A long and intensive collaborative effort has come to an end: Our edited volume Space in Holocaust Research: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Spatial Thinking is now available. It was published both in print and electronic version in May 2024.
We invite you to order it online or in your favorite book store, lend it from your library or read it in a hopefully nicely airconditioned reading room, tell your friends and colleagues about it, let us know what you think of it.

From the introductory essay “Spatial Thinking in Holocaust Research” by Janine Fubel, Alexandra Klei, and Annika Wienert (pp. 31-45):
“[…] In the first part [of the book], Holocaust scholars reflect on the relevance of space for their respective research foci. They explain how the adaption of the spatial turn has fruitfully influenced their fields of studies, discuss existing studies, present central theoretical-methodological problems, and suggest new research vistas. In the second part of the book, original case studies demonstrate how and to what ends spatial thinking in Holocaust research can be put into practice.
The case studies are grouped into four thematic sections that transcend conventional disciplinary, chronological, or geographical systematizations: Fleeting Spaces; Institutionalized Spaces; Border/ing Spaces; and Spatial Relations. Each section starts with an introductory essay in which the editors elaborate on the conceptual deliberations behind the respective spatial configurations. Photographs by Alexandra Klei from sites of Nazi crimes in East-Central Europe serve as a starting point for unfolding the spatial typology suggested and point to research questions that might arise from it.
As a prologue to our book, we chose to present a series of works by the Israeli artist Yael Atzmony, daughter of Sobibor survivor Dov Freiberg. An essay by Hannah Wilson contextualizes the works with regards to (family) history, material culture, personal and collective memory, among other things. Together, Wilson’s text and photographs of select works by Atzmony touch upon topics and raise questions that the anthology as a whole wishes to address. Furthermore, we hope to connect these issues in order to foster transdisciplinary approaches in Holocaust research.
[…] We suggest thinking of space less as a thing that we study than as a heuristic tool that can be used for different purposes. We therefore chose the notion of spatial thinking as the guiding principle for this publication. Notwithstanding the underlying conceptual openness of space, some fundamental remarks on the understanding of space seem necessary.
In this publication, space is understood as a social phenomenon, an expression of society and thus something that can be historicized. Spaces are relational orders in which social processes and structures materialize. It is through the relationships between objects and bodies that spaces acquire meaning. Therefore, knowledge, ideology, and power are always inscribed in them. The relational structure is fluid, as spaces are created and imbued with meaning performatively, through permanent activity.
Being part of the social world, spaces are, on the one hand, to some extent the result of hegemonic discourses. On the other hand, space is physically experienced in a highly individual and not entirely predictable way. It is through spatial and physical practices […] that the hegemonic notion of a given space meets the space that is experienced personally.
[…] The aim of this publication is to show how such an understanding of space as a social, relational, processual, and performative phenomenon can be made fruitful for research into the history and memory of the Holocaust.
[…] This publication originates from a conference organized by the editors and Katrin Stoll that was scheduled to take place in Hamburg in March 2020. Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the conference had to be cancelled only a few days before the planned date.1 The editors continued to work on the issue and, drawing on the many exceptionally interesting studies the call for papers furnished, published two special issues.2
The discussions proved so fruitful that, during the pandemic, together with scholars that had been invited to speak at the conference, as well as additional experts, we developed the concept for this anthology. The preparatory work included an online workshop in February 2022, where authors of the anthology presented drafts of their essays and collaboratively refined their conceptual framework(s).
We are convinced that this unusual intensive, collective process is reflected in the publication and sets it apart from regular conference volumes. We are grateful to all the authors and colleagues who took part in this process that, in a time marked by isolation, uncertainty, and a host of difficult personal experiences, has meant a lot to us, and not only academically.”
Space in Holocaust Research: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Spatial Thinking.
Edited by Janine Fubel, Alexandra Klei, and Annika Wienert. Berlin 2024.
ebook: ISBN 9783111078816
Hardcover: ISBN 9783111078144
DOI: 10.1515/9783111078816
Funded by: Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, Zucker/Goldber Center for Holocaust Studies, Chair for Public History at FernUniversität in Hagen , Eur’Orbem at Sorbonne University, and ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius
- “Conference Program: Space in Holocaust Research. 23–26 March 2020, Hamburg, Germany.” [↩]
- Zeitschrift für Genozidforschung 19,2 (2021): ‘Körper’ und ‘Raum’ im Kontext der Holocaust- und Genozidforschung; Medaon 15 (2021): Jewish Spaces and the Holocaust. [↩]