Laura Brade is now a Ph.D. Candidate in Modern European History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA), from which she also holds a Master’s Degree in History. She received her Bachelor’s Degree (2008) in History and German Language and Literature from the Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA (USA). In 2011, she was a fellow at Yad Vashem, Israel. During her EHRI fellowship, she is conducting research for her dissertation project, ‘Forced Voluntary Migration: Jewish Flight from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, 1939-1941’.

During her tenure at the Jewish Museum in Prague, Ms. Brade is researching the connections among individuals, local communities, governments, and international organizations that formed networks of escape. She asks why individuals chose to leave the Protectorate; how they implemented emigration strategies; and how they experienced the process of emigration. She will use the Jewish Museum’s files in the collection ‘Documents of persecution’, particularly visa applications, documents from the Central Office for Jewish Emigration, as well as Nazi and Protectorate laws regulating Jewish emigration. She will additionally examine the records of the Jewish Community in Prague and the Palestine Office as well as the records of the Jewish Communities in Ceské Budejovice, Ostrava and Brno. Finally, she will utilize the Jewish Museum’s extensive collection of survivor testimonies.

Laura Brade was in residence at the Jewish Museum in Prague in May and June. She may be contacted at bradele@email.unc.edu.