Daan de Leeuw

Junior Fellow (10/2023 – 12/2024)

The Geography of Slave Labor: Dutch Jews and the Third Reich, 1942–1945

This project looks at the movement of Jewish forced labourers through the concentration camp system. The Germans moved the prisoners to wherever the war industry needed them. This kind of forced relocation was ubiquitous, yet it has received little attention from scholars. This interdisciplinary project investigates how Dutch-Jewish forced labourers experienced these frequent relocations. It uses spatial and social history methods and is based on survivors' testimonies and administrative documents. By using geographical information systems and manual cartography to visualise the routes through the camp system, the project opens up a new perspective on both the plight of Dutch Jewish forced labourers and the social dynamics between concentration camp inmates.

Daan de Leeuw, PhD candidate at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Clark University. Yad Vashem Summer Research Fellow, Prince Bernhard Cultural Fund Grant recipient, Fellow at the Center for Holocaust Studies at the Leibniz Institute of Contemporary History, EHRI Conny Kristel Fellow and Ben and Zelda Cohen Fellow at the USHMM.

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Vlasta Kordová

Junior Fellow (03/2024 – 08/2024)

Bandenbekämpfung: The Nazi Persecution of Objective Enemies in the Reflection of the “Heydrichiada” and the Slovak National Uprising

The project examines the methods of fighting partisans used by the German occupiers and their connection to the Holocaust. It conceptualises the term "fighting gangs" used by the Nazis and shows how it became ideologically charged (followed by the concept of "war of extermination"). The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on the earlier development as well as the goals of Nazi "security policy" and its main instrument - the police. The empirical part then applies the results of the theoretical analysis to two examples where the National Socialist security forces had to react to an immediate "threat": the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in May 1942 and the operation against the Slovak National Uprising in autumn 1944.

Vlasta Kordová, graduate of the Philosophical Faculty and the Faculty of Education at Charles University in Prague, currently a PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jan Evangelista Purkynê University in Ústí nad Labem. During her doctoral studies numerous scholarships in Germany and Austria. Author of several articles and two monographs.

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Hannah Riedler

Junior Fellow (10/2023 – 08/2024)

Between Deportation, Forced Labour and Germanisation. The Umwanderer Central Office in Occupied Poland 1939-1941

Immediately after the beginning of the conquest of Poland in 1939, the German occupiers began deporting hundreds of thousands of people from the annexed territories to the Generalgouvernement - Jews and non-Jews alike. The newly founded Umwandererzentralstelle (UWZ) was responsible for coordinating the expulsion as well as the transport of those affected. Many of the UWZ perpetrators later worked alongside Adolf Eichmann on the deportation of Jews. In addition to these personal connections, the project focuses on the daily deportation practice of the UWZ and its coordinating and ideological function in carrying out the immense population displacements.

Hannah Riedler, MA studies with a focus on Eastern European History at the University of Vienna, doctoral student at the University of Klagenfurt. Research interests: Occupied Poland in the Second World War, Holocaust, deportations in Poland in the Soviet and German and German occupation zones.

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Mirnes Sokolović

Junior Fellow (10/2023 – 03/2024)

The Construction of Europe by the Yugoslav Literary Right-Wing

The project is concerned with war propaganda and ideas about Europe in the Yugoslav literary right of the 1930s and 1940s. It focuses on the construction of a right-wing propaganda style and a discriminatory and a discriminatory cultural concept of Europe. The anti-Semitic glossary that helped to remove one of its constituent components from European culture and to construct an "ethnically pure" European culture characterised the mainstream of right-wing propaganda in Serbo-Croatia during the 1930s and 1940s. The project seeks answers to the questions of what led avant-garde writers to radical ideologies, what role intellectuals and the intellectuals and the media in legitimising crime and genocide and what makes the difference between right-wing and liberal international concepts of Europe.

