one of the leading dents to approach critically their present-day per-
Ukrainian educational venues. Back in 2014, in the ception of Nazi anti-Jewish violence and to avoid
UCU Jewish Studies program, I took my very first its comparison with Russia’s anti-Ukrainian hatred.
graduate level class in Modern Jewish History. The “Definitive contexts should not be mixed,” I had to
HEFNU Teaching Grant enabled me to return my remind my students and, at times, myself.
professional debt to the university which was my
starting point in the field of Jewish Studies. I felt Structuring my course as an image-centered and
particularly obligated since, by 2022, UCU did not text-based seminar, I had decided to avoid atroc-
offer a single course on the Holocaust. With the gen- ity depictions. With images of death and suf-
erous help of the HEFNU Teaching Grant, my course fering pouring from news broadcasts and social
titled, “Document-Image-Text: The Holocaust in media, it was crucial to preserve a psychologically
East European Art and Literatures” introduced safe space where my students could analyze and
think instead of react. Yet, I wanted to teach my

Summer 2023 Newsletter 9

TEACHING THE HOLOCAUST IN WAR-TORN UKRAINE
Anastasiia Simferovska

students how to question visual and verbal sources Anastasiia Simferovska holds a PhD in Art History
that both explicitly depict or deliberately avert from Lviv National Academy of Arts, Ukraine.
scenes of violence. Therefore, we read Tadeusz Currently, Anastasiia is a PhD candidate at the
Borowski’s Auschwitz stories and explored Boris Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Lurie’s Holocaust photograph collages alongside and the Crown Graduate Fellow at Northwestern
Gela Seksztajn’s watercolor portraits of children in University, where she is working towards her dis-
the Warsaw ghetto and Stanislaw Lem’s unfinished sertation on image migration in artistic and lit-
fantasy novel. Unmuting our Zoom microphones, erary Holocaust texts in Eastern Europe. In 2022,
we steadily learnt to discuss these and several Anastasiia received the HEFNU Teaching Grant.
other texts, to question what we see and what we
read, and to develop our arguments.

Teaching a Holocaust class in war-torn Ukraine

was a challenging yet motivating experience. The
HEFNU Teaching Grant gave me a possibility to visit
my native Lviv, albeit virtually, join my colleagues,
and intellectually contribute to Holocaust educa-
tion in Ukraine. Ultimately, in a way, the war helped
me and my students bond with the texts we studied.
It brought a sense of personal engagement with the
real and the reimagined stories of different people
in a different war suffering, perishing, and using
their creative power to resist destruction.

Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University 10

 REGIONAL INSTITUTE REPORTS

“Visual Culture and the Holocaust” forms of visual commemoration and drew parallels
between the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Wash-
Oxford, Mississippi April 13-15, 2023 ington, DC and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews
of Europe in Berlin. This opening session set the
On April 13-15, the Holocaust Educational Foun- tone for subsequent panels that focused on peda-
dation of Northwestern University and the Uni- gogy, which were equally engaging and enlightening.
versity of Mississippi (Oxford, MS) co-sponsored
a Regional Institute on pedagogy about “Visual Friday’s schedule comprised three workshops,
Culture and the Holocaust. Bringing together an each dedicated to exploring a specific aspect of
interdisciplinary group of faculty, graduate stu- visual culture and the Holocaust. Hilary Earl from
dents, and museum administrators from around Nipissing University in Ontario led a discussion on
the region and the broader United States to Holocaust photography. Drawing upon her work
explore the role of photography, cinema, muse- on a series of photographs taken of a massacre
ums, and architecture in studying of Jews in Liepāja (present-day
and teaching the Holocaust, the Latvia) in 1941, Earl engaged par-
event was a resounding success. ticipants in a discussion about
our own consumption of photo-
This Regional Institute was par- graphs and how expectations and
ticularly poignant as it honored meanings are drawn from implicit
the memory of our esteemed contexts that may or may not be
colleague, Professor Willa John- present in the subjects being
son, Professor of Sociology and photographed. Joshua First from
Anthropology at the University of the University of Mississippi con-
Mississippi. Professor Johnson ducted a conversation on cinema
had played a pivotal role in initi- and the Holocaust. In highlighting
ating the organization of the Regional Institute last two disparate works of cinema, an unknown Soviet
year. Unfortunately, she passed away in November, film from 1945 titled The Unvanquished and Ste-
leaving behind a remarkable legacy of dedication phen Spielberg’s iconic Schindler’s List (1993), First
and commitment to Holocaust education. The topic explored how genre structures our understandings
of the Regional Institute was in fact inspired by Dr. of, and emotional engagement with, the Holocaust.
Johnson’s recent book, Through an Artist’s Eyes: Lastly, Jason Dawsey from the National World War
The Dehumanization and Racialization of Jews and II Museum in New Orleans led a panel on Museums,
Political Dissidents during the Third Reich (Rout- shedding light on the challenges and opportunities
ledge, 2021), which explores the work of German inherent in curating exhibitions on this sensitive
Communist artist Karl Schwesig, who documented subject. Dawsey pointed out that public exhibi-
the development of Jews’ and others’ visual repre- tions must walk a fine line between catering to an
sentation in popular culture during the Nazi period. entitled clientele and presenting original and truth-
ful information.
The three-day workshop began with a keynote
address from Paul Jaskot, Professor of Art History On Saturday morning, Paul Jaskot concluded the
at Duke University, who offered thought-provoking Regional Institute with a compelling discussion
insights on how Holocaust memorials have changed about architecture and construction during the
since Nathan Rappaport’s iconic “Monument to Holocaust. His presentation underscored the rela-
the Ghetto Heroes” from 1948. His expertise shed tionship between space and ideology, emphasiz-
light on the development of non-representational ing how the built environment can be utilized to

