Guest Lecture: “Two Worlds Apart? The State, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust in the Soviet-Romanian Borderlands”

CSEEES is delighted to host a guest lecture by Dr. Diana Dumitru, Associate Professor of History at “Ion Creangă” State University of Moldova, on “The State, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust in the Soviet-Romanian Borderlands.”

‣ Talk description

Based on original sources, this study on the Holocaust explores regional variations in civilians’ attitudes and behavior toward the Jewish population in Romania and the occupied Soviet Union. Gentiles’ willingness to assist Jews was greater in lands that had been under Soviet administration during the inter-war period, while gentiles’ willingness to harm Jews occurred more in lands that had been under Romanian administration during the same period. While acknowledging the disasters of Communist rule in the 1920s and 1930s, this work shows the effectiveness of Soviet nationalities policy in the official suppression of antisemitism. This study offers a corrective to the widespread consensus that homogenizes gentile responses throughout Eastern Europe, instead demonstrating that what states did in the interwar period mattered: relations between social groups were not fixed and destined to repeat themselves, but rather fluid and susceptible to change over time.

‣ Bio

Diana Dumitru is an Associate Professor of History at “Ion Creangă” State University of Moldova. Her fields of expertise include the Holocaust in Eastern Europe, Soviet history, ethnic relations, nationalism, and the politics of history. Dr. Dumitru has been awarded numerous fellowships and grants, including a Visiting Scholarship for Research at the University of Toronto’s Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (2010), a Ronald and Eileen Weiser Professional Development Award for Study and Research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (2009), a Gerda Henkel Stiftung Next Generations of Historians fellowship (2007-2008), an International Institute for Holocaust Research Postdoctoral Fellowship for Study and Research at Yad Vashem (2007), and the Rosenzweig Family Fellowship for research at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum from Washington D.C. (2005-2006), U.S. State Department’s JFDP Scholarship at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2003-2004). Her second book, The State, Antisemitism and the Collaboration in the Holocaust: The Borderlands of Romania and the Soviet Union will be published by Cambridge University Press in February 2016.

This event is in part supported by the Fulbright Outreach Lecture Fund.