2024 CAS Graduate Research Fellow Reflects on her time in Budapest, and Completing Archival Research on Women Active in Resistance Movements during World War II

We at the Center for Austrian Studies are always glad to hear about the ways our scholarships and fellowships support graduate student research abroad, particularly following the many disruptions during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In Spring 2024, Erin Smith traveled to Budapest, and later to Poland and Germany to conduct archival research after receiving the Center for Austrian Studies 2024 Graduate Research Fellowship. 

Smith writes: 

As a PhD candidate in History, I am currently working on a dissertation about a transnational network of women in the second half of the twentieth century. These women fought as members of resistance movements against Nazi Germany, and were imprisoned in the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. After the war, they lobbied for reparations for victims of medical experimentation, against Holocaust denial, and supported memorialization efforts. However, this was not my planned dissertation prior to heading to Europe this summer. In fact, without the aid of the Center for Austrian Studies, this dissertation may never have come into being. The CAS helped to fund my archival research this summer, and brought me to attend the annual meeting of the Austrian Centers in Budapest, Hungary. Prior to this meeting, I had a small piece of the story of these women, focused on one survivor - Jadwiga Dzido Hassa - whom I had encountered through a hand drawn Christmas card. While researching for my original dissertation topic at La Contemporaine in Paris, France, I discovered this network of women the day before the Austrian Centers meeting began. At the meeting, I received helpful critical feedback on the story of Dzido Hassa. More importantly, I was asked, "What's next?" and for about 48 hours I really considered what was actually next in this story. This brought me to my current dissertation research, including a trip back to La Contemporaine to read these womens' letters in their entirety, a trip to the Berlin Staatsbibliothek to read the reparations laws these women fought against, and a visit to the Ravensbrueck Memorial and Museum. I was able to pivot my research topic and my travel plans while still in Europe - while I was staying in Poland in fact - through the support of the CAS and Howard Louthan. Since then, I am now looking forward to telling the story of these women, their survival, and their resilience.