Summer 2023 Newsletter 11

 REGIONAL INSTITUTE REPORTS

enforce or challenge oppressive systems. Through- “The Year of the Holocaust:

out the event, participants engaged in lively discus-
Thirty Years Later”
sions, sharing their research findings, pedagogical
strategies, and personal reflections. The Regional St. Louis, Missouri, April 28-30, 2023
Institute fostered an inclusive and collaborative
environment, enabling participants to deepen their On a sunny April day, scholars from across the
understanding of the Holocaust while fostering Midwest arrived at the Washington University in
connections and cultivating lasting professional St. Louis campus. A flurry of introductions and
relationships. reunions revealed a group from myriad back-
grounds and institutions. The theme of the con-
ference, “The Year of the Holocaust: Thirty Years
Later,” proved an intriguing topic that those gath-
ered explored through film, literature, scholarship,
and museum exhibitions over the three days of the
HEFNU-sponsored Regional Institute.

The Institute kicked off with a film screening

of “The Mover” (Davis Simnis Jr., 2018). The film
tells the story of Janis Lipke and his wife Johanna,
who were recognized by Yad Vashem in 1966 as
Righteous Among the Nations and are considered
The impact of the Regional Institute extends beyond national heroes in Latvia. After the screening, Brad
the immediate event, as participants are inspired Prager, Professor of German and Film Studies at
to integrate their learnings into their teaching, the University of Missouri, led a discussion ana-
research, and public outreach. The knowledge and lyzing the film. The screening set the tone for the
insights gained from this intensive workshop will Institute, starting off a weekend of lively discus-
undoubtedly ripple through their respective insti- sion and thoughtful inquiry about new approaches
tutions, influencing countless students and com- to Holocaust scholarship and education.
munity members. The Regional Institute on “Visual
Culture and the Holocaust” successfully provided The second day con-
a platform for scholarly exploration and interdisci- tinued with Prager
plinary exchange. leading a discussion of
Holocaust film and the
Report by Joshua First, Croft Associate Professor role of Schindler’s list
of History and International Studies, University of within its lexicon. The
Mississippi session, titled “The
Holocaust Film Since
Schindler’s List: New
Directions, New Films”
sparked intense dis-
cussion on the use
and misuse of Holocaust films. Fellow scholars
explored the representation of victims, perpetra-
tors, and national memories, and the evolution

Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University 12

 REGIONAL INSTITUTE REPORTS

of these themes since 1993. Warren Rosenblum, The final day began with a discussion on Holocaust
Professor of History at Webster University, then led exhibitions. Helen Turner, Director of Education
a session titled “Placing the ‘Euthanasia program’ at the Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum, led a
within Holocaust history.” This session explored session titled “The Changing Shape of Holocaust
scholarship about persecution of people with dis- Museum Culture: Creating a Museum for the Twenty-
abilities during the Nazi era and approaches for First Century.” This fostered discussion on how the
teaching this topic in college classes and beyond. Holocaust is portrayed in public spaces, for whom
Anika Walke, Associate Professor of History at Holocaust Museums are built, and what educators
Washington University in St. Louis, led the final are trying to impart to students and adult visitors.
session of the day, with a presentation titled “The
End of the Cold War and the Emergence of a New The St. Louis Regional Institute concluded with a
Archive of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.” This session on “New Directions in Holocaust Literature”
session brought to light the evolv- led by Erin McGlothlin, Vice Dean
ing geographical understanding of of Undergraduate Affairs, College
the Holocaust and the recenter- of Arts & Sciences and Professor
ing of Eastern Europe as a space of German and Jewish Studies at
of mass murder. All three ses- Washington University in St. Louis).
sion leaders focused on changing McGlothlin challenged the master
scholarship and the discussions narrative of Auschwitz as the cen-
that followed centered on how ter point and instead reframed the
and what to teach as participants Holocaust to include diverse and
expressed a common frustration previously decentralized voices.
in wanting to discuss and teach
more than course and time limita- Each session leader sought to
tions allow. engage with the thirty-year arc of
Holocaust education and schol-
The newly opened St. Louis Kaplan arship since 1993, the so-called
Feldman Holocaust Museum was “year of the Holocaust.” From films,
the venue for the evening program. books, academic pursuits, and
RI Fellows explored the Museum’s museum representations, there
permanent exhibition on the is a clear bend towards the inclu-
Holocaust, offering insight and thoughtful cri- sion of previously marginalized experiences and
tiques and congratulatory remarks for the Museum spaces. Holocaust scholarship continues to grow
team. The evening concluded with a public lecture and evolve, and many new challenges and ques-
by Doris Bergen, Professor of Holocaust Studies tions await the next thirty years in the field.
at the University of Toronto, titled “Hindsight and
Insight: Thirty Years of Holocaust Studies, War, and Report by Helen Turner, Director of Education, St.
Genocide,” which focused on five areas of change Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum
and continuity in Holocaust Studies. By exploring
themes of gender and sexuality, centering the victim
voice, and situating the Holocaust within a global
context, Dr. Bergen demonstrated where Holocaust
Studies has been and where it needs to go.

