Gender, Digitisation, and Memory: International Digital Formats on the Shoah and the Violent Crimes of the Nazi Regime
Since the end of the Second World War, numerous multimedia contributions – film, audio, print – have emerged internationally that depict the Shoah, the Porajmos and the persecution of different groups of people. This development can be understood as the medialisation and virtualisation of these historical events. For about 10-20 years, parallel to the development of the internet, a new step has been taking place: digitalisation. On the one hand, these transformation processes generate new narratives – such as the question: What if a Girl in The Holocaust had Instagram? [“Eva Stories”, Matti, Maya Kochavi, 2019]. On the other hand, users adapt familiar motifs, such as that of the “contemporary witness”, and explore the possibilities of the digital world (A-, VR-reality, holograms, games, blogs). Multimedia formats play an important role in raising awareness of these violent crimes and are ways of informing, engaging with, documenting and representing them[The Last Goodbye, USC Shoah Foundation, 2017; TikTok account, Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial, Hamburg, 2021]. The post-doctoral project asks what role the category “gender” plays here by means of an intersectional model of analysis that understands the formats in their time.
Research Results
For me, the time as CAIS-fellow meant a focused research phase in an interdisciplinary and inspiring environment. During the six months, I was able to explore the question of how the events of the Shoah, the Porajmos and the persecution of various groups of people during the Nazi era are remembered from a gender perspective in the digital age, e.g. on social media. I read “gendered” memorializations with memory-theories, e.g. by Maurice Halbwachs, as active actions that are adapted to the requirements of the respective present(s). Gender-specific medializations and mediatizations in the now digital space reflect familiar patterns and narratives on the one hand, while condensing and concretizing newer impulses and/or subliminal ways of thinking on the other. In order to explore this complex field, I used the diverse formats at CAIS. In the colloquia, in lectures, in workshops, and in individual exchanges, I was able to discuss and present various questions and lines of argumentation to the academic community.
An updated overview of works can be viewed here: Instagram @kstreegardener
Talks, Workshops, Publications & Conferences
- 15./16.10.2022 „Gender, Digitalization, and Memory“ – Forschungstreffen der „Stiftung Zeitlehren“, Bildungs- und Begegnungszentrum Clara Sahlberg/Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz, Berlin.
- 24.11.2022: Workshop: Eva’s Stories, May 1, 2019: A post-post-modern girl on Instagram during
the Schoah? Time-shifts & Gendered Imaginary. https://twitter.com/CAISnrw/status/1595741658116755456?cxt=HHwWgMC81aulm6UsAAAA - 09.12.2022 Screening & Podiumsgespräch zum Dokumentarfilm „Nelly & Nadine“ (2022), Spinnboden Lesbenarchiv e.V./Kino Moviemento, Berlin. Zusammen mit Dr. Insa Eschebach, ehemalige Leiterin der Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück. https://spinnboden.de/angebot/filmscreening-doku-nellynadine-mit-anschl-podiumsgespraech-im-moviemento/
- 09.01.2023 „Digitale Erinnerung(en) an die Schoah auf Social Media & Gender – What’s actually new?“, Vortrag im Doc- und Post-Doc Kolloquium “Jüdischer Film- Jüdische Filmgeschichte(n)-Jüdisches Filmerbe”/ organsiert v. Dr. Lea Wohl von Haselberg/Jewish Film History.
- 09.01.2023 Moderation & Response zu dem Vortrag von Dr. Elisabeth Janik-Freis (Zentrum für Antisemitismus-Forschung an der TU Berlin): Sex sells: Female migration in “white slavery movies” in interwar Poland and Germany (Post-Doc-Projekt). Doc- und Post-Doc Kolloquium “Jüdischer Film- Jüdische Filmgeschichte(n)-Jüdisches Filmerbe”; organsiert v. Dr. Lea Wohl von Haselberg /Jewish Film History.
