Laurien Vastenhout

Great keynote of @ankahajkova.bsky.social on the history of love and sexuality during the Holocaust. How to write about these intimate histories, both historical and contemporary? A reoccurring theme during the conference “Love, Sexuality, and Intimacy in Exile.” @univie.ac.at.

Master Holocaust and Genocide Studies (History) Explore 20th-century genocides from the vantage point of different disciplines.

Interested in studying Holocaust and Genocide Studies? Consider attending the online information session on our MA program at the University of Amsterdam 🇳🇱 on 17 November from 17:00-18:00. For more info about the program and signing up, see the link below 👇🏼 www.uva.nl/shared-conte...

HGS Annual Lecture 2025: Subcontractors of Guilt On 8 October 2025, Professor Esra Özyürek will deliver the annual Holocaust and Genocide Studies lecture in Amsterdam. The lecture will focus on her recently published book Subcontractors of Guilt.

EVENT: On 8 October, Professor Esra Özyürek delivers the annual Holocaust and Genocide Studies lecture in Amsterdam. She will talk about her book Subcontractors of Guilt: Holocaust Memory and Muslim Belonging in Postwar Germany. More info and registration: www.niod.nl/en/activitie...

Very proud of Renna Elfrink, former student of Holocaust and Genocide Studies @niodamsterdam.bsky.social. Her MA thesis has just been published (in Greek! 🇬🇷).

Sieg Maandag: Trauma and Art in the Aftermath of Bergen-Belsen Sieg Maandag (1937-2013) was seven years old when he was photographed by George Rodger as he walked among the piles of bodies in the liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. His father was killed there, his mother survived camp Beendorf and was reunited with him six months after the war. Sieg’s family were diamond dealers. After the war he learned to work with diamonds, traveled the world, fell in love, sang at the Paradiso night club, and painted hundreds of paintings and ceramics. This presentation, on the 80th anniversary of the photo documenting his liberation, focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to his art as representation and transformation.

On 2 May, I moderate this event on Sieg Maandag in Amsterdam. It marks the 80th anniversary of the famous photograph that documented Maandag’s liberation at Bergen-Belsen. The event focuses on life after trauma, violence and loss. You can attend (online) by signing up here: spui25.nl/programma/si...

Fantastic news!!! Congrats!

#WORKSHOP | On Thursday and Friday, @laurienvastenhout.bsky.social hosts the workshop 'The Holocaust in the Netherlands: New Insights and Approaches'.

In 2026, contributions made during the workshop will be published in Revue d’Histoire de la Shoah: www.memorialdelashoah.org/archives-et-....

Apart from hundreds of letters, I found many photos of Jews in “mixed” relationships or marriages in the 1930s and 1940s. Their stories have largely been untold. These are Salomon Ringer and his fiancé Alice Vandormael in 1942. Five weeks after the liberation of Belgium 🇧🇪, they finally got married.

…identity, family, agency, and gender in the context of colonialism, war, and genocide. This was incredibly helpful to shape my own research on “Jewish”/“non-Jewish” mixed couples during the #Holocaust. I hope to publish the proceedings in an edited volume.

Last week, I organised a workshop on “mixed couples” during conflict at @niodamsterdam.bsky.social. With contributions on Haiti 🇭🇹, Rwanda,🇷🇼 Burundi 🇧🇮,Ivory Coast 🇨🇮, India 🇮🇳, Germany 🇩🇪, Austria 🇦🇹, Ukraine 🇺🇦, the Ottoman Empire, and the Netherlands 🇳🇱. Discussed themes included love, emotions…

Congrats to former #SaulKagan Fellows @laurienvastenhout.bsky.social and Jan Lanicek for their new @wallsteinverlag.bsky.social book! With contributions by former Fellows incl @stefanc-ionescu.bsky.social and committee member @andrealoew.bsky.social www.wallstein-verlag.de/978383535410... #Holocaust

Out now! 📕 The edited volume on “Jewish Councils” in Nazi Europe. Very happy to see this in print. Thank you @leibniz-ifz.bsky.social, @wallsteinverlag.bsky.social, all authors and my wonderful co-editor Jan Lanicek!

…and in front of the uni building: a memorial to the more than 65,000 Jews in Austria murdered between 1938-1945.

Moved to Vienna for a full year to work on my project on “mixed” families in an international research group at the @univie.ac.at. Happy to be here and get some archival work done 🙏🏼

😞

Promoveren bij het NIOD? Mooie vacature voor een promotieplek waarin je onderzoek doet naar de bezettingspolitiek en de Jodenvervolging in Enschede 🇳🇱. Spread the word! vacatures.knaw.nl/job/Amsterda... @niodamsterdam.bsky.social

Ik zoek een stagiair voor mijn project! Specifiek iemand die goed Frans 🇫🇷 leest. Spread the word 🙏🏼

Oh, and: never say that, ideally, she has to have the same “opinion” as the men you invited, because if she doesn’t, it would be “too confusing” for the audience.

To all documentary makers, tv and radio hosts, journalists, and others: please never ask a woman to contribute to your project because you “need a young person and a woman” next to all the older, white guys you already asked weeks or months ago. Not the first time this happened to me.

De Joodse raden in West-Europa - Polderen tot de dood erop volgt | Historiek De Joodse raden in West-Europa functioneerden onder grote druk van de Duitse bezetter, met weinig autonomie om eigen beslissingen te nemen. In Nederland, België en Frankrijk verschilde hun handelingsr...

Jammer dat mijn naam consistent misspelt wordt (“Vastenhoud”), maar wel mooie aandacht voor de Nederlandse vertaling van mijn boek over “Joodse raden” in West-Europa historiek.net/de-joodse-ra... @historiek.bsky.social @niodamsterdam.bsky.social

…and concepts such as miscegenation, sexuality, border zones, “in-between” spaces, informal policing, family bonds, and resilience. Thanks to @lucyjgaynor.bsky.social for sending me this article 🙏🏼

..The 🇧🇪 colonial government’s idea that these children posed a threat to the “order” is not unique to this case study. In my project on “mixed” families I take the treatment of “Jewish”/“non-Jewish” “mixed” couples during the #Holocaust as an example to address governments’ regulations of intimacy..

Belgium found guilty of crimes against humanity in colonial Congo Court said five women were victims of ‘systematic kidnapping’ by state over forced removal from mothers as small children

The forced removal of “mixed” children from their mothers between 1948 and 1953 in Congo was traumatic and inhumane. These practices found their origin with Belgium’s 🇧🇪 King Léopold. The Belgian colonial state has now been condemned for crimes against humanity..👇🏼 www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

Good to see you here too 😇

Back on @bsky.app :-) and back in Europe after hosting a seminar in Los Angeles🇺🇸 on “mixed” families during the #Holocaust. More on this new project (funded by Dutch research Council) soon!

And now my book is also reviewed in French 🇫🇷👇🏼

….die
jüdischer Zwangsver-
einigungen während des Holocaust geht.’

Another great and generous review of my book. Thanks @andrealoew.bsky.social and @fritzbauerinstitut.bsky.social: “Diese Dynamiken in einem überaus komplexen Kontext
herauszuarbeiten ist Laurien Vastenhout auf exzellente Art und Weise gelungen. Ihre Untersuchung setzt Maßstäbe, wenn es um…

Happy to have contributed to the edited volume “If this is a Woman: Studies on Gender and Women in the Holocaust” & with the great review of my article. For the full review, see: www.degruyter.com/journal/key/...

Our MA students (#Holocaust and #Genocide studies) working hard on their papers/thesis during the monthly “Shut up and Write” session at NIOD Amsterdam.