Alexandra Birch

Research Fellow (10/2023 – 08/2024)

GULAGSound: Music and Mizrahim in Tashkent

The detention of artists and musicians was a central feature of the cultural devastation of Soviet terror. Contemporaneous with the Holocaust, Stalinisation, terror and the gulag system unleashed the targeted destruction of Jewish communities from Ukraine to Vladivostok. To expand the existing Holocaust historiography, this project examines two sonic spaces of internment: first, as part of a study of evacuees during World War II and their interactions with sound during transport; second, as part of a local study of Tashkent that looks at Jewish transit to Birobidzhan in the pre-war period and the interactions of evacuated Jews with Bukharian Jewish communities in Central Asia.

Alexandra Birch, internationally acclaimed violinist and historian. Studied music (PhD) at Arizona State University, performed in over twenty countries. Currently studying history (PhD) at UC Santa Barbara on the connection between music and mass crimes in the former USSR.

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Jenny Watson

Research Fellow (04/2024 – 08/2024)

Articulating Atrocity: Metaphors of Rural Life in Accounts of Mass Shooting

Building on existing works on agricultural metaphors in the context of mass killing, the project expands the focus by including historical sources. It analyses first-hand accounts of mass shootings to explore the ways in which perpetrators, survivors and witnesses used language from everyday life to articulate the atrocities they had committed, experienced or witnessed. The hypothesis - developed from work with literary texts and inspired by Alon Confinos' work on "unconscious narrative enactment" - is that individuals view the motives and processes of mass murder through the lens of the norms of communal processes such as hunting, harvesting and slaughter.

Jenny Watson, Chancellor's Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, where she teaches in the German programme of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Her postdoctoral project, “Restless Earth: Extra-Concentrationary Violence since 1945”, focused on the representation of the so-called "Holocaust by Bullets" in post-war German-language literature.

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Lóránt Bódi

Research Fellow (10/2024 – 03/2025)

Remains without Body: The Cultural Imagination of the Holocaust Soaps

Already during the Second World War, there were rumours and harrowing beliefs among the public about the German extermination machine, which decades later hardened into legends or myths. One of the most enduring Holocaust legends was the story of the so-called RIF soaps. Survivors have played an important role in preserving the memory of the soaps for decades, but the story has also moved beyond the confines of those memories and moved into public discourse. Up to the present, historical research has mostly focused on the historical origin of the “soap myth” and sought to falsify this legend. However, this project is following the approach of Geertzian historical anthropology to explore the social function it continues to have in a given cultural context as a response to the tragedy of the Holocaust. Particularly, the knowledge of the origins of the soaps among the survivors has never been considered, and this research project aims to fill these important gaps. In that sense, it will analyse the “myth” and its different historical-semantic layers by using survivors' testimonies, Jewish commemorative practices, and public discourses.

Lóránt Bódi is a social researcher and editor. He worked as Assistant Research Fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in international research projects such as COURAGE (Horizon2020) and UMSCEN (Creative Europe). He received his PhD from ELTE (Eötvös Loránd University) in the Atelier – European Historiography and Social Sciences programme. His main research interest is 20th century Eastern European history, with a special focus on the history of authoritarian regimes and the Holocaust. Since 2022, he has been the editor-in-chief of the journal Café Bábel. Currently, he is a visiting lecturer at Metropolitan University and Corvinus University (Széchenyi College for Advanced Studies) and a Research Fellow at the VWI.