- 26.01.2023 Filmgespräch: „Nelly & Nadine“ zum Gedenktag der Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (zugesagt), Filmmuseum Potsdam, zus. m. d. Gleichstellungsbeauftragten d. Landes Brandenburg, Manuela Dörnenburg, u. Uwe Fröhlich, Katte e.V., Landeskoordinierungsstelle Queeres Brandenburg
- 27.01.2023 Partizipative Digitale Lesung „Ravensbrück liest Ravensbrück“ zum Thema „Nähe im Lager“, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_h58kCr7Qo.
- 27.01.2023. Warum Erinnern auf Social Media wichtig und richtig ist?, AufRuhr-Magazin herausgegeben von der Mercator Stiftung, Essen, 2023. https://www.aufruhr-magazin.de/digitalisierte-gesellschaft/warum-erinnern-auf-social-media-wichtig-und-richtig-ist/
- 03.03.2023 Podiumsgespräch mit Dr. Anna Hájková (University of Warwick) & Dr. Katja S. Baumgärtner (CAIS) sowie Film-Screening des Theaterstücks „Das wunderbare Leben der Margot Heuman“, UK 2021, Anna Hájková/Erika E. Hughes.
- 21.06.2023 Vortrag: Gender Tropes in Memorializing the Shoah in Digital Times, Konferenz: To be (dis)continued. New Perspectives on the Entanglements of Gender, Sexualities, and Jewishness, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, https://networks.h-net.org/node/79435/discussions/10175190/cfp-be-discontinued-new-perspectives-entanglements-gender
- 27.09.2023 Vortrag: Gender Tropes in Memorializing the Shoah in Digital Times, Konferenz: „Widerstand von Frauen gegen den NS in Europa“, organisiert vom Haus der FrauenGeschichte Bonn
Publications:
- Katja S. Baumgärtner: Gender, Imagination und Erinnern in Filmen über das Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück, in: Sabine Hark, Tanja Thomas (Hg.): feministische studien, Feministisches Erinnern: Politiken, Praktiken, Kämpfe, Heft 2/2023 (im Erscheinen). https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/fs-2023-0024/html
Planned Publications and Presentation
- Artikel „Gender Tropes in Memorializing the Shoah in Digital Times“ im Tagungsband der Konferenz: „Widerstand von Frauen gegen den NS in Europa“, organisiert und herausgegeben vom Haus der FrauenGeschichte Bonn, Erscheinungsdatum voraussichtlich Herbst 2024
- Beitrag „Gender und Erinnerung an die Shoa auf Social Media“ in der Broschüre „Widerstand von Frauen gegen den NS in Europa“, herausgegeben vom Haus der FrauenGeschichte Bonn, Erscheinungsdatum parallel zur Ausstellungseröffnung am 14.05.2024.
- 20.-22.06.2024, Palermo/Italy: 9th International Conference of the Italian Association of Women Historians. Vortrag: “Female perspectives of resistance in commemorating the Shoah on international social media platforms” (angenommen)
Research focus
- Jewish Studies
- Feminist & Gender Studies
- Intersectionality
- Media Studies (digitality, film, sound, photography)
- Memory Studies & Oral History
Curriculum Vitae
2022-2019
Post-doctoral fellowships Stiftung Zeitlehren, Selma Stern Centre for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg (ZJS) & German Historical Institute Warsaw (DHI) on the project: gender, imagination and memorialisation: contexts/subtexts in international films on the Shoah/Holocaust and Nazi camps.
2019-2020
Research assistant (50%) on the project Documentary Film at the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial/Foundation of Bavarian Memorials. (Project management: Dr Gabriele Hammermann & Dr Stefanie Pilzweger-Steiner).
2018-2020
Freelancer at erinnern.at (Bregenz/Austria): Collaboration on the online video platform continue_tellingprojectmanagement: Dr. Werner Dreier & Angelika Laumer.
2018
PhD in Gender Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Das Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück im Film: Gender, Imagination und Memorialisierung; overall grade: Summa cum laude, publication by: Metropol, Berlin. Supervision: Prof. Dr. Christina von Braun, Prof. Dr. Sigrid Jacobeit, PD PD Dr. phil. habil. Julia Barbara Köhne. Chair of the examination: Prof. Dr. Claudia Bruns.
