Anna Koch is a Ph.D. candidate at New York University, where she is writing her dissertation in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies and the History Department. She has received numerous fellowships, including a DPDF fellowship from the Social Science Research Council, a Cahnman Foundation Fellowship at the Center for Jewish History, and a Doctoral Fellowship from the German Historical Institute in Rome.
Home after Fascism? How Italian and German Jews Rebuilt their Lives in their Countries of Origin, 1945-1955
This dissertation compares Italian and German Jews’ relationships with their home countries after the Holocaust. I ask how they dealt with the tremendous loss they experienced under the Nazi and Fascist regimes, and how they regained a sense of home. Drawing on extensive archival research in Germany, Italy, Israel and the US, I maintain that beyond their individual war experiences, the different ways in which Jews in Italy, East Germany and West Germany perceived and fashioned their country’s past shaped their ability to regain a sense of belonging.
