"Building a Racial Slovak State"
Professional Background
Hana Klamkova is a Ph.D. candidate in modern history at Charles University in Prague. She received an M.A. in nationalism studies at Central European University in Budapest and a B.A. in political science and international relations at Charles University. For her Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship, Ms. Klamkova conducted research for her project “Building a Racial Slovak State.”
Ms. Klamkova is the author of several publications, including the articles “Rod a rasa: ‘Zenska otazka’ v Tretej risi” [Gender and Race: The ‘Women’s Question’ in the Third Reich] in Gender, rovne prilezitosti,vyzkum (2007), and a review of the series Holokaust na Slovensku [Holocaust in Slovakia] in Cesky casopis historicky (2008). She has presented her research on numerous occasions, including the international conference Holokaust ako historicky a moralny problem v minulosti a sucasnosti. Sucasny stav vyskumu [Holocaust as a Historical and Moral Problem of the past and the Present: Current Stage of Research] held in Mojmirovce, Slovakia in 2007. Ms. Klamkova is the recipient of various awards, including a Marie Curie Fellowship for Early Stage Training from the European Commission, a Felix Posen Fellowship from the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, an Israel Government Scholarship, and a Gisela Fleischmann Scholarship from the Milan Simecka Foundation.
Fellowship Research
During her tenure at the Center, Ms. Klamkova studied the attitude of the Slovak majority toward the Jewish minority during the existence of the wartime Slovak state (1939-1945). She researched the relation of the majority population toward the Jews (and the wartime state) on the background of implementing racial principles into the wartime Slovak society. Her study aimed to fill a gap in the historiography of the Holocaust in Slovakia by examining this subject from a local level. To complete her research, Ms. Klamkova utilized the Museum’s many collections on Slovakia, including oral history accounts and records from the Ministry of Interior, among others.
Ms. Klamkova was in residence at the Mandel Center from December 1, 2008 to July 30, 2009.