Annalena Schmidt (Germany), researcher, Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe, Marburg, “(Selbst-)Hilfe in Zeiten der Hilflosigkeit? Die ‘Jüdische Soziale Selbsthilfe’ und die ‘Jüdische Unterstützungsstelle’ im Generalgouvernement 1939-1945”.

Annalena Schmidt (Germany) is an academic employee at the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe in Marburg for a project concerning the early German and Polish Holocaust literature. Besides this, she is PhD student at the University of Gießen with a project about the “Jewish Social Self-help” (Jüdische Soziale Selbsthilfe) and the “Jewish Aid Agency” (Jüdische Unterstützungsstelle) in the General Government in the years from 1939 until 1945. She studied “History and Cultural Studies” at the University of Gießen and finished her MA in 2012 with a thesis concerning Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna/Jidische Aleinhilf. The ‘Jewish Social Self-help’ mirrored by writings of Michał Weichert. The thesis is awarded with the “Academic Prize of the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland” for the year 2013.

Annalena Schmidt was in residence at Yad Vashem in February and March 2014. During her EHRI fellowship at Yad Vashem, she conducted research for her PhD project concerning the “Jewish Social Self-help” and the “Jewish Aid Agency”. At Yad Vashem, she consulted the many collections, for instance the Weichert Collection, the Testimonies, the Letters and Postcard Collection. Furthermore, she visited other archives and libraries in Israel – for example the Central Zionist Archives and the Ghetto Fighters House Archives.

The PhD project is grant-aided by a fellowship of the German Historical Institute in Warsaw. Annalena Schmidt has published about university history and the history of the Holocaust, i.a. Judenmord in Ostrów Mazowiecka. Tat und Ahndung, Berlin 2013 (together with Markus Roth).

She may be contacted at annalena.schmidt@geschichte.uni-giessen.de.