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Jens Kolata

Research Fellow (10/2024 – 03/2025)

Forensic Institutional Patients in National Socialist Austria

The research project deals with forensic institutional patients as a group of victims in National Socialist Austria and investigates whether specific paths of persecution can be identified for them due to the intersectional intertwining of the persecution criteria criminal delinquency and psychiatric diagnosis. Defendants in criminal proceedings who were deemed to be not “sane” were committed to mental institutions. Many of these forensic patients were murdered during the National Socialist “Euthanasia” from 1940 onwards or deported to concentration camps in 1944, in particular to Mauthausen. The project reconstructs the paths of psychiatric patients through criminal justice, psychiatric assessment, everyday life in the hospital, the National Socialist “Euthanasia,” and imprisonment in concentration camps. The project will supplement a research project about forensic institutional patients in Nazi Germany with an in-depth study of the specific situation in National Socialist Austria between 1938 and 1945. The aim is to examine the particularities regarding the history of forensic institutional patients in a territory annexed to Germany. Patient files and databases from several Austrian archives and memorial sites will be consulted for this purpose.

Jens Kolata , M.A., studied history and sociology at the Universities of Tübingen and Groningen. From 2009 to 2015, he worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Ethics and History of Medicine at the University of Tübingen. In his doctoral project at Cologne University, he examined eugenic debates in the German medical press between 1911 and 1976. He has been a research associate at the Fritz Bauer Institute in Frankfurt am Main since 2019. Recently, he is working on the research project “Forensic Institutional Patients under National Socialism”. His research interests are the history of eugenics, medicine under National Socialism, and the Nazi persecution of the socially marginalised.

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Hanja Dämon

Research Fellow (04/2025 – 08/2025)

Early Holocaust Feature Films in Austrian Cinemas in the Post-war Period. Film Policy, Screening Framework and Reception

The project examines how the first Holocaust-themed feature films were received in Austria. Where and in which contexts were they shown, and how did cinema owners, politicians and the contemporary press react to them? A central case study is The Last Stage (OT: Ostatni etap) about the Auschwitz extermination camp by the Polish director and Auschwitz survivor Wanda Jakubowska. It was shown in 1948 in Salzburg as part of a festival and later also in Vienna. Reactions to Allied documentary films about concentration and extermination camps have already received attention. In this project the focus will be on discussions on early post-war feature films dealing with this topic.

Hanja Dämon obtained her PhD from King’s College London. Her research on film policies in post-war Germany was funded by the European Research Council-sponsored project “Beyond Enemy Lines. Literature and Film in the British and US Zones of Occupation”. Recent publications include a contribution to the Yearbook of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies (2023) focusing on music and exile.

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Research Fellowships 2023/24 at The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its research fellowships for the academic year 2023/24.

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 lifetime, the VWI receives funding from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, 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.

Scholars who have completed their PhD studies and have produced works of scholarship are eligible for receiving a research fellowship. Research 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. Research fellows are expected to support the Institute’s academic work and provide research adjective and support to junior fellows. Research 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 fellow’s discussion and will be presented to the wider public at regular intervals. At the end of their stay, fellows are required to submit a research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI’s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Research fellowships are awarded for a duration of between five and eleven months. They will have a working space and Internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 2,200. In addition, VWI will cover housing costs during the fellowship (up to € 700 per month) 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 pho-tocopying costs outside of the Institute, where applicable.

Research 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-character max.)
• a list of publications and a CV with a photo, if not already included in application form (optional).

Please send your application in electronic format (in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject header “VWI Research Fellowships 2023/24” by 13 January 2023 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.

Research Fellowships 2024/25 at The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its research fellowships for the academic year 2024/25.

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 lifetime, the VWI receives funding from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, the Federal Chancellery as well as the City of Vienna. Research at the Institute focus-es on the Holocaust in its European context, including its antecedents and its aftermath.

Scholars who have completed their PhD studies and have produced works of scholarship are eligible for receiving a research fellowship. Research 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. Research fellows are expected to support the Institute’s aca-demic work and provide research adjective and support to junior fellows. Research fellows must be regularly present at the VWI.

Research projects of the research fellows are to focus on a topic relevant to the research inter-ests 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 fellow’s discussion and will be presented to the wider public at regular intervals. At the end of their stay, fellows are required to submit a research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI’s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Meth-ods. Documentation.

