Research Conversations
As an interdisciplinary research center, the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies brings scholars from around the world to discuss their research on various aspects of the Holocaust or acts of mass violence from around the globe. We believe that these informal discussions are an effective way to engage students and members of the community in areas they may be unfamiliar with in order to spread awareness.
Faculty Fellowships in Holocaust and Genocide Education/Research
CHGS’s research fellowships are designed to provide interdisciplinary faculty with the release time and resources to conduct original research in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies and human rights.
2019-2020 CHGS Research Projects
Photo Exhibit of Ringelblum Archive at the Jewish Historical Institute, Warsaw Poland
CHGS Research: Stephenie Young, PhD, Faculty Associate, CHGS
The CHGS is proud to announce our new educational partnership with the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, which houses the famous Ringelblum archive of the Jewish Ghetto documents in Warsaw http://www.jhi.pl/en. Emanuel Ringelblum established the underground archive of the Warsaw Ghetto in occupied Poland during WWII. He gathered together a group of people that came to be known as "Oneg Shabbat” — joy of Saturday. They had many different beliefs and political affiliations but came together to create an archive that includes interviews, testimonies, and information given by various people associated with the Ghetto and the fate of the Polish Jews. These were buried underground in milk cans in the hopes that future generations would be able to see these documents. As our inaugural event, Professor Stephenie Young (CHGs faculty research associate) will spend fall 2019 at the JHI to curate an exhibit which draws on the extensive photographic holdings of the Ringelblum archive. The CHGS plans to show the exhibit in Warsaw and then to bring it over to the U.S. to be displayed in Salem, Massachusetts and other cities across the country.
Recovering Childhood Memory of the Holocaust
Research Team: Chris Mauriello, PhD and Zellie Kaplan, CHGS Community Board
Upon the dissolution of the Holocaust Center, Boston North and merging into the newly established Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Salem State University in 2013, archival assets including primary historical documents were gifted and transferred to the archives in the university’s Frederick Berry Library. Along with many documents, there were notebooks that contained hand-written entries primarily in Polish but some in Yiddish, Hebrew and German as well. Long-time supporter and member of both centers, Zellie Kaplan, took a particular interest in having these documents translated and made available to scholars, students and the general public. With the help of SSU archivist, Susan Edwards, sections of the documents were scanned and made available to potential Polish language translators to estimate the work and the cost of the translation. On December 4, 2018, Polish translator, Sean Bye, Chris Mauriello from the CHGS and Susan Edwards, SSU archivist, had the opportunity to review the notebooks. They have been determined to be interviews with child survivors of the Holocaust at the DP and educational centers at Bergen-Belsen camp in Germany in the years after WWII. The documents have great historical value as primary documents relating to the Holocaust, WWII, history of Poland during the war, postwar Jewish life, children’s education and the Jewish diaspora. Thanks to the generosity of Harold and Zelda Kaplan, the research team will spend 2019-20 translating the documents, researching them at the USHMM and National Archives in Washington, DC and working towards publishing an article in late 2020