2009
Magistra Artium (M. A.) in Gender Studies and Philosophy, Humboldt University Berlin, title of thesis: Mediale Repräsentation des Frauenkonzentrationslagers Ravensbrück im historisch-politischen Kontext nach 1945 – Interdependenzen von Erinnerung und Geschlecht (unpublished).
2000
Diploma in Design (FH), Fachhochschule für Wirtschaft und Technik Berlin (FHTW), photography with Prof. Manfred Paul; diploma thesis on the Bauhaus photographer Gertrud Arndt (unpublished); final exhibition of own photographs in the Kunstsalon im Seifenhaus, Berlin.
Publications and lectures
Publications
Baumgärtner, Katja S.: Gazes on/at Court – The Feature Film Zagrożenie, [Danger], PRL 1976, by Wacław Florkowski and Danuta Brzosko-Mędryk, in: Making Justice Visible: The Mediatization of the World War II War Crimes Trials Ruth Leiserowitz, Gintarė Malinauskaitė, Hektoras Vitkus (eds.), Osnabrück 2022/2023, forthcoming. https://www.fibre-verlag.de/verlagskatalog/reihen/dhi/dhi-45-detail.html
Baumgärtner, Katja S.: Das Konzentrationslager Ravensbrück im Film: Gender, Imagination und Memorialisierung, Berlin 2022. https://metropol-verlag.de/produkt/das-konzentrationslager-ravensbrueck-im-film-gender-imagination-und-memorialisierung/ Review by film scholar Hans Helmut Prinzler: http://www.hhprinzler.de/2022/03/das-konzentrationslager-ravensbrueck-im-film/
Baumgärtner, Katja S.: Rettung als Chiffre. Gender constructions in the film In jenen Tagen (D 1947, Helmut Käutner), in: Manja Herrmann, Ida Richter, Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, Charlotte Weber (eds.), Monika Schärtl (ed.): “Rettung” als Konzept – Interdisziplinäre Lesarten. Jahrbuch des Selma Stern Zentrums 7, Leipzig 2021, pp. 26-39. https://www.hentrichhentrich.de/buch-rettung-als-konzept-interdisziplinaere-lesarten.html
Baumgärtner, Katja S.: Gender, Propaganda, Affect and Memorialisation. Dutch traces in the GDR commissioned film FRAUEN IN RAVENSBRÜCK, in: Hans-Michael Bock, Jan Distelmeyer, Jörg Schöning (eds.), Swenja Schiemann, Erika Wottrich (eds.): Grenzüberschreitende Licht-Spiele. German-Dutch Film Relations, 2021 Munich, pp. 130-142. https://www.etk-muenchen.de/search/Details.aspx?new=1&sort=5&ISBN=9783967075748
Baumgärtner, Katja S.: Some Filmic Heroines and ‘Others’ in the GDR Documentary Women in Ravensbrück (1968), in: Claudia Simone Dorchain, Felice Naomi Wonnenberg (eds.): Contemporary Jewish reality in Germany and its reflection in film, European-Jewish Studies Contributions, Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies, Potsdam, in cooperation with the Center for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg; Editorial Manager: Werner Treß, Volume 2, Walter de Gruyter; Berlin, Boston, 2013, pp. 51-70.
Lectures, commentaries, screenings (selection)
15./16.10.2022 Impulse lecture on the post-doc project at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) GmbH, Bochum. Gender, Digitalization, and Memory: International Digital Formats on the Shoah and the Violent Crimes of the Nazi Regime, Workshop Zeitlehren Stiftung, Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz /Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee.
02.06.2022 Keynote lecture on the post-doc project Gender, Memory, Jewish Studies – Genocides in audiovisual Media ZJS Research Group Jewish Film/intern/Film University Potsdam-Babelsberg
14.05.2022 Neuengamme Memorial/Hamburg. Memorial History(s). Concentration camp memorials in post-national socialist societies from 1945 to today – stocktaking and perspectives. Workshop: “Memorial History as Social History? Historical cross-cutting themes “. https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-116910
18.01.2022 Gender & Queerness in the silent film Anders als die Anderen (D 1919). Impulse lecture in the ZJS research group Gender/Queer and Jewish Studies.