Research fellowships are awarded for a duration of between five and eleven months. They will have a working space and Internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 2,200.-. In ad-dition, VWI will cover housing costs during the fellowship (up to € 600.- per month) 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 € 200.- available for research conducted outside of Vienna or pho-tocopying costs outside of the Institute, where applicable.

Research 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-character max.)
• a list of publications and a CV with a photo, if not already included in application form (optional).

Please send your application in electronic format (in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject head-er “VWI Research Fellowships 2024/25” by 12 January 2024 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.

Research Fellowships 2025/26 at The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its research fellowships for the academic year 2025/26.

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 lifetime, the VWI receives funding from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, 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.

Scholars who have completed their PhD studies and have produced works of scholarship are eligible for receiving a research fellowship. Research 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. Research fellows are expected to support the Institute’s aca-demic work and provide research adjective and support to junior fellows. Research fellows must be regularly present at the VWI.

Research projects of the research fellows 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 fellow’s discussion and will be presented to the wider public at regular intervals. At the end of their stay, fellows are required to submit a research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI’s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Research fellowships are awarded for a duration of between five and eleven months. They will have a working space and Internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 2,200.-. In addition, VWI will cover housing costs during the fellowship (up to € 600.- per month) as well as the costs of a round-trip to and from Vienna (coach class airfare or 2nd class train fare).

Research 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-character max.)
• list of publications (if applicable),
• a CV (optional: with picture).

Please send your application in electronic format (in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject header “VWI Research Fellowships 2025/26” by 17 January 2025 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.

Gergely Kunt

Research Fellow (10/2022 – 03/2023)

"Images Of The Others": A Comparative Analysis of Anti-Romani and Anti-Semitic Narratives in Private and Public Discourse in Hungary from World War I to World War II

The project focuses on examining different levels of discourse that led to the association of negative social images and stereotypes of Jewish and Romani people in Hungary. Instead of focusing on the political background of the genocide or the anti-Roma and anti-Semitic laws, the "social and mental context" will be explored here - i.e. the dissemination of anti-Roma and anti-Semitic images and the internalisation of negative stereotypes by the majority group. Such images were an important prerequisite for the genocide during World War II. An interdisciplinary approach is taken: The research is primarily based on social psychology and the linguistic and discourse analysis of newspaper articles and first-person documents (especially diaries) from interwar Hungary, with special attention paid to the authors' use of language. The project treats the texts as part of the contemporary social reality created by language.

Gergely Kunt, social historian and Assistant Professor at the University of Miskolc (Hungary). Founding member of the European Ego-Documents Archive and Collections Network (EDAC). Author of The Children's Republic of Gaudiopolis: The History and Memory of a Children's Home for Holocaust and War Orphans (2022) and several monographs in Hungarian.He was Core Fellow at Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University; Weickert Postdoctoral Fellow at Fritz Bauer Institut at the University of Frankfurt am Main.

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Anna G. Piotrowska

Research Fellow (01/2023 – 06/2023)

Romani Musicians and the Holocaust

The project aims to shed light on the forgotten Holocaust of the Roma by examining the function of music and the position of Roma musicians in the concentration camps. While the starting point of the project is the analysis of the mechanisms of stereotyping the European "others" as musicians, the project predominantly reconstructs the position and reception of Roma musicians during the Holocaust, with a special focus on their situation in the concentration camps. The project focuses on Romani, but also on Jewish musicians who are particularly well-known in Central Europe, such as violinists and cimbalists, and examines their different musical traditions in the public sphere. The question is asked whether and to what extent their reception in European culture influenced the fate of Roma and Jewish musicians in the concentration camps.

Anna G. Piotrowska, musicologist (Jagiellonian University in Krakow and Durham University), has published numerous books and articles on the role music plays in shaping, influencing and reflecting cultural and political contexts. She is concerned with issues at the intersection of music culture and the concepts of race and ethnicity.

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