"Jewish Forced Labor in Slovakia, 1939-1944"
Professional Background
Ms. Esther Neustadt graduated in history at Ruhr University in Bochum and in music at the Folkwang University in Essen. During her fellowship at the Museum, she was a Ph.D. candidate in the Philosophy Department at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf (Germany). For her Gunzenberger-Reichman Family Fellowship for the Study of Slovakia, Ms. Neustadt conducted research on “Jewish Forced Labor in Slovakia, 1939-1944.”
Ms. Neustadt has interned at the State Archive in Berlin and at the Center for Research on Anti-Semitism at the Technical University of Berlin. As a Teaching Assistant at Folkwang University she conducted research for the project “Music in Emigration.” Ms. Neustadt is a co-author of “Lexicon of the Violin,” edited by Dr. Stefan Drees. She is fluent in Slovakian and English and has knowledge of French, Italian and Latin.
Fellowship Research
While in residence at the Center, Ms. Neustadt researched German and Jewish perspectives on the Slovak state and on forced labor in Slovakia, including the VIth Working Battalion, from 1939 to 1944. She studied the seemingly contradicting anti-Jewish deportation policy and the establishment of forced labor camps within Slovakia. Ms. Neustadt used the Museum’s archival holdings on Jewish labor camps in Slovakia, Jewish resistance, and Security Service documents related to the treatment of forced laborers to complete her research.
Ms. Neustadt was in residence at the Mandel Center from March 1 to May 31, 2007.