12.01.2022 Doc- & Postdoc Colloquium “JEWISH FILM” at the Film University Potsdam-Babelsberg; organised by Dr. Lea Wohl von Haselberg. Moderation & response to a lecture by Michaela Scharf/Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/fdkn-127902
28.9.2021 Gender, Memory, Jewish Studies – Genocides in audiovisual Media. Workshop: Gender/Queer and Jewish Studies. Approaching an Interdisciplinary Field of Research, Selma Stern Centre for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg (virtual) https://www.selma-stern-zentrum.de/kalender/zjs/Tagungen-und-Workshops/2021_09_28-Gender-Queer-Jewish-Studies.html
22.11.2020 33rd International Film History Congress/XVIIth cinefest – International Festival of German Film Heritage, HH, Lecture: “The film begins without music – the portrait photo of a female prisoner appears on the screen” – Joop Huisken, Renate Drescher and the film about the women’s concentration camp Ravensbrück
31.07.2020 “Let’s make Sound in the Silence – Ravensbrück Goes Digital”; Digital Workcamp of the MG Ravensbrück in cooperation with the Association of Young Volunteers and the Service Civil International; Film-analytical introduction to “Ostatni Etap” (English)
30.01.2020 “You are completely immersed…”– Gender, Imagination and Immersion in Films about the Shoah, the Holocaust and/or the National Socialist Camps, Ghettos and Killing Sites – Context Poland, Selma Stern Centre for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg, Berlin. https://www.selma-stern-zentrum.de/kalender/zjs/2018-19_WS_Colloquium/2020_01_30.html
07.11.2019 Special Lessons and Legacies Conference “The Holocaust and Europe: Research Trends, Pedagogical Approaches, and Political Challenges”, Munich; Panel 35: Questions of Gender -Relationships, Silences, Memorialization: “Ravensbrück in Film: Gender and Memorialization” . https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/zentrum-fuer-holocaust-studien/tagungsrueckblick/veranstaltung/special-lessons-legacies-conference-the-holocaust-and-europe-research-trends-pedagogical-approaches-and-political-challenges
28.06.2019 Language, Gender and Film – Translation as Enabling Memory in Films about Ravensbrück; Symposium: The Languages of Memory – Audiovisual Accounts of Nazi Survivors and their Translation. Conception: Prof. Dr. Kerstin Schoor (European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/ Oder), Dr. Andrea Hammel (Aberystwyth University, Wales); Organiser: Selma Stern Centre for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:JeeJ38HEtOgJ:https://www.selma-stern-zentrum.de/Medien/2Calls/Plakate_Die-Sprachen-der-Erinnerung-final.pdf&cd=3&hl=de&ct=clnk&gl=de&client=firefox-b-d
14.06.2019 Täter_innen – Zu filmischen Geschlechtergrenzen, -überschreitungen und -ambivalenzen. Multidisciplinary conference: Victim//perpetrator inversions. Media studies on the actions of perpetrators and experiences of violence. Conception: Prof. Dr. Julia Barbara Köhne and Prof. Dr. rer. soc. Franziska Lamott (DFG/Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute for Cultural Studies). https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/fdkn-127025
27.07.2017 The Ravensbrück Concentration Camp in Film: Gender, Imagination and Memorialisation; Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism e.V. at the Technical University of Dresden, https://hait.tu-dresden.de/ext/veranstaltungen/veranstaltung-7545/
23. 10. 2015 Female Voices Echoing the “Black Soil”: Reframing Oral History Interviews in Film, 12th International MTSU Holocaust Studies Conference, Genocide Studies and Holocaust Studies, Middle Tennessee State University, U.S.A., https://www.mtsu.edu/holocaust_studies/gallery.php