For Advanced Undergraduate, MA, and First-Year PhD Students
INTRODUCTION TO HOLOCAUST STUDIES THROUGH THE RECORDS OF THE INTERNATIONAL TRACING SERVICE (ITS) COLLECTION AT THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM
July 15–19, 2013
Washington, DC
The competition for the 2013 seminar has closed.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies is pleased to invite nominations for the seminar Introduction to Holocaust Studies through the International Tracing Service (ITS) Collection. This seminar is the sixth in a series designed to encourage the use of the recently opened archival holdings of the ITS.
The objective of this seminar is to acquaint promising advanced undergraduate, MA, and first year PhD students with Holocaust studies through this rich and diverse collection’s records. Nominations are welcome for students in all relevant academic disciplines, including history, political science, literature, Jewish studies, psychology, sociology, geography, and others.
About ITS
The ITS collection, which was opened in November 2007 as a result of an international campaign led by the Museum, includes records relating to the fates of more than 17 million people who were subject to incarceration, forced labor, displacement, or death as a result of World War II. Digital copies of the archive are being transferred in their entirety to the Museum. Currently, the Museum holds digital copies of over 100 million pages of documents spanning the period of 1933 until the mid-1950s.
The ITS collection is organized to focus powerfully on the perspective of the victims and survivors of persecution during the Holocaust, both Jews and non-Jews (including Roma). These documents have the potential for global reach. In the concentration camp–related records alone, one can find information about prisoners from across Europe, west to east, and from other continents.
The collection is currently divided into six major subunits: (1) prewar and wartime prisoner arrest, incarceration, and transport records from German concentration camp and police authorities; (2) prewar, wartime, and postwar records concerning foreign and forced labor in the German war economy, generated by the Nazi state, individual German firms, and postwar Allied occupation authorities; (3) postwar Allied records of individuals and families seeking displaced persons status and emigration; (4) records relating to the Lebensborn (Fount of Life) program, medical experiments, and “euthanasia”; (5) war crimes trials material and Allied investigations of the “death marches”; and (6) records of ITS predecessor organizations, child tracing branches, and searches for missing individuals and children, including the so-called Tracing and Documentation (“T/D”) files.
Participants will be assigned readings on these topics in advance of the workshop and are expected to arrive prepared to discuss them as they relate to the case studies. They will also be given the opportunity to acquaint themselves with the Museum’s library and archival resources and to explore the ITS collection.
To Apply
The Center invites applications from advanced undergraduate, MA, and first year PhD students (including those who have completed their first year of PhD-level coursework by July 2013) from all relevant academic disciplines who are enrolled at North American colleges and universities.
Applications must be submitted in English and include:
Please submit all application materials via mail, fax, or e-mail attachment to:
Dr. Suzanne Brown-Fleming
Director, Visiting Scholar Programs
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW
Washington, DC 20024-2126
Fax: 202.479.9726
E-mail: itsseminar@ushmm.org
Faculty nominators must submit signed letters of nomination on their institution’s letterhead under a separate cover.
All application materials must be received by April 23, 2013. We will notify selected participants by the end of May 2013.
Awards
Those selected to participate receive a stipend toward the cost of direct travel to and from their home institution and Washington, DC; shared lodging for the seminar’s duration; and $250 toward the cost of meals, local transit, luggage surcharges, and other incidental expenses, which will be distributed after the seminar’s conclusion via direct deposit. Local participants from the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area will receive a stipend of $125 for the week.
Participants are required to attend the full duration of the seminar.
Contact
If you have questions, please contact Dr. Suzanne Brown-Fleming at the address above or call 202.314.7802.
The seminar is made possible by the major support of the Harris Family Foundation and the Curt C. and Else Silberman Foundation, with additional support from Edie and David Blitzstein in memory of Kurt and Thea Sonnenmark.