Summer 2023 Newsletter 13

 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND EVENTS

The Women in the Holocaust: International Study Centre (Israel) will be hosting
its first international conference on Women in the Holocaust in Belgrade, October
10-12, 2023. Contact WHISC at [email protected] for more information
or see their website.

The Martin-Springer Institute exhibit, “Through the Eyes of Youth: Life and
Death in the Bedzin Ghetto” will be displayed in December 2023 Scottsdale, AZ,
and in March 2024 in Chandler, AZ.

This year’s JAHLIT (Jewish American and Holocaust Literature) sympo-

sium will be held November 12-14 at The Betsy Hotel in Miami Beach. Please
send brief abstracts to, or request more information from Dr. Holli Levitsky,
Jewish Studies Program, University Hall 3863, Loyola Marymount University,
Los Angeles, CA 90045.

Lessons & Legacies XVII: Languages of The Holocaust. HEFNU is pleased to

announce the seventeenth biennial International Conference on the Holocaust.
L&L 2024 will take place 14-17 November 2024 (Thursday–Sunday) at
Claremont McKenna College and the University of Southern California. All
proposals must be submitted online via the Lessons & Legacies Oxford Abstracts
portal. The submission portal will open in Summer 2023. Submission Deadline:
4 December 2023

Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University 14

 PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL NEWS

Barbara C. Allen, Ph.D. has been promoted to the rank of Professor of History at La Salle University,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to take effect in Fall semester of 2023. A specialist in the history of
Russia and the Soviet Union, she has taught a course on the history of the Holocaust since 2018.

The Azrieli Foundation’s Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program is pleased to welcome Dr. Carson
Phillips as their new Manager of Academic Initiatives.

Monique R. Balbuena, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Oregon,

has received a Sosland Foundation Visiting Fellowship from the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Balbuena will use the 2023-24 Sosland Fellowship to develop her project, “Sephardic Literary
Responses to the Holocaust.”

Laurie Baron, Professor Emeritus of History at San Diego State University, presented the paper
“Persistent Parallels and Particularities: Evoking and Avoiding the Holocaust in Armenian Genocide
Centennial Films,” at the Western Jewish Studies Association Conference, University of Nevada-
Las Vegas, March 13, 2023.

Dr. Waitman Wade Beorn, Assistant Professor, History, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK,
has been awarded a £223,000 Research, Development, and Engagement Fellowship from the Arts
and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for his project “Visualizing Janowska: Creating a Digital
Architectural Model of a Nazi Concentration Camp.” He will be creating a digital reconstruction of
the Janowska concentration camp in Lviv, Ukraine.

Suzanne Brown-Fleming, Director of International Academic Programs at USHMM and Adjunct

Professor, Center for Jewish Civilization, Georgetown University, announces that it has been a
great few months for the Museum’s Vatican Archives Initiative with multiple media features in
Time Magazine (link), Moment Magazine (link), and The National Catholic Reporter (link).

László Csősz, historian and employee of the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives in Budapest
and Veronika Szeghy-Gayer, researcher from the Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences
SAS, won the prestigious Mark Pittaway Article Prize for an article on the Aryanization of Jewish
property in Košice at the end of World War II (link).

Philipp Dinkelaker recently received his doctorate at the Center for Research on Antisemitism,
Technical University of Berlin, summa cum laude. In 2023, he started to work as a postdoc
researcher at the Europa-Universität Viadrina, Faculty of Law. The interdisciplinary project “Law
without Law” aims to publish a critical commentary and analysis of the current German legal prac-
tice of restitution of Nazi-looted cultural goods and art.

International Council for Diplomacy and Dialogue (ICDD) Director, Eric Gozlan, won a court case
in France against an extremist whom he charged with anti-Semitism. With African businessman
Samba Bathily, ICDD begins construction of the first large Holocaust Museum in Africa (Cape
Verde), where African teachers will be able to receive support to teach the Holocaust.

Summer 2023 Newsletter 15

 PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL NEWS

Wolf Gruner, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies, Professor of History and Founding Director,
USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research, announces #LastSeen: USC Dornsife
Center for Advanced Genocide Research, as part of a multi-institutional project to collect, analyze,
digitize, and publish the last photographs of Nazi Mass deportations of Jews and Sinti and Roma.
Since October 2021, our research has increased the number of towns in Germany for which we now
have visual evidence of Nazi mass deportations from 27 to 60, as well as identified many victims,
as the innovative digital image atlas shows: (link).