Mirnes Sokolović, MA studies with a focus on in South Slavic literature at the University of Sarajevo. He is a member of the of the founding team and the editorial of the literary magazine SIC! and worked in the cultural departments of E-novina in Belgrad and Oslobođenje in Sarajevo. He has published a novel, two volumes of essays and prose, essays, satire, literary criticism and articles in magazines.

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Olga Kartashova

Junior Fellow (11/2024 – 08/2025)

The International Networks and Jewish Efforts to Prosecute Holocaust Perpetrators in Poland

This project delves into the advocacy efforts of Polish Jews for human and minority rights throughout World War II and its aftermath. It highlights the continuity of activism initiated by Jewish lawyers, community leaders, and individuals from the interwar period, which persisted despite the challenges of war and occupation. Contextualising postwar trials and Jewish investigations within this ongoing activism underscores their organic evolution rather than viewing them as isolated events. Jewish lobbyists played a pivotal role in advocating for minority rights, gathering evidence, and providing testimony in courts, representing the Jewish community as a semi-autonomous entity within the evolving landscape of international criminal law. This study contributes a fresh perspective on survivors' conception of justice, their engagement with Polish and other governments in pursuit of it, and their support for investigations and trials. Utilising extensive international networks for information exchange among survivors, domestic and foreign Jewish communities, and legal entities at national and international levels ensured a wealth of sources and witness testimonies for Holocaust-related trials, thereby enhancing the prospects of holding perpetrators accountable.

Olga Kartashova is a Ph.D. candidate in Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University, specialising in Eastern European Holocaust history, aftermath, memory, historiography, and trials. With a BA in Polish and Jewish studies from the University of Wrocław, an MA in comparative history from Central European University, and an MA in Holocaust studies from Haifa University, Olga Kartashova brings a diverse academic background. As a contractor researcher at the USHMM Mandel Center, she focused on the legal aspects of Holocaust history. Olga Kartashova has led seminars on East European and Jewish roots of international law and was awarded prestigious fellowships, including from the Saul Kagan Claims Conference Fellowship for Advanced Shoah Studies, and the Center for Holocaust Studies at the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History in Munich.

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Markéta Bajgerová Verly

Junior Fellow (10/2024 – 08/2025)

One Past, Two Histories: Exhibiting the Shanghai Jewish Refugees in China and Austria in Comparative Perspective

Many museums around the World launched exhibitions on the topic of Shanghai Jewish refugees in the past few years, putting the history of 20,000 Jews who fled to Shanghai 1933–1941 on display. Though connected in topic, the exhibitions do not present a unified historical account. This research project will analyse and compare two Shanghai Jewish Refugees history exhibitions that opened in 2020: the temporary exhibit titled “Little Vienna in Shanghai” by the Jewish Museum in Vienna and the reworked permanent exhibition of the Shanghai Jewish Refugees. The two exhibits present diametrically different versions of the experience of the European Jewry in wartime Shanghai, the former addressing the challenges that awaited the refugees in Shanghai, the latter romanticising the situation and claiming utopian harmony between the Chinese and the Jews. This project will deconstruct both exhibitions, exploring the question: What does the memorialisation of the Shanghai Jewish refugees reveal about the politics of the globalisation of the Holocaust?

Markéta Bajgerová Verly is a PhD student in the ERC project “Globalized Memorial Museums” at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and at the University of Vienna. Her research focuses on “War of Resistance against Japan” museums in contemporary China. In 2020, she obtained an MA degree in China Studies at the Yenching Academy of Peking University. In China, she led a Dean’s Grant project mapping 30 museums across China devoted to the memory of the War of Resistance and studied its memory politics. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Glasgow in Politics and History.

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Junior Fellowships 2023/24 at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its junior 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.

PhD-candidates from anywhere in the world are eligible to apply for a junior fellowship. Junior fellows will be able to work on a research project 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. Junior fellows will receive support and advice from the VWI as well as its senior and research fellows. Junior fellows are expected to regularly attend the VWI and take on an active role in the Institute’s research activities.

