"Kindertransporte 1938-1939: Emigration and Acculturation"
Professional Background
Ms. Claudia Curio received an M.A. in history and sociology from the Technical University in Berlin. During her fellowship at the Museum, she was a Ph.D. candidate in the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the same university. For her Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship for Archival Research, Ms. Curio conducted research on “Kindertransporte 1938-1939: Emigration and Acculturation.”
Ms. Curio is the author of articles and book chapters including “Rescue and Welfare: Intuitions and Child Refugees, 1938/39” in “Rescue and Integration: Kindertransports to England 1938/39,” Wolfgang Benz, Claudia Curio, and Andrea Hammel, eds., special issue Shofar (vol. 23, no. 1, 2004); “‘Unsichtbare’ Kinder. Auswahl-und Eingliederungsstrategien beteiligter Hilfsorganisationen” [“Invisible” Children: Strategies for Selection and Integration by Relief Organizations] in Die Kindertransporte 1938/39 – Rettung und Integration, Wolfgang Bens, Claudia Curio, and Andrea Hammel, eds. (Fischer, 2003); and “Die Kindertransporte 1938-39 nach Großbritannien. Ein Überlick” [The Kindertransports to Great Britain, 1938-1939: An Overview] in Judenfeindschaft als Paradigma. Studien zur Vorurteilsforschung, Wolfgang Bens and Angelika Königseder, eds. (Metropol, 2002). At the time of her fellowship, Ms. Curio was Chief Archivist for the Center for Research on Antisemitism, Technical University in Berlin, and since 2001 was co-coordinator of the Kindertransports research project between the Center for Research on Antisemitism in Berlin and the Centre for German-Jewish Studies in Brighton, UK. As part of this research project Ms. Curio conceived of and organized the international academic conference “Rescue and Integration: The Kindertransports, 1939-39” held in Berlin in 2002.
Fellowship Research
During her tenure at the Center, Ms. Curio studied the policy and strategies of German and British emigration and relief organizations that were responsible for the Kindertransports to Great Britain. She focused on the ways in which these organizations shaped the personal experiences of the children that they saved, in both childhood and through adulthood as they integrated into British society. Ms. Curio conducted research using documents related to the people who were involved with the Kindertransports, such as organization employees and social workers, as well as autobiographical materials of the former child refugees. She also researched the Museum’s collection of emigration-related documents from German-Jewish organizations and Nazi authorities and American refugee organizations.
Ms. Curio was in residence at the Mandel Center from October 1, 2003 to February 1, 2004.