Bicoastal Research in the United States

Stockton University, Galloway, New Jersey: In March and April 2022, we worked with the staff of the Holocaust Education Center at Stockton University to host several public presentations of the research project, including a public presentation during Yom Ha’Shoa and several lectures for university students.

Maryland and Washington DC: In the new archives building of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Maryland, the Shapell Center, we reviewed the complete archive of the Hidden Child Foundation (a self-organized organization of Jewish children in hiding, active from New York since 1991) and scanned relevant documents. This work has significantly expanded the database of people in hiding in the Netherlands and other European countries. The history of this organization will be incorporated into articles and presentations. At the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, we conducted research in various archives in March and April. We collected material on the activities of the Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service) arresting Jewish people in hiding. This unique material can now be studied via microfilms made in the 1950s. The microfilms contain documents seized by the American army from Nazi German offices during the liberation of Europe. This was intensive and time-consuming research because the microfilms are only partially described and have not been digitized. Nevertheless, we discovered remarkable documents about the arrest of Jewish people in hiding.

Columbia, South Carolina: In April, Dienke Hondius gave a lecture to students at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. The new Anne Frank Center, with which close ties are maintained, has also recently been established here.

Los Angeles, California: Following a presentation by Jan Erik Dubbelman at the Holocaust Museum Los Angeles, along with Margrit Polak (the daughter of Holocaust survivors) and Harvey Shield, several people who survived in hiding as children requested to be interviewed. Graduate student Spenser Carroll Johnson of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles assisted Dienke Hondius with these interviews.