Senior Fellowships 2019/2020 at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its senior fellow-ships for the academic year 2019/2020.

The VWI is an academic institution dedicated to the research and documentation of antisemitism, racism, nationalism and the Holocaust. Conceived and established during Simon Wiesenthal’s life-time, the VWI receives funding from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Re-search, the Federal Chancellery as well as the City of Vienna. Research at the institute focuses on the Holocaust in its European context, including its antecedents and its aftermath.

Distinguished scholars who have completed their Ph.D.s, have produced works of scholarship and have long-standing experience working at universities or academic institutions are eligible to apply for a senior fellowship. Senior fellows will be able to conduct research on a topic of their choice in the field of Holocaust studies at the institute. Beyond the research work itself, the stay at the institute is intended to encourage communication and scientific exchange among the fellows at the institute. Senior fellows are expected to support the institutes’s academic work and provide research advice and support to Junior fellows. Senior fellows are further expected to contribute to the academic culture of Vienna, e.g., by giving guest lectures and seminars at academic institutions. Senior fellows must be regularly present at the VWI.

Research projects are to focus on a topic relevant to the research interests of the VWI. Within this parameter, applicants are free to choose their own topic, approach and methodology. Fellows will have access to the archives of the institute. It is expected that fellows will make use of relevant resources from the collection in their research projects. Research results will be the subject of formal fellows' discussions and will be presented to the wider public at regular intervals. At the end of their stay, fellows are required to submit a short research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI‘s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Senior fellowships are awarded for a duration of between six and eleven months. Fellows will have a work station with computer and internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 2,500. In addition, VWI will cover housing costs during the fellowship (up to € 700) as well as the costs of a round-trip to and from Vienna (coach class airfare or 2nd class train fare). There is an additional one-off payment of € 500 available for research conducted outside of Vienna or photocopying costs outside of the institute, where applicable.

Senior fellows will be selected by the International Academic Advisory Board of the VWI.

Applications may be submitted in English or German and must include the following documents:

• completed application form,
• a detailed description of the research project, including the research objectives, an overview of existing research on the topic and methodology (12,000 characters max.)
• a list of publications and a CV with a photo (optional).

Please send your application in electronic format (in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject header “VWI Research Fellowships 2019/2020” and submit it by 13 January 2019 to:

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

If you do not get confirmation that we have received your proposal, please contact us.

Future senior fellows are advised to endeavour to finance a part of their fellowship via a stipend from the Stipendienstiftung der Republik Österreich and to submit an application to this end after they have received notification of being awarded their fellowship.

Senior Fellowships 2020/2021 at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its senior fellow-ships for the academic year 2020/2021.

The VWI is an academic institution dedicated to the research and documentation of antisemitism, racism, nationalism and the Holocaust. Conceived and established during Simon Wiesenthal’s life-time, the VWI receives funding from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Re-search, the Federal Chancellery as well as the City of Vienna. Research at the institute focuses on the Holocaust in its European context, including its antecedents and its aftermath.

Distinguished scholars who have completed their Ph.D.s, have produced works of scholarship and have long-standing experience working at universities or academic institutions are eligible to apply for a senior fellowship. Senior fellows will be able to conduct research on a topic of their choice in the field of Holocaust studies at the institute. Beyond the research work itself, the stay at the institute is intended to encourage communication and scientific exchange among the fellows at the institute. Senior fellows are expected to support the institutes’s academic work and provide research advice and support to Junior fellows. Senior fellows are further expected to contribute to the academic culture of Vienna, e.g., by giving guest lectures and seminars at academic institutions. Senior fellows must be regularly present at the VWI.

Research projects are to focus on a topic relevant to the research interests of the VWI. Within this parameter, applicants are free to choose their own topic, approach and methodology. Fellows will have access to the archives of the institute. It is expected that fellows will make use of relevant resources from the collection in their research projects. Research results will be the subject of formal fellows' discussions and will be presented to the wider public at regular intervals. At the end of their stay, fellows are required to submit a short research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI‘s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Senior fellowships are awarded for a duration of between six and eleven months. Fellows will have a work station with computer and internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 2,500. In addition, VWI will cover housing costs during the fellowship (up to € 700) as well as the costs of a round-trip to and from Vienna (coach class airfare or 2nd class train fare). There is an additional one-off payment of € 500 available for research conducted outside of Vienna or photocopying costs outside of the institute, where applicable.

