Good Citizens, Terrible Times: Community, Courage and Compliance in and beyond the Holocaust

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Christina Morina
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 508230497

The sheer scale of what we call the Holocaust continues to challenge both scholars and wider publics around the world. Despite innumerable attempts to understand the organised mass murder of more than six million Jews, alongside Roma and Sinti, and other victim groups, key questions remain. Research to date has highlighted German policies and practices, varieties of occupation and collaboration, as well as both organised resistance and individual rescue efforts. This project addresses areas that have not as yet received adequate attention: the significance of surrounding societies and notions of community and citizenship for the startlingly different survival rates of Jews across Europe. While scholars have explored a variety of factors, public perceptions tend to highlight the significance of individual actions. Such approaches rarely register, however, that being a 'good citizen' in a state initiating and condoning violence against minorities may in fact mean compliance with systemic violence.Our research focuses on conceptions and practices of citizenship and community, as these variously affected compliance with state or occupation policies, or inspired sympathy with those ousted if considered part of a wider 'community of empathy'. In-depth case studies explore Nazi Germany, in comparison both with annexed Austria, which became part of the Greater German Reich in 1938, and the occupied Netherlands. These are complemented by comparative case studies of rescue and survival in France and Romania. Moreover, a comprehensive survey of societal factors affecting survival in different areas of eastern and western Europe under changing circumstances will explore the significance of inter-ethnic and community relations before and during the war; structures of power and repression; and shifting aspirations, cultural conceptions, and borders of communities. The project combines structural analysis of changing historical circumstances with detailed exploration of subjective perceptions and behaviours in different settings, using egodocuments by both Jews and non-Jews, and other archival sources. The research seeks to identify and disentangle the different elements of societal contexts that may help to explain variations in survival. By looking at contested constructions of citizenship, community, and compliance with both written and unwritten codes of behaviour, and by exploring the conditions under which those who were initially bystanders might become increasingly complicit or, by contrast, extend gestures of sympathy or assistance to victims, this collaborative research will make a significant contribution to the field of Holocaust studies in Germany, the UK, and internationally. It will also, by engaging with the implications of the findings for Holocaust memorialisation and civic education, contribute to a better understanding of issues surrounding notions of 'lesson learning' and citizenship, a topic of vital importance in Europe today.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Partner Organisation: Arts and Humanities Research Council
• Cooperation Partner: Professorin Dr. Mary Fulbrook