Sharing Memories

Project Lead: Dr. Sarah Nimführ

Project Partner:
Department of Cultural Studies, University of Arts Linz, Austria
Instituto de Historia y Antropología, Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Museo Judío de Sosúa, El Batey Sosúa, Dominican Republic
Center for Jewish History, New York, USA

Funded by: FWF Hertha-Firnberg-Programm

Period of Funding: 2021 - 2026

Department: Fine Arts and Cultural Studies, Department of Cultural Studies

The research project provides transgenerational insights into memory practices and experiences of Jewish exile in Sosúa in the Dominican Republic. Between 1939 and 1945, numerous Jews found refuge from the Nazi regime in the small town in the north of the island of Hispaniola. While almost all countries closed their borders to persecuted Jews from Germany and Austria, a settlement project was established in the dictatorially governed island state. Until today, descendants of the settlers remember and share their family stories in many ways. Based on transgenerational memory work, the project aims to reconstruct how descendants remember the family experience of exile and if and how the (remembered) past shapes and influences their present lives.

Contact Person: Dr. Sarah Nimführ