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 research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI’s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Junior fellowships are awarded for a duration of between six and eleven months. Experience tells that residencies between nine and eleven months are the most productive for facilitating the research of the fellows at the VWI. Junior fellows will have a working space at the VWI and Internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 1,200. In addition, junior fellows who are not Vienna residents will receive accommodation funding of € 340 per month. VWI will also cover 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.

Junior 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 objectives, an overview of existing research on the topic and methodology (12,000-character max.),
• two letters of recommendation (please indicate when sent separately),
• 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 Junior Fellowships 2023/24” by 13 January 2023 to:
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If you do not get confirmation that we have received your proposal, please contact us.

Junior Fellowships 2024/25 at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its junior fel-lowships for the academic year 2024/25.

The VWI is an academic institution dedicated to the research and documentation of antisemi-tism, racism, nationalism and the Holocaust. Conceived and established during Simon Wiesen-thal’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.

PhD-candidates from anywhere in the world are eligible to apply for a junior fellowship. Junior fellows will be able to work on a research project 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 encour-age communication and scientific exchange among the fellows at the Institute. Junior fellows will receive support and advice from the VWI as well as its senior and research fellows. Junior fellows are expected to regularly attend the VWI and take on an active role in the Institute’s research activities.

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. Fel-lows 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 sub-ject 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 research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI’s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Junior fellowships are awarded for a duration of between six and eleven months. Experience tells that residencies between nine and eleven months are the most productive for facilitating the research of the fellows at the VWI. Junior fellows will have a working space at the VWI and In-ternet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 1,400.-. In addition, junior fellows who are not Vienna residents will receive accommodation funding of € 600.- per month. VWI will also cover 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 photocopying costs outside of the Institute, where applicable.

Junior 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 objectives, an overview of existing research on the topic and methodology (12,000-character max.),
• two letters of recommendation (please indicate when sent separately),
• 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 Junior 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.

Junior Fellowships 2025/26 at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its junior 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.

PhD-candidates from anywhere in the world are eligible to apply for a junior fellowship. Junior fellows will be able to work on a research project 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. Junior fellows will receive support and advice from the VWI as well as its senior and research fellows. Junior fellows are expected to regularly attend the VWI and take on an active role in the Institute’s research activities.

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 research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI’s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Junior fellowships are awarded for a duration of between six and eleven months. Experience tells that residencies between nine and eleven months are the most productive for facilitating the research of the fellows at the VWI. Junior fellows will have a working space at the VWI and In-ternet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 1,400.-. In addition, junior fellows who are not Vienna residents will receive accommodation funding of € 600.- per month. VWI will also cover the costs of a round-trip to and from Vienna (coach class airfare or 2nd class train fare).

Junior 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 objectives, an overview of existing research on the topic and methodology (12,000-character max.),
• two letters of recommendation (please indicate when sent separately),
• 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 Junior 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.

Yulia Abibok

Junior Fellow (10/2022 – 08/2023)

Victims, Perpetrators and "Our Guys": Interethnic Relations and Mass Massacres in Eastern Galicia

The research is focused on Second World war events in the former powiat trembowelski (in the territory of Ternopil region in today's Ukraine). This is an attempt to look at the history of the Second World War from the perspective of members of a relatively small multicultural community. The project aims to establish the general picture of life in 1917-1945 in powiat trembowelski and then to look at the problem at the microlevel by researching and analysing several personal stories of people of Ukrainian, Jewish, and Polish origin from the area to demonstrate the entire complicity of relations during that period, as well as ideas and reasons behind those relations. The general idea of the research is to follow and explain individual choices of perpetrators, lifesavers as well as bystanders made in extreme circumstances which stimulated identity-based groupings and divisions. Bystanders are not regarded as an absolute and single category which is entirely opposite to both perpetrators and saviors.

Yulia Abibok, researcher (Jewish Studies) and journalist, studies Comparative History at the Central European University. Her research interests include territorial and interethnic conflicts in Eastern Europe and the (post-)Soviet space; group identity building and propaganda; social transformations, business relations and organised crime in the 1990s in post-Soviet countries.

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