Muskingum University has named Laura J. Hilton as its inaugural Miriam Schwartz Faculty Scholar.
Dr. Schwartz, a distinguished scholar and faculty member of the Center for Slavic and East
European Studies at The Ohio State University, was a Board of Trustees’ member for Muskingum.
She established the Miriam Schwartz Education Fund, which is dedicated to keeping alive the
memory of the Jewish Holocaust and the horror that can result from unexamined prejudices,
myths, and hatred.

Jeffrey Koerber received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in the Department of
History at Chapman University.

Kateřina Králová, Assistant Professor of Contemporary History, focuses in her work on reconcil-
iation with the Nazi past, the Holocaust, the Greek Civil War, post-war reconstruction, and con-
flict-related migration. In 2022, the Claims Conference supported her application for a Holocaust
Teaching Partnership, awarded to CUNI. Later that year, she became Head of the newly established
Research Centre for Memory Studies. In the coming months, she is presenting at the European
Congress of Modern Greek Studies in Vienna, on a panel titled, “Jews in Greece between Exclusion
and Accommodation” alongside A. Apostolou, T. Blümel, and K. Lagos; she will also be presenting
at Lessons & Legacies on the panel “Rethinking Aftermaths: A Fresh Look at ‘Return’ after the
Holocaust” with E. Anthony, S. Cramsey, and A. Löw.

Björn Krondorfer, Regents’ Professor and Director of the Martin-Springer Institute, Endowed
Professor in Department of Comparative Cultural Studies, Northern Arizona University, mentored
& created the exhibitions “A Complicated Life in Complicated Times: Gino Parin and the Holocaust”
(a Triestine painter who died in Bergen-Belsen) and on Americans in the Spanish Civil War. As part
of the eight-part series “The Holocaust as an Interdisciplinary Tapestry,” Krondorfer presented on
“Why Should We Care? The Holocaust and Public Humanities” (Apr 27), organized by Classrooms
Without Borders, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Center, Ghetto Fighters’ House, et al.

Lawrence L. Langer, Professor Emeritus of English, Simmons University, received the Eternal
Flame Award from the Annual Scholars Conference on The Church Struggle and the Holocaust
(University of Texas, Dallas) in March.

Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University 16

 PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL NEWS

Dr. Alexis M Lerner, Assistant Professor at the US Naval Academy, ran a pre/post treatment sur-
vey in 2021 across the US and Canada with the Holocaust education organization Liberation75.
Starting in September 2023, the Minister of Education of Ontario has announced that every sin-
gle 6th grade class will integrate Holocaust education into their curriculum and directly cites Dr.
Lerner’s study as the impetus for this decision. Learn more at this link.

Stuart Liebman, Professor Emeritus of Art History, Theatre and Film Studies, City University of
New York Graduate Center, participated in two public presentations about Holocaust-related
films. On November 27, 2022, he gave a lecture about the outtakes of the filmed material by Soviet
and Polish filmmakers at the Mémorial de la Shoah (Paris). On January 27, 2023, he participated in
a discussion of Jean-Christophe Klotz and Sandra Schulberg’s “Filmmakers for the Prosecution”
at its American premiere at Firehouse Cinema, NYC. In 2022, he became a coordinator for the
Vienna-based “Visual History of the Holocaust.”

Paul Morrow, VAP, Human Rights Center, University of Dayton, became co-principal investiga-
tor on a federally-funded grant (PREVENTS-OH) focused on raising awareness about risks and
responses to domestic violent extremism in Southwest Ohio. Grant projects include community
awareness briefings for interfaith groups; course modules on misinformation and media literacy
for college students; and community dialogues on risk and protective factors. Separately, he orga-
nized an exhibit titled “The [Dis]Information Age” at Dayton’s Peace Museum. He is organizing a
panel on Decolonization and Museums at Dayton’s Social Practice of Human Rights Conference in
November 2023.

Avraham (Alan) Rosen, Project Scholar, Elie Wiesel Living Archive, 92nd Street Y, NYC, served
as moderator for the Rabbi Joseph Polak 80th Birthday lecture, “The Rabbis Who Fled Europe
to Survive,” 12/4/22. He also presented “How Stories Uncover the Purpose of Life: Elie Wiesel’s
Inspired Legacy,” Eckerd College, 3/14/23, “The Astonishing Jewish Religious Activity in Auschwitz,”
Holy Cross College, 3/20/23, “17 Elul 5699: The Jewish Calendar Beginning of WW2,” Conference
on Violence and Jewish Time, Hamburg, 3/28/23 and “David Boder, I Did Not Interview the Dead:
Launch Online Edition,”Yale Fortunoff Archive, 5/4/23.

Dr. Melanie Carina Schmoll, editor, author, advisor, speaker, and research Fellow at The Finkler
Institute of Holocaust Research, Ramat Gan, Israel, is working on a research project called: “Misinfor-
mation about Israel and Antisemitic Views in School Textbooks? The Case of Germany.” She is external
chief editor for history at the leading German publishing houses for school textbooks, and
various online learning platforms and encyclopedias. In May, Dr. Schmoll will undertake a lec-
ture tour in Canada. She is presenting in “The Tour for Humanity” in Toronto and will speak about
“Holocaust Education in Germany and Canada” to teachers in Ontario. This summer she will sup-
port the TAU Workshop on Israel and the Middle East in Jerusalem, Israel.

James Waller, Cohen Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Keene State College,
announces that he will be the inaugural Christopher J. Dodd Chair in Human Rights Practice
and Director of the Dodd Human Rights Impact Programs for the Human Rights Institute at the
University of Connecticut, beginning in August 2023.

Summer 2023 Newsletter 17

 PUBLICATIONS
Victoria Aarons, O.R. & Eva Mitchell Distinguished Professor of Literature in the
Department of English at Trinity University, published the book Memory Spaces:
Visualizing Identity in Jewish Women’s Graphic Narratives, Wayne State University
Press, 2023.

Laurie Baron, Professor Emeritus of History at San Diego State University, pub-
lished “Movies as Prosthetic Holocaust Memories,” which appeared in Holocaust
Literature and Representation: Their Lives: Our Words, edited by Phyllis Lassner and
Judith Tydor-Baumel-Schwartz (Bloomsbury Academic: 2023). He also published a
review of The Survivor, directed by Barry Levinson, in Journal of Sport History, 49:2
(Summer 2022), 173-175.

Dr. Waitman Wade Beorn, Assistant Professor, History, Northumbria University,

Newcastle, UK, is under contract with University of Nebraska press for his third
book manuscript, tentatively titled Between the Wires: The Janowska camp and the
Holocaust in Lviv, for publication hopefully in 2024.

Arielle Berger, Managing Editor, Holocaust Survivor Memoirs Program, the Azrieli
Foundation, announces that the Azrieli Foundation has partnered with Penguin
Random House Canada to release a collection of five audiobooks from memoirs
published by their program, in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Their two newest titles were released to coincide with the 80th commemoration of
the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; A Symphony of Remembrance, by Stefan A. Carter, and
The Smallest Hope, by Jack Klajman, focus on the authors’ experiences in the War-
saw ghetto and during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Jeremy Best, Associate Professor of History at Iowa State University, published

“The Kaiser’s Silver: German Nationalism and the 1913 Nationalspende for Christian
Mission,” in German History, 2023, ghad013, link.

Suzanne Brown-Fleming, Director of International Academic Programs at USHMM

and Adjunct Professor, Center for Jewish Civilization, Georgetown University, pub-
lished another piece from the Vatican archives released in March 2020, titled, “The
Rome Lectures: Father Marie-Benoît and the Path to Jewish-Christian Rapproche-
ment,” in Holocaust Education Today: Confronting Extremism, Hate, and Mass Atroc-
ity Crimes. The Ethel Lefrak Holocaust Education Conference Proceedings, Carol Rit-
tner, ed. (Greensburg, PA: Seton Hill University, 2023), pp. 137-145.

Christopher R. Browning, Professor Emeritus of History, University of North Car-

olina at Chapel Hill, has published: “Hitler, Antisemitism, and the Final Solution,”
Antisemitism Studies 7/1 (spring 2023), pp. 80-99; “An American in Germany: Fall
1940,” Journal of Holocaust Research 37/1 (2023), pp. 88-94; and “Adenauer’s Bar-
gain,” The New York Review of Books LXIX/ 20 (December 22, 2022), pp. 69-70.

Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University 18

 PUBLICATIONS
Beverly Chalmers, of the advisory board of the Women in the Holocaust: International
Study Centre in Israel, announces that her latest book, Child Sex Abuse: Power, Profit,
Perversion (Grosvenor House Publications, 2022) has recently won three book awards:
a Book Excellence Award, an Independent Book Award, and a Maincrest Media Award.
The book is a sequel to her previous multiple-award winning books, Birth, Sex and
Abuse: Women’s Voices under Nazi Rule (2015) and Betrayed: Child Sex Abuse in the
Holocaust (2020). Online recordings of her presentations on the two latter books to
the Ghetto Fighters House Talking Memory series are available on YouTube.

László Csősz, historian and employee of the Hungarian Jewish Museum and Archives
in Budapest and Veronika Szeghy-Gayer, researcher from the Centre of Social and
Psychological Sciences SAS, will publish the article “Mapping the Tragedy of the
Jews in Košice (1944)” in June of 2023 on the website of the Institute of Social Sci-
ences CSPS Slovak Academy of Sciences (www.svusav.sk). Based on documents
concerning Jewish property from the Košice City Archives, the two researchers cre-
ated four maps to visualize the location of the downtown ghetto of Košice and the
houses that had been inhabited by local Jews until April 1944.

Philipp Dinkelaker, postdoctoral researcher at the Europa-Universität Viadrina,

Faculty of Law, co-authored with Paula Oppermann the text “A Letter to “Brothers
in Faith”: Attempts at Jewish Emigration from Nazi Germany to Riga,” in Periphal
Histories, ISSN 2755-368X (link).

