Dr. Monika Vrzgulova

Professional Background

Dr. Monika Vrzgulova is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Ethnology Slovak Academy of Sciences in the Slovak Republic. She holds a PhD from Comenius University Bratislava and a PhD from the Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava (Slovak Republic). As the Gunzenberger-Reichman Family Fellow, at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Dr. Vrzgulova will be conducting research for her project entitled “Bystanders to the Holocaust and Their Place in the Holocaust Memory of Today’s Slovakia.”

Dr. Vrzgulova is fluent in English, Slovak, and Czech. She also has reading abilities in German.

Dr. Vrzgulova is the author of the monograph We Saw the Holocaust (2005), Deti holokaustu [Children in the Holocaust] (2007) and her most current work, Nevyrozprávané susedské histórie. Holokaust na Slovensku z dvoch perspektív [Untold Neighbors History. Holocaust in Slovakia from Two Perspectives]. In 2011 - 2016, Dr. Vrzgulova was the Slovak research team leader in the USHMM Oral History Documentation Project: “Crimes against Civilian Populations during WW2: Victims, Witnesses, Collaborators and Perpetrators.” Dr. Vrzgulova is also the author of several book chapters, articles, and lectures.

Fellowship Research

While in residence at the Mandel Center Dr. Vrzgulova initiated research on the topic of bystanders in Slovakia and other Central European countries using the Oral History method. Drawing on the Museum's resources, she sought to use the Museum's Oral History Project, oral history interviews of the Terezin Diary collection, and USC Shoah History Foundation Visual History Archive to study and analyze interviews of Jewish and non-Jewish witnesses.

Dr. Vrzgulova was in residence from March 1 to August 31, 2018.