Konstantin Fuks

Gerda Henkel-Research Fellow (04/2025 – 08/2025)

Latvian Jews at War. Confronting the Holocaust

The project focuses on the story of the struggle for survival of Latvian Jews who fled east and joined the Soviet war effort during the Second World War. Using newly discovered sources, such as wartime letters, interviews and memoirs, the study sheds light on the reaction of local Jews to the Soviet conquest of Latvia, the decision-making process of Latvian Jews to seek refuge in the Soviet Union during the German invasion, knowledge and awareness of the mass killings of Jews in occupied Latvia among those Jews who fled into the Soviet interior, and what it meant to be a Latvian Jew and a Red Army soldier in a war of total annihilation on the Eastern Front. Situating the study in the broader context of the history of Stalinist society at war, the project aims to tell the unknown story of Jewish resistance and survival during the Holocaust.

Konstantin Fuks received his PhD in History and Jewish Studies in 2024 from the University of Toronto. His research and publications focus on the social history of the war, revolution and the Holocaust in Latvia, with an emphasis on reclaiming the untold stories of Latvians who fought on the Soviet side during the Second World War.

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