This week marked the conclusion of a week-long research seminar in Berlin, organized as part of an international program that also included several online sessions. The seminar brought together faculty and students from three academic institutions: the Master's Program in History at the Open University of Israel, the Department of History at the University of Colorado Boulder (USA), and the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University (TU) Berlin.
Led by Prof. Thomas Pegelow Kaplan (University of Colorado Boulder), Dr. Markus Funck (TU Berlin), and Prof. Guy Meron and Dr. Talia Farkash (The Open University of Israel), the seminar gathered nearly thirty participants from all three institutions.
The academic program focused on the analysis of ego-documents that shed light on the lives of Jews under the Nazi regime and during the Holocaust — including diaries, memoirs, and photo albums. Alongside lectures and discussions, participants engaged in field research at key historical and memorial sites such as the Jewish Museum Archive, the Wannsee Conference House, and the Centrum Judaicum. They also attended a virtual briefing from the Yad Vashem Archive in Jerusalem, and participated in a ceremony marking the anniversary of the November Pogrom (“Kristallnacht").
Several students presented their own research projects and received academic feedback from the faculty members, fostering an atmosphere of cross-cultural and scholarly exchange.
This enriching international experience broadened participants' academic horizons and strengthened the foundations for future collaboration between the partner institutions.
Special thanks to the International Office of the Open University of Israel, our donors from the United States, and our partners from Colorado and Berlin, whose support made this initiative possible.