Dr Simone Gigliotti - Reader, Holocaust Studies

The history, memory and representation of the Holocaust are my central research and outreach areas, with sustained interests in the intersections of technology and tracking of displacement, testimony of trauma and extreme violence, and visual representation. Additional projects include a study of Jewish photographers and postwar reconstruction in Europe and SE Asia; a second book on the Holocaust and postwar ‘train memory’; and cultural genocide as heritage destruction.

How do individuals write and tell traumatic experiences about their lives, and what methods do they have at their disposal when the event at the centre of the narrative is the Holocaust, often described as beyond representation?

This question has guided my professional career and indeed has prompted me to pivot to other instances of mass violence and displacement. The geography of my research interests, much like the instances of global violence, are, therefore, on the move. My empathy as a scholar is clearly aligned with victims of genocide and mass violence.

My background training is in modern European (German), ethnic (Jewish) and Holocaust history which has led me to diverse trajectories of research and publications. My core expertise and publication area remains the study of the Holocaust, particularly in relation to mapping the displacement trajectories of Jewish victims and survivors through their homeseeking in global destinations, in deportations as part of the 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question', death marches during the last six months of World War II, and post-1945 flight and migration across and from Europe via foot, train and ships.

My research on Jewish refugee diasporas studies their relocation to regions that are often referred to as far from Europe, including countries in the Pacific (Australia and New Zealand), the Caribbean islands (Jamaica) and South-East Asia (Cambodia), and considers the meeting of long-term resident Jewish communities, often Sephardim in those diaspora regions, with newly-arrived Jewish (mainly Ashkenazi) refugees. I also maintain research interests in the definition and interpretations of the UN Genocide Convention (1948), and the use of Holocaust analogies in drawing attention to current-day state violence and human rights abuses.

I am influenced by scholars, methods and literature from several disciplines (history, human geography, spatial history, visual culture, and film) and I utilize disparately sourced and multi-layered materials such as the archive of the personal - memoirs, oral histories and video testimony, film, photography, and maps, and material culture such as posters, art and objects.

More information about my research is available via PURE

Email - Simone.Gigliotti@rhul.ac.uk