Senior fellows will be selected by the International Academic Advisory Board of the VWI.

Applications may be submitted in English or German and must include the following documents:

• completed application form,
• a detailed description of the research project, including the research objectives, an overview of existing research on the topic and methodology (12,000 characters max.)
• a list of publications and a CV with a photo (optional).

Please send your application in electronic format (in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject header “VWI Research Fellowships 2020/2021” and submit it by 12 January 2020 to:

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

If you do not get confirmation that we have received your proposal, please contact us.

Future senior fellows are advised to endeavour to finance a part of their fellowship via a stipend from the Stipendienstiftung der Republik Österreich and to submit an application to this end after they have received notification of being awarded their fellowship.

Edith Raim

Senior Fellow (10/2016-03/2017)

Prosecuting Nazi Crimes in the Other Germany. The Soviet Zone and the Judicial Prosecution of Nazi Criminals, 1945–1949

This study is conceived as a foundational work from a legal historical perspective on the judicial appraisal of Nazi crimes in the German Democratic Republic from 1945 to 1990. Along with the reconstruction of the justice administration and of the penal foundations (Control Council Directive No. 38, Control Council Law No. 10, Penal Code of the GDR), it analyses the entire East-German efforts at prosecution. The number of East-German cases has not only been notably corrected upwards by contrast to former studies through years of archival work in the Stasi Records Agency, the departure from constitutional principles in individual cases has also been exemplified through an autopsy of the case files. This project analyses (by contrast to West Germany and Austria) the various functions attributed to ‘Transitional Justice’ in the socialist state. It will focus especially on female defendants who at twelve per cent numbered significantly higher than in West Germany (5.5 per cent).

Edith Raim studied history and German in Munich and Princeton and worked as a DAAD lecturer in the United Kingdom, at the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn, and at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich. She is a lecturer of Contemporary History in Augsburg and has published on Nazi history and the post-war era. Most recent publication: Nazi Crimes Against Jews and German Post-War Justice. The West German Judicial System During Allied Occupation (1945–1949), Berlin 2014.

Paul Weindling
Senior Fellow (12/2015 - 03/2016)

Medicine in Austria under National Socialism: Forced Migration and Medical Experiments

This project consists of two elements:

1.    1. The persecution and emigration of Jewish doctors from Vienna
2.    2. Austrian victims of Nazi medical experiments and coerced research

Both approaches seek to exploit thoroughly Austrian records to develop biographical databases of victims within a wider National Socialist and European context. The Austrian experience of Nazi persecution was particularly intense. In medicine, distinctively Nazi measures were rapidly applied with dismissals from university and hospital posts, the cancellation of insurance contracts, and annulment of degrees. These measures aimed at medical practitioners were accompanied by the general terror of street violence, the vandalisation and confiscation of property, boycotts, and round-ups and deportations to concentration camps. The relatively high proportion of Jews as members of the Vienna Chamber of Physicians meant that the impact on the Jewish community was far-reaching. The project aims to use records of the Vienna Jewish Community to study responses under persecution and preparation for emigration.

The Austrian experience of Nazi experimental medicine was also intense. A number of clinicians were involved in coerced experiments. Not only were euthanasia killings in pediatric units and psychiatric hospitals extensive, but there was interest in research on brain specimens. It also aims to consult documents on Austrian survivors of the Nazi experiments.

Paul Julian Weindling is Research Professor in the History of Medicine at Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom. His research interests include the history of eugenics and social welfare, victims of Nazi coerced research and medical experiments, and the history of international health. His most recent book is: Victims and Survivors of Nazi Human Experiments: Science and Suffering in the Holocaust.

Judit Molnár
Senior Fellow (10/2015 - 03/2016)

The Role of the Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie in the Holocaust and their Punishment after the Second World War

The Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie was one of the most important state institutions between 1881 and 1945. Its task was to preserve law and order in the countryside, to prevent peasant uprisings as well as a socialist agitation in the villages, and, in 1944, to deport the Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz. This project involves reading, classifying, and analysing the thousands of documents on the gendarmes at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies, as well as to write a comprehensive monograph on the gendarmerie.

