2010–11 Robert Savitt Fellow Ms. Jennifer Marlow
Jennifer Marlow is a Ph.D candidate in history at Michigan State University. She received a B.A. in history at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan. For her Robert Savitt Fellowship, Ms. Marlow is conducting research on her dissertation, “Nannies and Housemaids: Female Aid and the Family in Nazi Occupied Poland.”
Ms. Marlow is the recipient of many fellowships and awards, including an American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Fellowship in East European Studies, two Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships, two Michigan State University History Department Summer Language Study Fellowships, the Frank and Adelaide Kussy Fellowship for the Study of the Holocaust and the Kenneth E. Corey Research Enhancement Award. In 2007, she presented her research at the Women’s History Symposium at Saginaw Valley State University. She will present her current research this September at the upcoming International Polish Studies Conference at the University of Michigan, and at the Yad Vashem International Institute for Holocaust Research conference “Hiding, Sheltering and Borrowing Identities as Avenues of Rescue During the Holocaust,” which will take place in December 2010 in Jerusalem. Ms. Marlow has language skills in Polish and German.
During her tenure at the Center, Ms. Marlow is researching the role of Polish Catholic nannies and housemaids in assisting their former Jewish employers during the Holocaust. Her research analyzes the actions of Polish and Jewish women while including the entire family dynamic, and suggests that pre-war patterns of interaction between the two communities affected the willingness of individuals to involve themselves in rescue and resistance. To complete her research, Ms. Marlow is utilizing the Museum’s extensive archival collections, including the Emmanuel Ringelblum Collection and the Shoah Visual History Foundation oral testimonies collection. She will also use Jewish survivors’ testimonies and both oral histories and memoirs of Jewish and Polish authors.