Leoni Ettinger, PhD Candidate, Department of German, NYU, published “Witnessing

Impossibility: The Traumatic Theater of Rachel Neuburger’s Nepenthe” in Journal of
Literature and Trauma Studies 8(2), 2022, 25-54 (link). Set in 1961 LA, Rachel Neu-
burger’s Nepenthe (2016) depicts a woman confronted with repressed recollections
of forced prostitution at a Nazi concentration camp. The play invites the audience to
witness the return of her trauma, which had been forgotten not only by her but the
historiography of World War II itself.

Wolf Gruner, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies, Professor of History and Found-
ing Director, USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research, has authored
a new book, Resisters. How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany,
which will be published by Yale University Press on August 1st (link). A paperback
edition is now available for his earlier work The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia.
Czech Initiatives, German Policies, Jewish Responses, New York (Berghahn Books
2019), and “Kristallnacht. The November Pogrom 1938 in Nazi Germany” went live as
part of the online Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies.

Summer 2023 Newsletter 19

 PUBLICATIONS
Elizabeth Harvey, Professor of History, University of Nottingham, UK, is currently
the project lead for a Berlin-based team preparing the English-language series of 16
volumes documenting the Holocaust across Nazi-occupied Europe, ‘The Persecu-
tion and Murder of the European Jews by Nazi Germany, 1933-1945’ (PMJ). They’ve
just published vol. 4, the first of three volumes documenting the persecution and
murder of the Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. This volume’s title is Poland: Septem-
ber 1939-July 1941 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2023). For further information on the series,
please visit this link.

Steve Hochstadt, Professor Emeritus of History, Illinois College, produced a second

edition of the Holocaust documents collection, Sources of the Holocaust (Blooms-
bury, 2022). He also published two articles on Jewish refugees in Shanghai: “Japa-
nese and Jews in Shanghai,” Modern Judaism - A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Expe-
rience, v. 42, October 2022, 211-243, and “The Kadoorie School: Educating Refugee
Children in Shanghai,” in K. Ostoyich and Yun Xia, eds, The History of the Shanghai
Jews: New Pathways of Research (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), 99-131.

Sara L. Kimble, Associate Professor at DePaul University, published “Internation-

alist Women against Nazi Atrocities in Occupied Europe, 1941–1947,” in Journal of
Women’s History, vol. 35 no. 1, 2023, p. 57-79. Kimble unearths the history of a 1942
protest against war crimes by women, catalyzed by refugees and informed by the
Polish Government in Exile. The article reveals struggles to convince feminist orga-
nizations that the plight of war captives and refugees was a women’s issue, and to
persuade legal circles to recognize crimes committed against women.

Kateřina Králová, Assistant Professor of Contemporary History, published “Memory

Landscapes in Ruins: The Example of the Hirsch Quarter in Thessaloniki,” in Memory
Cultures since 1945: German-Southeast European Entangled History, Series: Südos-
teuropa-Jahrbuch, Vol.46, Frankfurt am Main: P.Lang (2023). She also recently pub-
lished “Hachsharot in Greece, 1945-1949: Camps or vocational centers?” in Quest.
Issues in Contemporary Jewish History. Journal of the Fondazione CDEC 21:1 (2022),
and “Matalon family secrets: Silenced memories and network dynamics in Holo-
caust testimonies” in S:I.M.O.N. 9:2 (2022).

Lawrence L. Langer, Professor Emeritus of English, Simmons University, published

An Unimaginable Partnership: The Art of Samuel Bak and the Writings of Lawrence
L. Langer (Pucker Art Publications/Syracuse University Press, 2022). The book
includes all twenty of the essays he has written about the art of Holocaust Survivor
Sam Bak. He also published Hierarchy and Mutuality in Paradise Lost, Moby-Dick
and The Brothers Karamazov (Lexington Books/Rowman Littlefield, 2022); this is his
first book not directly related to the Holocaust.

Holli Levitsky, Director of Jewish Studies at Loyola Marymount University, co-ed-

ited and contributed to Communist Poland: A Jewish Woman’s Experience (Lexington
Studies in Jewish Literature) along with Sara Nomberg-Przytyk (Author) and Jus-
tyna Włodarczyk (Editor, Contributor), published in 2022.

Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University 20

 PUBLICATIONS
Stuart Liebman, Professor Emeritus of Art History, Theatre and Film Studies,
City University of New York Graduate Center, published “Four Sisters and Claude
Lanzmann’s Holocaust Film Project,” in Yale French Studies, No.141 (Summer 2022):
85-98, “History, His Story, and Her Story. An Interview with Vanesa Lapa and Tomer
Eliav,” Cineaste, Vol. XLVII, No. 3 (Summer 2022): 22-26 (about their film, Speer Goes
to Hollywood), and “War after War. Sergei Loznitsa’s unflinching visions of Ukraine
in flames,” (about Loznitsa’s film, Babyn Yar) in the online edition of Artforum. (link)

Tabea Alexa Linhard, Professor of Spanish, Comparative Literature, and Global

Studies published Unexpected Routes: Refugee Writers in Mexico (Stanford: Stan-
ford University Press, 2023). The book chronicles the refugee journeys of six writers
whose lives were upended by fascism in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and
during World War II.

