May 12-14, 2014
Washington, DC, USA
*Organizers*
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum
International Tracing Service, Bad Arolsen, Germany
*Call for Papers*
The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum and the International Tracing Service invite applications for an
international conference designed to illustrate the broad academic research
potential of the ITS collections. The conference will be held May 12-14,
2014 in Washington, D.C., at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Participants will present their papers in sessions open to the public and
will also have the opportunity for discussion among the presenters on their
experiences using the ITS archives.
The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, Germany, was, until
November 2007, the largest closed archive in the world related to the
Holocaust, forced labor, and Nazi persecution. Recently inscribed into the
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Memory of the World Register, the ITS collection has opened important new
potential for understanding the Holocaust and other Nazi-era crimes. While
utilized for decades principally for tracing purposes, the documents
provide opportunities for a better understanding of a broad range of topics
related to persecution, incarceration, forced labor, mass murder,
displacement, resettlement, and the legacies of these experiences as a
result of World War II. Five years ago, in a workshop jointly organized by
ITS and the Center, an international group of 15 scholars identified
significant topical areas for which the ITS documents have great potential,
including, but not limited to: social histories of camps and sites of
forced labor spanning the entire 1933-1945 period; changing patterns of
behavior, violence, and obedience to orders over time from the perspectives
of perpetrators, prisoners, laborers, witnesses, and labor users; studies
of prisoner categorization practices; medical practices and abuses; and
studies of labor utilization in particular towns, regions, camps, or
institutions.
This conference will bring together scholars who have conducted significant
new and original research using ITS collections in the above and other
areas. Proposals to present new research findings are welcome from scholars
in all relevant academic disciplines, including advanced doctoral students
and immediate post-doctoral scholars. Applicants must be affiliated with an
academic and/or research institution. Applicants interested in presenting a
paper should be currently researching or completing projects that involve
substantial research in ITS collections. Successful applicants will be
required to submit a copy of their presentation 4 weeks in advance of the
conference for circulation among commentators, other panelists, and
conference participants.
The conference will be conducted in English. The deadline for receipt of
proposals is *December 15, 2013*. Participants will be selected and
notified no later than January 31, 2014.
To propose a paper for this conference, please send: (1) a cover letter
addressing in detail your current research in the ITS Collection; (2) your
curriculum vitae; and (3) an abstract of no more than 500 words of your
proposed paper to Elizabeth Anthony, Curt C. and Else Silberman ITS
Scholar, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum, at eanthony@ushmm.org, and to Professor Rebecca Boehling, Director,
International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, at directorate@its-arolsen.org
.
Conference organizers will provide economy-class, direct round-trip airfare
from the participant’s home institution; 4 nights of lodging for the
duration of the conference; and a modest stipend to help defray meals and
ground transportation costs.
*This conference is made possible by the generosity of the Harris Family
Foundation*.