Mr. Christoph Schiessl

Professional Background

Mr. Christoph Schiessl received an M.A. and a B.A. in history and political science from the Katholische Universitaet Eichstaett-Ingolstadt in Germany. During his fellowship at the Museum, he was a Ph.D. candidate in history at Wayne State University, and taught world and American history at Cranbrook/Kingswood Upper Schools in Michigan. For his Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies fellowship, Mr. Schiessl conducted research on “The Search for Eastern European Nazi Collaborators in the United States.”

Mr. Schiessl is the author of scholarly articles including “Nazi Collaborators from Eastern Europe as Immigrants and the Displaced Persons Act” in Michigan Academician (vol. 35, no. 3, Fall 2003) and “An Element of Genocide: Rape, Total War and International Law in the Twentieth Century” in the Journal of Genocide Research (vol. 4, 2002). Among Mr. Schiessl’s honors include the Alfred H. Kelly Award and the Thomas C. Rumble Fellowship from Wayne State University.

Fellowship Research

During his tenure at the Museum, Mr. Schiessl examined the efforts to locate and prosecute Eastern European Nazi collaborators in the United States of which approximately 10,000 were permitted entry through the Displaced Persons Acts of 1948 and 1950. Mr. Schiessl’s historical overview addressed why so many collaborators were able to gain entry and why the search for collaborators in the United States did not begin until the 1970’s.

Mr. Schiessl was in residence at the Mandel Center from June 15 to August 15, 2005.