Holocaust Research
Project Overview
In fall 2002, Professor Yehuda Bauer initiated a project to gather information about recently completed and ongoing research at the doctoral and immediate post-doctoral levels in Holocaust Studies. Professor Bauer assigned the project to the Uppsala Programme for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Uppsala University, where it was supervised by Dr. Paul A. Levine and conducted by Mr. Martin Fredriksson. The project was begun at the start of 2003 and was essentially complete at the time of this application. Professor Bauer instructed Dr. Levine and Mr. Fredriksson to survey the then-current International Task Force members-Argentina, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The decision to focus on doctoral and post-doctoral research was made because a comprehensive overview of all research and publication in the field was not practical, and because an assessment of the most recent as well as forthcoming work would give us a clearer idea of the direction of Holocaust studies. Thus the project is limited to ongoing Ph.D. research, recently submitted dissertations, and post-doctoral research undertaken within a few years after receipt of the doctoral degree.
The topics of interest were broadly defined as research dealing with Nazi anti-Jewish policies from1933 to 1945, German Jewry from 1933 to 1939, the fate of Jews throughout occupied Europe during the war years, and Jewish and non-Jewish relations during the Nazi era. We also included research on National Socialist ideology and/or related ideological issues, attitudes supporting National Socialist ideas, the legacy and memory of the Holocaust, and representations of the Holocaust and their implications for the postwar world in general and post-Holocaust Jewry in particular.
Project Purpose
This project is the first of its kind within Holocaust studies and is vast in its reach, including a great number of countries and scholars. While information on dissertations that have been approved is available via UMI Dissertation Services, the Vidal Sassoon International Centre for the Study of Antisemitism's Biography on Antisemitism, and the library catalogues of major research institutes such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yad Vashem, none is as comprehensive as this project. Moreover, we have sought to provide more than the very limited information currently available and to feature brief abstracts rather than only the titles of recent scholarship.
Our primary objective was to gather information about ongoing research in Holocaust Studies, which is generally not available in catalogues or other secondary sources and must therefore be obtained directly from the scholars and doctoral candidates themselves-which would present a tremendous challenge for an individual scholar or teacher to do solely on his or her own.
The success of this project has depended on the willingness of individuals to answer our queries. Overall, the individuals and institutions we contacted responded positively, though locating those working in the field has proven to be a much more difficult and time-consuming task than we expected. A few directories and overviews of related subjects have been useful in this regard, including the ITF's own Directory of Organizations. In the United Kingdom, the British Association for Jewish Studies compiles a directory of Ph.D. candidates involved in Jewish Studies, which has served as an important starting point for our survey there. The staff of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has helped us greatly by providing us access to their Campus Guide to Holocaust Studies, a directory they are in the process of compiling on universities and colleges in the United States that offer Holocaust-related classes and programs. Other resources we have used include the Academic Jewish Studies Internet Directory, which lists academic associations engaged in Jewish studies, and the Directory of Jewish Studies in Europe, published by the European Association for Jewish Studies and listing nearly 1,000 European scholars and researchers engaged in the field.
However, apart from the aforementioned ITF directory, none of these resources focus sufficiently on research related to Holocaust history and memory. Moreover, they provide only very basic information, with most entries comprising only a name, address, and/or title of the research subject. Given the intellectual dynamism of Holocaust studies, such limited information is inadequate. Our project seeks to feature brief abstracts of the research being undertaken, along with the names of advisors and/or tutors, the date of submission, and other vital data for the studies of every scholar we include.
We hope and believe that our survey will become a valuable resource for all those active within the field, enabling scholars to contact colleagues working on related topics. For ITF delegations, it might also prove a unique source for information on new tendencies, questions, and areas of interest emerging in the field.
Many of the scholars we have contacted have expressed their enthusiasm for a survey of this kind, and there seems to be a demand for a resource that would provide even more comprehensive information on current research within the field.
Project Future
How our survey will be presented and/or distributed remains to be determined and, as there are practical and technical considerations to take into account, we choose to leave that open for further discussion. It is, however, likely that it would be of most use to the ITF as well as to Holocaust scholars in general as an online database, which would enable the information to be immediately and easily accessed by scholars all over the world. If we do make the survey an online database, and if we manage to establish it as a fairly well known and frequently used resource among Holocaust studies scholars, we could encourage graduate students and other academics to report their own ongoing research projects to the database. This would make it an even more comprehensive resource and would ensure that it remains current for years to come.
One issue to consider before making the survey accessible online is how to maintain the confidentiality of personal information. This issue would likely vary from country to country according to the laws of each.
The other alternative would be to publish in print form an agreed-upon number of copies for distribution, but this would of course raise its own set of issues.
Dr. Paul A. Levine
Mr. Martin Fredricksson
3 June 2004
Uppsala, Sweden
HOLOCAUST RESEARCH, BY COUNTRY
Hungary 
[8.30 KB]
Israel [11.76 KB]
Netherlands [10.51 KB]
Poland [7.30 KB]
Sweden [27.98 KB]
UK [27.83 KB]
USA [57.12 KB]
