PhD and a Cup of Tea: The War Refugee Board: Using Methodology to Address the Controversies of Ameri

With Dr Rebecca Erbelding

We're delighted to welcome recent PhD recipient, Dr Rebecca Erbelding, to discuss her research on the War Refugee Board and American policy during the Holocaust.

In January 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt announced that it was American policy to attempt to rescue and provide relief for Jews and other victims of Nazi persecution. The story of his new agency, the War Refugee Board, tasked with carrying out the new policy, has been overshadowed by an entrenched historiography that has simplified American response to the Holocaust as a story in which the country knew nothing, and did nothing. By examining the War Refugee Board's records using new research technology, it's clear that the agency was much more robust, creative, and daring than we previously thought.

Dr Rebecca Erbelding (PhD, History, 2015) has been an archivist and historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for thirteen years. She is currently detailed to work on the Museum's upcoming exhibition, which will examine the role of Americans during the Holocaust. Her revised dissertation on the War Refugee Board will be published by Doubleday in the spring of 2018.

Tea will be served from 4.30pm and there will be a chance for the audience to ask Dr Erbelding about her research following the talk.

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