"‘Bitter Times’: Catholic Sisters in Hitler’s Germany and under Allied Occupation, 1933-1949"
Professional Background
Martina Cucchiara is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Notre Dame. She received a B.A. in history at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. For her Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship, Ms. Cucchiara conducted research for her dissertation, “‘Bitter Times’: Catholic Sisters in Hitler’s Germany and under Allied Occupation, 1933-1949.”
Ms. Cucchiara is the recipient of the Eli Lilly Presidential Fellowship as well as the Dominica and Frank Anese Fellowship in Graduate Studies from the University of Notre Dame. She has presented her research on Catholic sisters in Nazi Germany at several conferences, including those of the German Studies Association and the American Historical Association. Ms. Cucchiara participated in the 2009 Summer Research Workshop, Exploring the Newly Opened ITS Archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, sponsored by the Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. She has language skills in German and French.
Fellowship Research
During her tenure at the Center, Ms. Cucchiara researched Catholic sisters in Germany living under National Socialism and during the initial years of Allied occupation. Her interest lay in the various interactions Catholic sisters had with perpetrators and victims in the Third Reich, and how they responded to the changes in and realities of Nazi Germany. Her research focused on the congregation of the Poor Schools Sisters of Notre Dame. Among other sources, Ms. Cucchiara utilized the Museum’s records from the International Tracing Service to track individuals who had contact with Catholic sisters, such as Jewish students, forced laborers, prisoners, and other Catholic sisters.
Ms. Cucchiara was in residence at the Mandel Center from January 4 to April 30, 2010.