Holocaust Letters: Methodologies, Cases, and Reflections

(Hardback)

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This book presents different methodological approaches to letters as texts, material objects, from a literary angle and through the history of emotions. It outlines a range of different case studies using letters as sources in practice, which cover the Holocaust and the post-war period in Western and Central Europe, and transnational humanitarian efforts in the UK and North Africa.

Letters and the Holocaust includes reflections on how letters are used, drawing on the Holocaust Letters exhibition at The Wiener Library, and discussions on the positionality of researchers working with family collections. The book also explores a series of short source critiques of individual letters, with insightful analysis of a variety of different types of letters to be found throughout: letters written by Jews and non-Jews sent to family and friends in the lead up to the war as their situation was getting worse, letters sent by persecutees from camps and ghettos, letters from refugees, and letters from survivors among them.

Author Bio

Christine Schmidt is Deputy Director and Head of Research at The Wiener Holocaust Library, UK. She is the co-editor, with Suzanne Bardgett and Dan Stone, of Beyond Camps and Forced Labour (2021).

Clara Dijkstra is a PhD Candidate in Modern European History at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Charlie Knight is a PhD Candidate at the University of Southampton, UK.

Sandra Lipner is a PhD Candidate at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.