One of the questions the monograph will address is why it was the Hungarian gendarmerie that Adolf Eichmann and his “specialists” primarily counted on in 1944, when the Jews in Hungary were deprived of their property, herded into ghettoes and collecting camps, and finally deported. That is, one of the basic questions is the problematic of the crime, in other words the deportation, and the role the gendarmerie played in the Holocaust. The other basic question is the problem of the punishment, of accountability. What was the cause behind the punishment of gendarmes after the Second World War, what was the extent of their punishment, and how was it done?

Judit Molnár is Associate Professor at the University of Szeged since 1998. Since 1994, she has been the deputy director of the Hungarian research group of the Yad Vashem Archives. She organised the first Hungarian permanent Holocaust exhibition as the director of the Program Bureau of the Permanent Exhibition (2004-2006) and was the chief historical advisor at the Holocaust Memorial Center between 2009 and 2011.Her field of research is the history of the Jews in Hungary in the 20th century. She focuses on the history of the Hungarian Jewish Leaders during World War II and the Role of the Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie in the Holocaust.

Judith Keilbach
Senior Fellow (04/2016 - 08/2016)

Televising the Eichmann Trial. Holocaust Memory and the Making of a Transnational Media Event

The trial against Adolf Eichmann is one of the first transnational television events. When the trial opened on April 11th, 1961, journalists from all over the world were in Jerusalem to report on the proceedings. The trial was not only covered in the printed press and on radio, but also recorded for television, with videotapes sent by plane to broadcasting stations in 38 countries where the recorded images were aired in news reports or special programs.

Understanding the trial as an early global media event this book project focuses on the technical and institutional preconditions that facilitated television broadcasts. It discusses the historical and political context of the trial, explores the transnational collaboration, negotiations and conflicts before and during the recording of the proceedings, and compares the trial coverage in different countries. Beyond analysing a particular media constellation, the project also provides an insight into the making of global media events and addresses Cold War politics and the rapidly changing global media landscape of that time.

Judith Keilbach is Assistant Professor for Television Studies at the Media and Culture Department of Utrecht University. She has published articles about Holocaust testimonies, the photographic depiction of the Holocaust and a book on television documentaries about National Socialism (Geschichtsbilder und Zeitzeugen, 2008). In 2013 she was Leibniz Summer Fellow at the Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam (ZZF) and in 2014 fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS).

Ferenc Erős
Senior Fellow (04/2016 - 08/2016)

From War Neurosis to Holocaust Trauma

In his research, Ferenc Erős plans to produce a historical and critical survey of the contribution of psychoanalysis and other “psycho-sciences” to our contemporary understanding of the trauma of the Holocaust. In this survey and analysis the following main topics will be examined:

• The use of psychiatric knowledge and procedures during the First Word War,
• The psychoanalytic conception of war neurosis,
• The later debates on the nature of individual and collective psychic traumata within psychoa-nalysis, 
• The focus on perpetrators rather than on victims after the Second World War,
• The focus on intergenerational effects of Holocaust trauma,
• Trauma research and the problem of post-memory,
• The varying concept of Holocaust trauma in the last decades in Hungary.

The research, will examine in detail how and in what contexts the concept of Holocaust trauma came through in the last decades in Hungary. Ferenc Erős is arguing that in Hungary there was, after a few immediate post-war attempts to explore the psycho-sociological impact of the Holocaust, an almost full lack of concern with the personal problems of survivors, children or adults.

Ferenc Erős, studied psychology and literature at the ELTE University in Budapest, and graduated in 1969. He obtained his PhD in 1986, and was awarded the title Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (DSc) since 2002. Currently he is professor emeritus at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Pécs where he has directed a doctoral program in psychoanalytic studies since 1997. The focus of his present research includes Jewish identity, the social and cultural history of psychoanalysis in Central Europe, psychoanalytic theory and its application to social issues and the problem of trauma and cultural memory. He is the author of several scientific books and articles in his areas of research in English, Hungarian, German and French.

Natalia Aleksiun

Senior Fellow (03/2014 – 08/2014)

"Christian corpses for the Christians": The Cadaver Affair, Anti-Semitism and the Training of Jewish Physicians in Europe between the Two World Wars.

