"Foreign Views of the Third Reich from the Inside: Reports by Foreign Embassies and Consulates on German Society and the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945: Evaluation and Documentation"
Professional Background
Frank Bajohr is Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the University of Hamburg in Germany. He received habilitation in history and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the same institution. For his Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship, Dr. Bajohr conducted research for his project, “Foreign Views of the Third Reich from the Inside: Reports by Foreign Embassies and Consulates on German Society and the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1945: Evaluation and Documentation.”
Dr. Bajohr is the author of many books, including Volksgemeinschaft. Neue Forschungen zur Gesellschaft des Nationalsozialismus [The People’s Community: New Research on German Society under Nazism] (2009), Der Holocaust als offenes Geheimnis. Die Deutschen, die NS-Führung und die Alliierten [The Holocaust as Open Secret: The Germans, the Nazi Leadership and the Allies] (2006), and Unser Hotel ist judenfrei [“Our Hotel is Free of Jews”: On Antisemitism in Summer and Seaside Resorts] (2003). His book, Parvenüs und Profiteure. Korruption in der NS-Zeit [Parvenues and Profiteers: Corruption in the Third Reich] (2001) was voted the number 1 title by the German book critics in February 2001, and his book Unser Hotel ist judenfrei [“Our Hotel is Free of Jews”] (2003) was voted the number 2 title by the German book critics in July 2003 and was third in the competition Historical Book of the Year in 2003. Dr. Bajohr has also written more than eighty articles for scholarly journals. A native speaker of German, he has language skills in English, Dutch and French.
Fellowship Research
During his tenure at the Center, Dr. Bajohr researched how consuls and embassy staff perceived the National Socialist regime. He examined reports from embassies and consulates of ten countries sent from National Socialist Germany, analyzing what they reported about the behavior and attitudes of the German population and the persecution of Jews. The fruit of this endeavor will be a large-scale comparative analysis of the reports of individual countries. To complete his research, Dr. Bajohr utilized various archival collections at the Museum, including survivor testimonies, the Julius Kühl Collection, the Records of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde, Vienna, and the Joseph and Loeb Family Papers.
Dr. Bajohr was in residence at the Mandel Center from September 1 to December 30, 2010.