Melanie O’Brien, Associate Professor of International Law, UWA Law School, Univer-
sity of Western Australia, authored From Discrimination to Death: Genocide Process
Through a Human Rights Lens (Routledge, 2023). From Discrimination to Death stud-
ies the process of genocide through the human rights violations that occur during
genocide. Using individual testimonies and in-depth field research from the Arme-
nian Genocide, Holocaust, and Cambodian Genocide, this book demonstrates that a
pattern of specific escalating human rights abuses takes place in genocide.

Dalia Ofer, Professor emerita, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Avraham Harman

Institute of Contemporary Jewry and Jewish History Department, coedited with
Sara Rosen Diary from Hell in Transnistria 1942-1944, (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2022.
This is a most important diary from Transnistria translated from Yiddish. The Hebrew
edition was published 2020. She also published “Children’s Voices: Solidarity and
Survival of Families in the Warsaw Ghetto” in Jewish Solidarity: The Ideal and the
Reality in the Turmoil of the Shoah, Eds, Dan Michman, Robert Rozett, (Jerusalem:
Yad Vashem: 2022). She is presenting a paper in Belgrade in October, titled “Mothers
and Motherhood in the Ghettos: re-considering the Images from Diaries and Testi-
monies” at the Women in the Holocaust International Study Centre (WHISC).

Michael Polgar, Professor of Sociology at Penn State University Hazleton, announces

The Holocaust: Remembrance, Respect, and Resilience, a free online textbook co-ed-
ited by two children of survivors, Michael Polgar and Suki John, professor of classi-
cal and contemporary dance at Texas Christian University. This OER now be viewed
at this link. For information, contact Michael Polgar at [email protected].

Stephani Richards-Wilson, PhD, EdD, Associate Professor of Business and Man-

agement, Alverno College, recently completed a chapter in an Open Educational
Resource (OER) published by Penn State on Pressbooks. The anthology is titled The
Holocaust: Remembrance, Respect, and Resilience. Her chapter deals with post-
war German filmmaker Falk Harnack, who was involved with and connected to the
resistance movements in Nazi Germany. The book can be accessed via MERLOT. Dr.
Richards-Wilson is a graduate of the 2009 Summer Institute on the Holocaust and
Jewish Civilization.

Summer 2023 Newsletter 21

 PUBLICATIONS
Avraham (Alan) Rosen, Project Scholar, Elie Wiesel Living Archive, 92nd Street Y,
NYC, published “The Language of Survival,” Maus Now: Selected Writing, ed. Hilary
Chute. NY: Pantheon, 2022, and “The Elie Wiesel Living Archive as a Companion to
the Memoir, Night,” Wiesel Living Archive, 12/16/23 (link).

John K. Roth, Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Claremont McK-

enna College, co-authored with Leonard Grob the book Warnings: The Holocaust,
Ukraine, and Endangered American Democracy will appear in the second half of 2023.

Barbara Rylko-Bauer, Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology, Michigan State

University, has had her book, A Polish Doctor in the Nazi Camps: My Mother’s Memories
of Imprisonment, Immigration, and a Life Remade (University of Oklahoma Press, 2014),
translated and published in Czech: Lékařkou v Koncentračních Táborech: Svědectví
Vězeňské Doktorky z Táborů v Ravensbrück, Gross-Rosen a Neusalz (Víkend, 2022).

Dr. Melanie Carina Schmoll, Research Fellow, The Finkler Institute of Holocaust
Research, publishes extensive teaching resources. As external chief editor for his-
tory for Duden/Brockhaus she publishes on various historical topics. She developed
resources for the virtual exhibition “Tolerant statt Ignorant” [“Tolerant instead of
Ignorant”]. She also recently published Escape Rooms für den Erdkundeunterricht
5-10 (Auer Verlag, 2023) (link).

Amy Simon, Assistant Professor, Farber Family Endowed Chair in Holocaust Stud-
ies and European Jewish History, Michigan State University, has written a mono-
graph Emotions in Yiddish Ghetto Diaries: Encountering Persecutors and Questioning
Humanity, which will be published by Routledge in June. Her chapter, “Holocaust
Diaries as Historical Sources,” will appear in April in Sources for Studying the Holo-
caust: A Guide ed. Paul R. Bartrop (London: Routledge, 2023).

Helene Sinnreich, Associate Professor, Department of Religion, University of Ten-

nessee, Knoxville, published The Atrocity of Hunger: Starvation in the Warsaw, Lodz
and Krakow ghettos during World War II (Cambridge University Press, 2023). This
book focuses on the Jews as they struggled to survive the deadly Nazi ghetto, in
particular, the genocidal famine conditions. In this book, Sinnreich explores their
story, drawing from diaries and first-hand accounts of victims and survivors.

Victoria Grace Walden, Senior Lecturer, University of Sussex, announces that the
Digital Holocaust Memory Project Team at the University of Sussex, UK and their
international partners have recently published a series of four recommendations
reports that were developed through co-creation workshops which brought together
professionals from Holocaust organizations and the tech and creative industries,
alongside academics from a range of disciplines. Learn more at this link.

Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University 22

 PUBLICATIONS
Alexander Williams, PhD Candidate, University of Groningen, Institute for the Study
of Culture (ICOG), published “Witnessing the Ghost, Letting the Ghost Witness: Explor-
ing the Impediments of Witness Narratives in Holocaust Camp Testimonies through
Spectrality and the Metaphor of the Muselmann,” Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal
of Jewish Studies, 41, no. 1 (2023), 185-211. The article explores how the metaphor of
the ghost can help to clarify phenomena found in Holocaust testimonies which fall
outside traditional dichotomies such as life/death or presence/absence.

Lucas F.W. Wilson, Justice, Equity, and Transformation Postdoctoral Fellow, Depart-
ment of History, University of Calgary, published the article “‘Remember, my house
it’s also your house too’: Survivor-Family Homes as Postmemorial Structures in Art
Spiegelman’s Maus” in Modern Language Studies 52, no. 2 (2023): 10–33. The article
examines the representation of domestic space in Art Spiegelman’s Maus and how
protagonist Artie’s childhood and adulthood homes not only represent his belated
relationship to the Holocaust but how his homes themselves shape said relation-
ship to the Holocaust.

S.L. (Sandi) Wisenberg, writer and adjunct lecturer at University of Chicago Graham
School Writer’s Studio, has published a fourth book; The Wandering Womb: Essays in
Search of Home was published in March by the University of Massachusetts Press,
where it won the Juniper Prize in creative nonfiction. It is about being haunted by
European Jewish history, among other things. It was praised by the Jewish Book
Council (3/27/23), Southern Review of Books (3/27/23), Chicago Reader (3/24/23), and
Booklist (3/15/23). Her short story, “Bad Girl in Berlin,” won Narrative’s spring ‘22
story contest.

Leah Wolfson, Rosalyn Unger Director of Campus Outreach Programs at USHMM,

announces a new teaching resource. Experiencing History | Holocaust Sources in
Context (link) is a multi-media, open-access primary source tool that allows stu-
dents to connect with the human experience of the Holocaust through personal
accounts and artifacts that have been carefully curated around purposeful themes.
Through the study of these compelling first-hand accounts, students are prompted
to uncover profound questions and deeply examine the world we live in.

David Zimmerman, Professor of History, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada,

published Ensnared between Hitler and Stalin: Refugee Scientists in the USSR (Uni-
versity of Toronto Press: 2023). In the 1930s, hundreds of scientists fled Hitler’s Ger-
many and some made the disastrous decision to seek refuge in Stalin’s Soviet Union.
These refugee scholars were arrested, murdered, or forced to flee during the Great
Terror. Many of the survivors then found themselves embroiled in the Holocaust. The
book follows the lives of thirty-six scholars in their quest for safety.

Summer 2023 Newsletter 23

 TEACHING RESOURCES

TEACHING GRANTS
Teaching Grants help faculty at two- or four-year colleges and universities launch
or improve resources for Holocaust related courses, particularly at institutions
with few or no such courses.
VIRTUAL SPEAKERS BUREAU
Professors can use the Speaker’s Bureau to connect with over 70 distinguished
Holocaust scholars from an array of disciplines, who will prepare a tailor-made
virtual lecture or classroom session in their area of expertise.

REGIONAL INSTITUTES
HEFNU partners with regional host institutions to connect experts on Holocaust-
related topics with professors who want to teach or improve a Holocaust course
and to develop regional networks of university-level Holocaust educators.

SUMMER INSTITUTE ON THE HOLOCAUST

AND JEWISH CIVILIZATION
This intensive two-week seminar in Holocaust Studies, taught by experts in the field,
supports college faculty, advanced graduate students, and museum staff to broaden
their interdisciplinary perspective and develop and refine Holocaust courses.

RESOURCES FOR SCHOLARS

LESSONS & LEGACIES CONFERENCE

The premier intellectual gathering in the field of Holocaust Studies. Lessons &
Legacies is held biennially in North America and every four years in Europe.
SHARON ABRAMSON RESEARCH GRANTS
Grants of $4,000 support research related to the Holocaust. Doctoral candidates
nearing completion of their dissertations and faculty from all disciplines are eligible.

VIRTUAL MENTORS PROGRAM

Early career scholars can network and meet with distinguished scholars in the field
of Holocaust Studies for “one-off” online meetings. Topics include career opportu-
nities and development, research topics and sources, and work-life balance.

hef.northwestern.edu | [email protected] | 847-467-4408

The mission of the Holocaust Educational Foundation of Northwestern University (HEFNU) is
to advance Holocaust education at institutions of higher learning around the world. To achieve
this mission, HEFNU aims to develop professors qualified to teach Holocaust courses, grow
the number of colleges and universities that offer Holocaust courses, and thereby increase the
number of students who study the Holocaust.

If you wish to support our mission, there are two ways to make a tax-deductible contribution:
1. To make an online contribution, click here.
2. To contribute via mail, please send a check or money order payable to
“Northwestern University” Memo: Holocaust Educational Foundation, to:
ARD; 1201 Davis Street; Evanston, IL 60208; Attn: Jill Smith.
Please let us know a check is on the way via email at [email protected].

Kresge Centennial Hall, Room 3-210 hef.northwestern.edu

1880 Campus Drive [email protected]
Evanston, IL 60208 847.467.4408