Lilia Tomchuk

Junior Fellow (02/2023 – 08/2023)

Shades Of Agency: Wahl, Überleben und Widerstand jüdischer Frauen während des Holocaust in Transnistrien

This project explores the facets of Jewish women's actions in different contexts during the Holocaust in Transnistria: Several Jews, Rom:nja from Bessarabia and Bukovina as well as Ukrainian Jews from the local neighbourhood were deported to Transnistria between 1941 and 1944. In research, Transnistria is predominantly portrayed as a "dumping ground". But conditions in the region varied greatly. Compared to the German-occupied part of Ukraine, the Jews in Romanian-occupied Transnistria were able to form exceptionally well-organised ghettos under certain circumstances. At the same time, the region was also home to camps such as the site of Pechora, which is remembered as a merciless death camp. The overarching aim of the project is to identify the facets of Jewish women's agency in Transnistria and to examine the characteristics of their representation in survivors' accounts. The analysis of Jewish women's decisions and actions clarifies their role as actors and historical subjects.

Lilia Tomchuk , PhD candidate in History at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, currently affiliated to the Fritz Bauer Institute with the Jürg Breuninger PhD scholarship. Fellowship of the German-Ukrainian Historians’ Commission, Yad Vashem Grant for Doctoral Students and Young Scholars and the Fellowship at the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research. Award from the Fritz Bauer Institute for her thesis on sexual violence against Jewish women in Ukraine (1941-1945).

E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.