"Collaboration during the Holocaust: Post-war Trials in Different Regions in Ukraine"
Professional Background
Dr. Tanja Penter received a Ph.D. in Eastern European history and an M.A. in Eastern European history, medieval and modern history, German literature and linguistics, and Slavic studies from Cologne University in Germany. She has also studied at the State University of Volgograd in Russia, and at the State University of Odessa in the Ukraine. During her fellowship at the Museum, she was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Movements, Ruhr-University of Bochum in Germany. For her Pearl Resnick Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dr. Penter conducted research on “Collaboration during the Holocaust: Post-war Trials in Different Regions in Ukraine.”
As a Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Movements, Ruhr-University of Bochum, Dr. Penter and a team of researchers conducted a study on compulsory labor in European industrial regions during the Nazi occupation. Her work in particular addressed “Work and Everyday Life in Donbass, 1929-1953.” The author of over a dozen scholarly articles, Dr. Penter has published her research on the German occupation of Donbass and on the Jews of Odessa, among other themes. Her publications include Odessa 1917: Revolution an der Peripherie, Beiträge zur Geschichte Osteuropas, Bd. 32 (Bohlau Verlad, 2000), and with coauthor Christian Noack, “Hochschulen in der Ukraine: Geschichte, Struktur, Perspektiven” in Beiträge zur Hochschulpolitik (vol. 2, 2001).
Fellowship Research
During her tenure at the Center, Dr. Penter researched collaboration and postwar trials in the Ukraine. She examined the relationship between Jews and non-Jews in Ukraine as well as analyzed the attempt to bring such collaborators to justice after the Holocaust. Her work built a history of the extent to which structures, traditions, and political cultures in different Ukrainian regions influenced the way in which collaboration functioned and how it was dealt with during the postwar period.
Dr. Penter was in residence at the Mandel Center from October 1, 2004 to June 29, 2005.