About this Event
Although World War II and the Holocaust are among the most thoroughly examined fields of research, scholars worldwide have over the years been extremely reticent to deal intensively with the subject of sexual and sexualized violence in general and regarding children in particular.
The anthology stems from a conference held at the University of Salzburg in the summer of 2023, attended by participants from Austria, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Ukraine, and the USA. The findings were shocking, even 80 years after the end of the war.
The book launch will include two short presentations: Helga Embacher (Salzburg) will introduce the anthology. She will be followed by William Jones (London) who will concentrate on ‘Sexual violence against male children and adolescents in the concentration camps.’ The event will be moderated by Johannes-Dieter Steinert (Wolverhampton).
About the Speakers
Helga Embacher Professor Emerita of Contemporary History, University of Salzburg. Her main fields of research are National Socialism, antisemitism, Israel, and migration. Most recent publications include: „Jewish Identities and Antisemitism in Salzburg after 1918“, in: Robert von Dassanowsky and Katherine Arens (eds.), Interwar Salzburg. Austrian Culture Beyond Vienna, New York 2024, 281-299; “Approaching the Holocaust, Communism, and Post-Communism in Eastern Europe from a Gender Perspective” Eastern European Holocaust Studies, 2025.
William Ross Jones is the Wiener Holocaust Library’s Research and Engagement Officer and an Associate Tutor at the University of Warwick. Their research focuses on male experiences of sexual(ized) violence during the Holocaust and the relationships between gender, sexuality, testimony, and memory therein. William’s research has been published widely, and their forthcoming monograph is under contract with Oxford University Press. They are also a published translator, a former Fulbright Scholar to Germany, and a former research fellow at the Mandel Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Johannes-Dieter Steinert Professor Emeritus of Modern European History and Migration Studies, University of Wolverhampton. His current research project concentrates on Romani child forced labourers in National Socialist Germany and German-occupied Eastern Europe. Most recent publications include: Broken bodies, lonely souls. Memories of Jewish child forced labourers 1938-1945 (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem 2026-forthcoming). Britain and Holocaust consciousness in the 1960s, ed. Together with Dan Stone (London: Bloomsbury 2026).
Event venue & nearby stays
The Wiener Holocaust Library, 29 Russell Square, London, United Kingdom
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