I explore the conflict surrounding the so called cadaver affair at medical departments of Eastern and Central European universities between the two world wars. As early as 1921, Christian student associations in Poland demanded a contribution of cadavers from local Jewish communities proportionate to the number of Jewish medical students. They threatened to block their Jewish colleagues from participating in anatomy lectures and laboratory classes if no such contribution were made. The right-wing student activists argued that in the face of a persistent shortage of corpses—the Jewish community had unjustly avoided sharing in the responsibility for providing specimens. The conflict in and around the dissecting room brought together an amalgamation of arguments about science and progress, fair division of rights and responsibilities, and an alleged Jewish sense of religious and racial superiority. Ultimately, the deeper, underlying meaning of the cadaver affair can be found in the desire to segregate Jews from non-Jews. It also provides a window onto the political strategies embraced by various sections of Jewish communities when facing hardship or persecution.

Natalia Aleksiun, Associate Professor of Modern Jewish History at Touro College, Graduate School of Jewish Studies, New York and Assistant Professor of Modern History at the Institute of History, Polish Academy of Sciences. She published Where to? The Zionist Movement in Poland, 1944-1950 (in Polish) and co-edited Polin vol. 20, devoted to the memory of the Holocaust. Her articles appeared in Yad Vashem Studies, Polish Review, Dapim, East European Jewish Affairs, Studies in Contemporary Jewry, Polin, Gal Ed, East European Societies and Politics and German History.

Sławomir Kapralski

Senior Fellow (10/2013 – 08/2014)

The Holocaust as a Frame of Memory and the Roma/Sinti Movement in Austria and Poland.

In my research I intend to reconstruct the process of breaking the silence regarding the fate of Roma/Sinti during World War ll in Austria and in Poland, and to compare the mechanisms of the process of constructing the Roma memory of the genocide in both countries. In particular, I am interested in the role of the prosecution of Nazi crimes and the process of compensation, the relations between Roma/Sinti and Jewish organizations, the role of the Roma/Sinti political mobilization, the differences in public “cultures of memory” in Austria and Poland, and the beginning of the organized Romani commemoration of the Nazi persecution. I would like to study the impact of the resurgence of the memory for the Roma/Sinti movement in its fight against “anti-gypsyism” and improving the social/economic standing of Roma. Finally, I would like to investigate the role of the globalization of the Holocaust discourse and its role as a “master narrative” of a pan-Romani identity to figure out whether such identity is a viable one or rather Roma will remain a complex network of various identity projects.

Sławomir Kapralski is a Researcher in the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. He holds Ph.D. in Sociology from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. His research focuses on nationalism, ethnicity and identity, collective memory, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, and the Roma communities in Europe. He is a member of the Gypsy Lore Society, European Association for Holocaust Studies, and European Academic Network on Romani Studies.

Patrice G. Poutrus
Senior Fellow (10/2012 – 09/2013)

Refugee reports. A study on mass media representation of migration in the metropolis Vienna, 1919-1933/34

Situated at the interface of Austrian migration, city and media histories, this project will address the question of how the subject of migration was treated in the Viennese public sphere. It will ask in what way the mass media representation of migration changed due to political or socio-economic changes, which migration phenomena received particular public attention, which relationships were perceived between the developments and finally how this was judged by which daily newspapers and to what extent the migrants themselves were able to or did play a part in this representation, and what this part was. The cultural historical perspective that must be taken into account in this
investigation will add a link between the classical social and structural history research on the European history of migration and the research that has been done on the history of the memory of migration.

Patrice G. Poutrus, was a research assistant at the Centre for Contemporary Historical Research (ZZF) in Potsdam from 1996 to 1999. In 2000, he gained his doctoral degree at the Department for Economic and Social History at the Europa University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder). In 2001 he was awarded the AICGS/DAAD post-doctoral stipend at the German History Institute in Washington, D.C., USA. After that, he returned to his research post at the ZZF. Following this, he participated in an international research group research project on the Association Memory, Responsibility and Future (EVZ), directed by the Department of Contemporary History at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. He teaches European and German History of the 19th and 20th centuries at the Martin-Luther-University Halle/Wittenberg.