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Dr. Mette Jensen

Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance Research Fellow
"Solidarity in Action: Collective Rescue Efforts in Nazi-Occupied Europe"

Professional Background

Ms. Mette Jensen received a Ph.D. in sociology from Yale University and a B.A. in sociology from Copenhagen University in Denmark. During her fellowship at the Museum, she was a Ph.D. candidate in sociology at Yale University. For her Research Fellowship of the Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance, Ms. Jensen conducted research for her project “Solidarity in Action: Collective Rescue Efforts in Nazi-Occupied Europe.”

Ms. Jensen is the recipient of many awards such as a Yale University Fellowship, Fulbright Scholarship, American Women’s Club in Denmark Scholarship, Roblon Foundation Scholarship, and a Hoejgaard Foundation Scholarship. At the time of her tenure at the Museum she was an articles editor for Yale University’s Journal of Human Rights and Development Law and a translator (from Danish to English) for the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Copenhagen.

Fellowship Research

During her tenure at the Museum, Ms. Jensen explored three case studies of collective rescue efforts in Denmark, France, and the Netherlands. She focused on the characteristics of community rather than national or individual action. Ms. Jensen questioned why community-based operations emerged to save persecuted groups in some places, while elsewhere rescues were individually organized or nonexistent. She used the Museum’s oral history collection and the vast holdings from French national and regional archives to complete her research.

Ms. Jensen was in residence at the Mandel Center from August 26 to December 4, 2002.