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Ms. Laurie Whitcomb-Norden

‘Life Reborn’ Fellow
"Hadassah Rosensaft: Jewish Women’s Leadership and Changing Identities in the Belsen Displaced Persons Camp"

Professional Background

Ms. Laurie Whitcomb-Norden received an M.A. in teaching from Whitworth College in Washington, an M.S.T. in Jewish history from Oxford University, and a B.A. in history and international relations from Marshall University. During her fellowship at the Museum, she was a Ph.D. candidate in history at Washington State University. For her ‘Life Reborn’ Fellowship for Research on Displaced Persons, Ms. Whitcomb-Norden conducted research for her project “Hadassah Rosensaft: Jewish Women’s Leadership and Changing Identities in the Belsen Displaced Persons Camp.”

Ms. Whitcomb-Norden completed studies at Alliance Francais in Paris and the Oxford Center for Hebrew and Jewish Studies at Oxford University, for which she received a full scholarship. She participated in the 2003 summer research workshop “Interdisciplinary Workshop for Jewish Studies Scholars” at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the 2001 Holocaust Education Foundation’s Summer Institute on the Holocaust and Jewish Civilization at Northwestern University. Ms. Whitcomb-Norden is the author of “Hadassah Rosensaft: Matriarch of the Belsen Survivors” in Beyond Camps and Forced Labour, Current International Research on Survivors of Nazi Persecution. Proceedings of the international conference, London 29-31 January 2003, J.D. Steinert and Inge Weber-Newth, eds. (Secolo, 2005). She has presented papers at conferences in Europe and the United States.

Fellowship Research

During her tenure at the Center, Ms. Whitcomb-Norden conducted a close study of Hadassah Rosensaft, a leader in the Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp. Her project bridged two developing fields in the study of the Holocaust: the history of women during the Holocaust and the experience of displaced persons after the war. Ms. Whitcomb-Norden studied several collections at the Museum including Hadassah Rosensaft’s personal papers, interviews with survivors, and Displaced Persons camp newspapers.

Ms. Whitcomb-Norden was in residence at the Mandel Center from September 13 to December 13, 2004.