"Intercommunal Violence and the Holocaust: The Pogroms of the Summer of 1941 in Eastern Poland and Lithuania"
Professional Background
Dr. Kai Struve earned a Ph.D. in modern history from Free University of Berlin and an M.A. in modern history, philosophy, and political sciences from the same university. During his fellowship at the Museum, he was a Research Fellow at the Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture at Leipzig University in Leipzig, Germany. For his Raul Hilberg Fellowship, Dr. Struve conducted research for his project, “Intercommunal Violence and the Holocaust: The Pogroms of the Summer of 1941 in Eastern Poland and Lithuania.”
Dr. Struve has been a research fellow for the Herder Institute in Marburg, Germany, and a guide and instructor at the House of the Wannsee Conference in Berlin. He is the author of the book Bauern und Nation in Galizien. Über Zugehörigkeit und Soziale Emanzipation im 19. Jahrhundert [Peasants and Nation in Galicia: On Belonging and Social Emancipation in the 19th Century] (Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2005), and of several articles on nationalism and antisemitism in East-Central Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Dr. Struve has also delivered lectures at universities and written several conference papers on such topics as interethnic relations and shared and divided memory in Soviet-occupied Eastern Poland.
Fellowship Research
While in residence at the Center, Dr. Struve focused his research on the pogroms of summer 1941 in Eastern Poland and Lithuania, examining their symbolism, territorial scope, and their variations in different regions. He used the Museum’s archival collections including testimonies and materials from Ukrainian, Russian, Byelorussian, and Lithuanian archives as well as Yizkor books from various communities.
Dr. Struve was in residence at the Mandel Center from August 1 to November 30, 2006.