Dr. Helene Sinnreich

Professional Background

Dr. Helene Sinnreich received a Ph.D. and an M.A. in history from Brandeis University, and a B.A. in history from Smith College. During her fellowship at the Museum, she was the Director of Judaic and Holocaust Studies at Youngstown State University. For her Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship for Archival Research, Dr. Sinnreich conducted research for her project, “A History of the Krakow Ghetto.”

Dr. Sinnreich has written articles and earned fellowship awards based upon her research of the social history of the Holocaust. Her publications include “Baluty Market: A Study of a Food Space” in Food, Culture and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (March, 2007); “...And He Will Count Me Among the Helpers of Death: Polish and Jewish Historiography of Jewish-Polish Relations during World War II” in Rethinking Poles and Jews: Troubled Past, Brighter Future (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007); “Reading the Writing on the Wall: A Textual Analysis of Lodz Graffiti” in Religion, State and Society (2004); and “And We Eat Like on Yom Kippur: Women, Food, and the Struggle for Survival in the Lodz Ghetto,” in Lilith Magazine (Fall, 2005). Dr. Sinnreich served on the editorial board of the Journal of Jewish Identities at the time of her fellowship. Also, she has received prestigious fellowships for her work, including a Kosciuszko Foundation Grant, a Dorot Travel Award, a Civic Education Project Visiting Fellowship; and has participated in the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies’ workshops “The ‘Final Solution’ in the Ukraine” and “The Lodz Ghetto.”

Fellowship Research

While in residence at the Center, Dr. Sinnreich researched the history of the Krakow ghetto by using wartime and post-war documents. She focused on the Nazi administration, the role of the Judenrat, and the social history of Jewish life in the Krakow ghetto. The research she conducted during her fellowship is part of a larger book project on the history of the ghetto. Dr. Sinnreich’s project will provide historians with a study against which other ghettos may be compared, as well as a better understanding of the purpose of ghettos and the level at which Nazi policy originated.

Dr. Sinnreich was in residence at the Mandel Center from January 1 to August 31, 2007.