Dr. Kierra Crago-Schneider

Professional Background

Dr. Kierra Crago-Schneider is historian at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. She received a PhD in history from the University of California- Los Angles in 2013, an MA in Jewish history from the University of California- Los Angles in 2007, as well as an MA in European history from the University of California- Riverside in 2004.

While in residence at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Dr. Crago-Schneider conducted research on her project, “Neighbors or Nemeses? A Study of Polish and Jewish Displaced Persons in the British Zone of Occupation in Post-Holocaust Germany.” She possesses language skills in English, German, Yiddish, and Hebrew.

Dr. Crago-Schneider’s publications include: “Anti-Semitism or Competing Interests? An Examination of German and American Perceptions of Jewish Displaced Persons Active on the Black Market in Munich’s Möhlstrasse,” in Yad Vashem Review (2010); and “The Bibliography of Yiddish and Hebrew Books Published in Los Angeles” (2005). Some of her academic presentations include: “Rehabilitation and Resettlement: The Struggle to ‘Normalize’ the Lives of the Tubercular Community in Föhrenwald” presented at the Fifth International Beyond Camps and Forced Laborers Conference, London, England (2015); “Continued Violence: Jewish Responses to anti-Semitism in Post-War Germany” delivered at Lessons and Legacies in Boca Raton, Florida (2014); “Friend or Foe? The JDC’s Struggle to Resettle the Last Remnant of Germany’s Displaced Jews in Föhrenwald, 1953-1957” at the JDC at 100 Conference in New York, NY (2014); “Forgotten or Unwanted? The Final Remnant of Jewish DPs in Germany” at The Memory of Trauma: After the Holocaust and an Era of Genocides, in Davis, California (2013); “Emigration by Any Means Necessary: Jewish Displaced Persons and Their Attempts to Leave Europe, 1945-1950” presented at To Stay or To Go? Jews in Europe in the Immediate Aftermath of the Holocaust, in Warsaw, Poland (2012); and “Should They Stay or Be Forced to Leave? The Debate over a Continued Jewish Presence in Germany” at Beyond Camps and Forced Labor Conference in London, England (2012).

Fellowship Research

During her tenure in the Mandel Center, Dr. Crago-Schneider continued her scholarship on the plight of Polish and Jewish Displaced Persons within the British zone of occupied Germany by examining archives containing official documents collected by the British Military Government, oral histories by those within the Displaced Persons centers, and publications released concerning the Hamm and Vinnhorst Displaced Persons camps. Specifically, this included an in-depth study of the Collier Collection that contains the personal documents of Louis Collier, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration official in charge of the Hamm Displaced Persons camp.

Dr. Crago-Schneider was in residence with the Mandel Center from August 1 to October 31, 2015.