International Research Workshop

The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and

The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide

July 28 -August 1, 2014

The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and EHRI partner The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide are pleased to invite applications for the International Research Workshop, “The Holocaust in the East in the Records of the International Tracing Service Digital Archive.” This workshop is scheduled for July 28 – August 1, 2014 and will take place at USHMM in Washington, DC.

This international research workshop seeks to provide scholars, specializing in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during and after World War II, with new opportunities to research within the International Tracing Service (ITS) digital collections, the largest archive of Holocaust and World War II-era documentation. Applications are welcome from scholars in all relevant academic disciplines, including history, political science, literature, Jewish studies, psychology, sociology, geography, and others. Applications from scholars based in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are especially encouraged.

ITS Digital Records Available at USHMM and The Wiener Library

EHRI partner, the International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, Germany, was, until November 2007, the largest closed archive in the world related to the Holocaust, forced labor, and Nazi persecution. Recently inscribed into the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Memory of the World Register, the ITS collection has opened unprecedented potential for understanding the Holocaust and other Nazi-era crimes. While utilized for decades principally for tracing purposes, the documents provide opportunities for a betteru nderstanding of a broad range of topics related to Nazi-era persecution, incarceration, forced labor, mass murder, displacement, resettlement, postwar compensation programs, and the legacies of these experiences. The ITS holdings are now being digitally copied and made available to member states of the 11-nation International Commission (IC) that oversees the archive. Digital copies are in the process of being transferred to USHMM and The Wiener Library. Large portions of the ITS collection relate to the experiences of Jewish and non-Jewish Eastern European and Soviet citizens.

The Workshop

On each day of the five-day workshop, scholars will have equal time to conduct research in the ITS digital archive and to present their research projects-in-progress and share research methodologies and findings. USHMM and Wiener Library staff scholars will assist participants in exploring portions of the ITS digital collection that relate specifically to their projects.

To that end, these areas of research are particularly encouraged:

• Forced and slave laborers from Eastern Europe and the occupied Soviet territories in the German war economy
• Nazi Germany’s expansionist and genocidal policies, including the mass murder of Eastern European and Soviet Jewry and other citizens
• The postwar experiences of displaced persons from Eastern Europe and the territories of the Soviet Union

To Apply

The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and The Wiener Library invite applications from Ph.D. candidates working on their dissertations (ABD), postdoctoral researchers, and senior scholars from all relevant academic disciplines.

Applications and supporting materials must be received by February 28, 2014.

Read the Call for Applications.

Visit the website of the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide.