Queer Experiences in the Holocaust

Organised by the Centre for Jewish Studies, this workshop seeks to explore the ways in which victims of Nazi persecution have testified to and have left traces of queer experience.

Inspired by – and seeking to build upon – the recent turn towards queer historiography in Holocaust studies, this workshop will focus on queer experiences of the Holocaust.

It is particularly concerned both with how survivors have testified to these queer experiences, and how scholars can uncover their traces despite the ways they have been silenced, obscured, hidden and flattened by traditional discourses, and despite the fact that many of these traces are held in the archives of the perpetrators.

We are also painfully aware that the time for speaking directly to queer survivors of the Holocaust has nearly run out. In an effort to foster intellectual exchange and reflection, we aim to bring together scholars working in different disciplines, methodologies (especially queer methodologies), and theoretical perspectives, and who analyse different types of evidence.

The workshop seeks to advance interdisciplinary inquiries into queer history and memory of the Holocaust and, importantly, to facilitate the exploration of new ways to approach survivors’ testimonies to reveal the traces of queer experience within them.

The event is funded by the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies.

Programme

09:30: Arrival

10:10: Introductory words from Dr Roseanna Ramsden and Professor Helen Finch (University of Leeds)

10:30: Matt Smith (Holocaust Centre North), ‘To Be Seen’

11:10: Dr Roseanna Ramsden (University of Leeds); Will Jones (University of Oxford)

12:30: Lunch break

13:30: Professor Helen Finch (University of Leeds), ‘Memoirs by Gay German-Jewish Survivors: Towards an Intersectional Memory’; Maria Tudosescu (Aix-Marseilles Université), ‘Finding Liberation Through Literature: Moi, Pierre Seel, déporté homosexuel’

14:50: Jacob Evoy (University of Western Ontario), ‘Queer Intergenerational Holocaust Trauma: Experiences of LGBTQ+ Children of Holocaust Survivors’; Tiarra Maznick (UMass Amherst), ‘‘I was so drunk with her enchanting words that I could not find my bed anymore’: Remembering Lesbianism in Block 10’

5:50: Tea and coffee (provided)

16:15: Keynote – Dr Anna Hájková (University of Warwick)

17:15: Closing discussion and next steps

17:30: Workshop ends

More information

If you would like to attend this workshop, please email Dr Roseanna Ramsden at R.Ramsden@leeds.ac.uk or Professor Helen Finch at h.c.finch@leeds.ac.uk and say a little about your interest in the topic.