Maris Rowe-McCulloch, PhD Candidate, History & Jewish Studies, University of Toronto, Canada, SUMMER FELLOW
Her dissertation examines the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, focusing on the experiences of the city’s Jewish community prior to and throughout the Holocaust. In August 1942, the city was home to the largest massacre of Jews on Russian soil during the Holocaust. Her research examines the effects of repeated wartime German occupations, as the city was captured and lost twice by the invading German army between 1941 and 1943. Ms. Rowe-McCulloch investigates the role of the military—responsible for administering the region during both occupations—in local anti-Jewish violence, as well as the participation of local Soviet citizens, particularly Don Cossack collaborators who joined special brigades within the German army.
Ms. Rowe-McCulloch’s research also explores the expansion and development of Rostov-on-Don’s Jewish community prior to its destruction during the first two decades of the Soviet Union. Focusing in particular on the interwar relationship between Jews and their Cossack neighbors—a group responsible for initiating pogroms during the First World War and the Russian Civil War—she hopes to better understand indigenous Russian anti-Semitism and the effect of Communist policies on Rostov’s Jewish residents. Her supervisor is Dr. Lynne Viola.