A Nazi Killing Center through a Perpetrator’s Lens: The Sobibor Perpetrator Collection

Join Museum experts and scholars from North America and Europe to examine the groundbreaking Sobibor Perpetrator Collection.

The collection reveals an unprecedented view into operations at one of the five killing centers Nazi Germany established for the sole purpose of murdering Jews. Created by the camp’s deputy commandant, Johann Niemann, this large collection of photographs and documents offers new insights into the implementation of the “Final Solution.” It also illuminates interactions among the camp’s staff and the role of women.

Explore how this collection and its insights may impact Holocaust research and teaching opportunities.

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Edna Friedberg, Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Jürgen Matthäus, Director, Applied Research, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies

Tagan Engel, Granddaughter of Sobibor survivors who escaped during a prisoner uprising, Selma and Chaim Engel

Session I: Introduction to the Collection

Moderator

Anatol Steck, Senior Project Director, International Archival Programs, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Presenters

Kimberly Allar, Independent scholar and the Museum’s 2013–14 Ben and Zelda Cohen Fellow

Martin Cüppers, Head, Ludwigsburg Research Center, University of Stuttgart

Steffen Hänschen, Staff Scholar, Bildungswerk Stanisław Hantz

Session II: The Collection from the Perspectives of Perpetrators and Victims

Moderator

Patricia Heberer Rice, Senior Historian, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Presenters

Katja Happe, Director, KZ-Gedenk- und Begegnungsstätte Ladelund

Andreas Kahrs, Staff Scholar, Bildungswerk Stanisław Hantz

Anne Lepper, Representative, Yad Vashem’s International School for Holocaust Studies and Staff Scholar, Bildungswerk Stanisław Hantz

Closing Remarks

Rebecca Boehling, Director, David M. Rubenstein National Institute for Holocaust Documentation, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Lisa Leff, Director, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

This event is open to the public, but reservations are required.

For more information, please contact calendar@ushmm.org.

The organizers thank Semyon Rosenfeld and Selma Engel for their invaluable contributions to the research on the Sobibor Perpetrator Collection. This program is dedicated to them.

_{The Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center’s mission is to ensure the long-term growth and vitality of Holocaust Studies. To do that, it is essential to provide opportunities for new generations of scholars. The vitality and the integrity of Holocaust Studies require openness, independence, and free inquiry so that new ideas are generated and tested through peer review and public debate. The opinions of scholars expressed before, during the course of, or after their activities with the Mandel Center do not represent and are not endorsed by the Museum or its Mandel Center.}