Dr. Michal Frankl

Professional Background

Dr. Michal Frankl is the Department Head of Jewish Studies and History of Antisemitism at the Prague Jewish Museum in the Czech Republic. He received his PhD in history from Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic). His research interests include the history of antisemitism, refugee policies in the twentieth century and the Holocaust in Czech Lands. He is fluent in Czech, English, and German, and can read Slovenian, Slovak, and Polish. While in residence at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Professor Frankl conducted research on his project, “Citizens into ‘Ostjuden.’ ”

Professor Frankl has published a multitude of written material, including 'Prag ist nunmehr antisemitisch': Tschechischer Antisemitismus am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts [Prague is now Antisemitic: Czech Antisemitism at the End of the 19th Century] (Metropol, 2011), and Unsichere Zuflucht: Die Tschechoslowakei und ihre Flüchtlinge aus NS-Deutschland und Österreich 1933-1938 [Uncertain Refuge: Czechoslovakia and its Refugees from Nazi Germany and Austria 1933-1938], coauthored with Kateřina Čapková.

Fellowship Research

For his Margit Meissner Fellowship for the Study of the Holocaust in Czech Lands, Professor Frankl analyzed the reactions and policies towards Jewish refugees and expellees in a broad historical context and comparative way in order to provide new insights into the transformation and redefinitions of Jewish citizenship in East-Central Europe during the second half of the 1930s.

Professor Michal Frankl was in residence at the Mandel Center from September 1, 2015 to January 31, 2016.