Doing a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Yad Vashem

Dr. Amy Williams is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Yad Vashem's International Institute for Holocaust Research. I interviewed her about her time at Yad Vashem and her experience of being in Israel this year.

What brings you to Yad Vashem?

I was really lucky enough to get a fellowship here, which is for four months, which is super exciting. It feels like it's gone very quickly though, I'm already into the third month.

I applied when I was at another fellowship in New York. So, I'm super, very, very delighted to be here.

Is this your first time in Israel?

No, no, I've been several times, but I've never lived here before. So, it's not only having the experience of doing research here, it's having the privilege to live here, to be here, to see friends and colleagues and really work with them on a level that isn't just via Zoom or every-so-often at a conference. It's an opportunity to really take the time to be with people as well.

It sounds as though you've really been enjoying it.

When I say I've enjoyed it, I can't even put into words how.

I can't put into words how much I've learned on an academic level, but also on a personal one. Just the amount that I've been able to do in such a short period of time. I've been to many different archives.

Yad Vashem's archive is extensive and there is so much here that I've found, but on top of that, you've got the beautiful new National Library, the Zionist archives, all these incredible archives that complement the material here. And then on top of that, all the museums, and their exhibitions and how they present that archival material through another genre, another form.

And all the interviews that I've been doing. And all of conversations that I've had with academics. And then on top of that, I've been getting to know people that live on several kibbutzim and moshavim, so I've been able to understand how my research fits within that context.

So, it's been extensive.

What has been you experience of using the new archives at Yad Vashem?

Oh my gosh, amazing, but like, oh gosh, it's so overwhelming as well, because you just become aware of just how extensive the collections are, I knew Yad Vashem obviously had a lot of material, it's one of the leading institutions, and so many from around the world donate material here, but for example, if you just put a very simple search of 'Kindertransport', you get around 800 hits, and so much of that is testimony.

I love testimony, I think it's the closest source that we have to the event, it is incredible to work with, and it's one of the sources that I really look forward to working with, because it's so complex within and of itself; the body language that you see if it's a video, or the stops and starts, or the, all those sorts of things around testimony.

I've looked at testimony here, and I've been able to visit people in their homes as well. Thanks to the fellowship, and thanks to Yad Vashem, I have the opportunity actually to meet them, which adds another layer, and sometimes they tell you things, not necessarily that aren't in their testimony, but just in a different way, which you can learn a lot from as well. I've also had the opportunity to interview second and third gen, whose testimonies aren't in Yad Vashem, so I can work off the first-generation testimony here, and then go to interview all the other generations as well, which has been a real privilege.

But also, I have to stress, particularly for the archive access, how wonderful the staff have been here and at the National Library. You've all bent over backwards to help, you've all been absolutely welcoming and warm, especially considering everything you're going through as well. The fact that people are really taking the time to even meet with me or chat or whatever, whatever they're doing. I'm just so grateful because you're still at war, the hostages aren't free, everybody knows somebody or there's somebody in the reserves or all these things that you're juggling. And then, the fact that you're really so invested in, just being willing to help is remarkable.

As you said, this has been quite a challenging year here in Israel. How has that affected your experience of the fellowship? 

I landed on the 6th of October and the anniversary was obviously on the 7th, the day that I started at Yad Vashem. So, that's something that I'll never forget. Seeing everyone walking around with the yellow pins or the ribbons.

There's a weird 'keeping going' going on. I keep thinking of what my grandma would have been through during World War Two, going to the bomb shelters and then going to work.

But also, what the survivors must have done, not just during the war, but after; that resilience to go on after everything that's happened and still is happening, with the hostages not being here and seeing their families walking around. I know who they are now, I've spoken with some of them. Just to see people put one foot in front of the other is, is incredible.

It's been a real, it's a memory as well. It's something that I'll just cherish and hopefully when I'm old and grey, I'll be like, "Oh, when I was doing my stint at Yad Vashem." I know I'll look back with such fond memories, even of being here during the war.

There's something special about being here at difficult times.

You use social media to share developments in your research and also updates about your time at Yad Vashem and in Israel more generally. Has the way that your posts are received changed since you've been here?

Every Saturday, after Shabbat, I go to Hostage Square because I'm in Tel Aviv. I listen to the talks and think about the memorials; what's new every week. I always say something about that, and as soon as I do that, you see the posts flooded. They go off in their droves, it's quite mind-boggling. It's been a moment, but it's fine. You get through it. It's safety, more than anything; you can say whatever, words don't affect me, but we've seen people being assaulted in London, and things like that, that's the scary part. I do think about going into a lecture hall at some point, when I go back.

I've been called a Zionist Nazi, I've been called a genocide supporter, I've been called lots of different things and personally I don't think I say anything particularly controversial on social media. I try to be very fair and open-minded, but also to stick up where I feel that you need to say something.

But a lot of academics have cut ties, friends have, a lot of people have – family members are great – but friends, some friends and some colleagues have very much distanced themselves. I can see that a lot of the students that I've taught still follow me, I think one or two unfriended me, but most of them have stuck around, which gives me hope.

Has your research taken you any surprising or new and exciting directions since you've been at Yad Vashem? Something that's been really special. 

So many, so many. The biggest thing was finding a Kindertransport list.

You didn't know they existed at all before you got here?

I knew that some did. In Britain, we have a collection of the disembarkation lists from the ships. There are quite a few of those. They were known. But in terms of lists from their homelands, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Danzig and also the lists to Britain, to America, to Australia, to British mainland Palestine, to Sweden, to Belgium, all these places. That they all exist here is quite remarkable.

While some of the lists were known, not all of them were. Even where scholars have referenced these lists, there hasn't been an in-depth analysis comparing and relating them all to one another. To see these lists in relation to one another has never really been done. I hope that that's what I'll be able to do in my next book.

Also, Der Tagspiegel and the Jüdische Allgemeine are writing stories about it now, so Yad Vashem will be mentioned hopefully in the new year in the German press. That will be exciting! I'm just amazed!

But the biggest thing is that I've been able to call survivors and say, "Did you know you're on the train with this person? Do you want to meet them?"

I'm also so grateful for the opportunity from Yad Vashem to be able to understand what is currently going on, especially with memorialization and how that connects with my own work on the Kindertransport, and also more broadly in terms of Holocaust commemoration.

I've learned a great deal generally about Israeli society and Holocaust memory here, which I was also, really interested in anyway.

I feel very lucky in the sense that I've tried to really use the time. On the days that I don't need to be at Yad Vashem, on Friday and Saturday, I've been trying to walk around and see memorials or go to museums or things like that, that I can do to like further my knowledge in other areas as well. And obviously, meet and see families as well, which has been really special.

But yeah, a lot of work, a lot of work. But it's interesting because the families are from all different backgrounds as well – some are more religious than others and I've been to people up north now that no bombs are falling. I've reconnected with people who I haven't seen for a few years because I've not been here.

I don't want to leave, I'd rather stay.

I need another fellowship! It’s a way to travel the world. It’s great.