While Germany was mainly a country of emigration during the nineteenth century and in the first half of the twentieth century, in the last several decades the picture has shifted dramatically. Germany has become one of the most important European destinations for migrants from the former Soviet Bloc. The impetus for this workshop was to think about the larger questions of migrant adaptation as discussed in the German academy today by reflecting on a unique set of data, namely autobiographical essays collected through an essay contest1 among Jewish immigrants from the (former) Soviet Union and its successor states. The essays relate life in the Soviet Union and its successor states, as well as the immigration experience and life in Germany. A companion contest was undertaken in the U.S. in 2009. These contests aim to capture a historical moment through the prism of individual self-reflection, and serve as a time-capsule for today and tomorrow’s historians concerning Jewish life in the former Soviet Union as well as post-Soviet Jewish life in the age of mass global migration.

The workshop enabled scholars to investigate the experiences of immigrants from the (former) Soviet Union to Germany in the context of both Jewish and Non-Jewish migration. The workshop aimed to understand and compare the practices and strategies of Jewish and Non-Jewish immigrants with a special focus on the unique collection of personal testimonies of Russian Jews (a project of the Columbia University); and to the map the conditions, motivations and reasons behind the migration to Germany from Eastern and Central Europe, and particularly the former Soviet Union during the 1990’s, using a historical-anthropological approach.

The workshop started with a discussion with ZVI GITTELMAN (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) on these unique personal testimonies and on their evaluation. LJUDMILA BELKIN (Leibniz-Institut für raumbezogene Sozialforschung, Erkner) presented an overview of the autobiography collection project and shared experiences and insight from her experience coordinating the project in field. The contest, which concluded in 2016, collected over 120 autobiographies from émigrés living throughout Germany.

REBECCA KOBRIN (Columbia University, New York) opened the workshop and discussed the larger historical significance of Russian Jewish migration for Jewish history. She argued, that the last three decades has witnessed a silent revolution in Jewish history as millions of Jews and their non-Jewish relatives have left the Soviet Union and its successor states. Starting as a trickle in the 1970s and growing into a flood after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, millions of Jews and their non-Jewish relatives abandoned the FSU. They settled primarily in Israel, the United States and Germany, leaving a lasting imprint on their new homes. She discussed the autobiography contest she ran in 2016 to collect materials from those who settled in Germany, and how their settlement dramatically altered the demographics and culture of this once-shrinking German-Jewish community as it emboldened the new Germany that saw the renaissance of Jewish life in Germany as evidence of Germany’s “democratization” and its return to normalcy after reunification.

DIRK HOERDER (Arizona State University) plenary remarks recalled the concern in Germany in the 1990s that 20 million would flood into Europe. This flood never materialized but highlights the tension between neo-liberal states that seek to treat everyone equally and nations whose mission is to represent its members over others. His remarks focused on the categories of nationality, ethnicity, religion and labor, as a few main examples, that shape how states deal with migrants as well as how migrants narrate their experiences. He raised the questions whether the categories obscure more than they illuminate, and advocated for an analysis that starts not at immigrants’ origin, but at their early socialization. The study of migration requires, he argued, a local perspective that can compare the contexts of early socialization and reception.

The workshop’s first panel discussed the larger historical framing of recent Jewish and Non-Jewish migration from Eastern Europe to Germany. Dirk Hoerder focused on the place of recent streams of Jewish and non-Jewish immigrants from East and Central Europe in the larger history of immigration to Germany. He explored themes related to the arrival and integration of these immigrants affected discussions and understandings of national identity in Germany. MICHAEL JOHN (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz) discussed the comparative case of Jewish migration to Austria; PETER HASLINGER (Herder Institute, Marburg) discussed issues of security and securitization as they relate to migration. The study of securitization, he argued, is premised on recognizing that security for some creates insecurity for others. He described the fear tied to migrants as a fear of ‘the extinction of the self’, of fixed conceptions of society or country that immigrants and diversity may challenge. He focused on the paradoxes of the refugee crisis and perceptions in Germany in which the country is granting security to people who need it as humanitarian act but fears of migrants as terrorists has increased security efforts in the Germany state. ESZTER GANTNER (Herder Institute, Marburg) capped the panel with an exploration of how the study of emotions, and specifically fear, relates to migration. She advocated for integrating a history of emotions when considering migration and noted that the language of fear is contextually specific. Focusing on how initial acceptance evolved to fear of the other, using the case of the case of small town of Gollwitz, Germany she explored how fear is historically contingent but central to understanding why migrants chose to leave their places of birth and why host countries act the ways in which they do.

In the next panel REBECCA KOBRIN (Columbia University, New York) discussed why she spent the last eight years collecting materials from Russian Jewish émigrés in North American and Germany. She spoke about the historical models for the autobiography contest she ran, that date back to interwar Poland but were popularized about Jewish immigrants by Max Weinreich. She argued her collection has much to teach the world about immigration in the late-20th century, the German state, and Jewish life in the former Soviet Union. ÉVA KOVÁCS (Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies) examined the methodology used to collect the autobiographies and compared it to that of oral histories. She explored how the autobiographical essays may be analyzed, questioning whether they should be approached as a representative group of narratives or as individual cases highlighting specific historical events. She noted limitations of such collection both in formulating ‘master narratives’ employed by this group or in capturing traumatic events they may have experiences. KINGA FROJIMOVICS (Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies) spoke about the need to catalog material to ensure its accessibility and use, citing experiences in the Yad Vashem archive. She noted that collections like these are important for a balanced and complex history that relates one among multiple perspectives, noting that the collection gave voice to a group of immigrants are not well narrated in Germany. ACHIM SAUPE (Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam) spoke about the strengths and weaknesses of autobiographical materials. He noted the power of authenticity and general strengths and weaknesses of this genre. As he pointed out, life is not coherent although the essay format demanded that the author makes it coherent.

The final panel dealt with the experiences of two groups of Russian-speaking immigrants to Germany, ethnic Germans and Jewish immigrants. KLAVDIA SMOLA (University of Greifswald) contrasted the work of two different Russian-Jewish émigré writers, Oleg Iur’ev (born 1959), the second by Lena Gorelik (born 1981), and offered their literary work as representative of the how the concept of Jewish diaspora has changed. The former employs a specialized language to reflect the idiosyncratic world of Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants. The younger author’s work reflects a different generation for whom hybridity and plurality are central. VIKTOR KRIEGER (University of Heidelberg) offered a sociological analysis of the 2.4 million Aussiedler who came to Germany since 1950. He classifies them into three broad groups, those who were oppositional to Soviet culture and sought to emigrate early on, those who were ambivalent and advocated for minority rights and, the smallest group, of those who integrated. He charted the varying trajectories of their experiences in the Soviet Union, upon immigration and integration in Germany.

Conference overview:

Opening

Peter Haslinger (Herder Institute, Marburg): Introductory remarks
Rebecca Kobrin (Columbia University, New York) / Dirk Hoerder (Arizona State University): Welcome and overview

Ljudmila Belkin (Leibniz-Institut für Raumbezogene Sozialforschung, Erkner): Fieldnotes from the essay contest

Session 1 – Theme: Historical framing of recent Jewish and Non-Jewish migration from East and Central Europe to Germany
Moderator: Heidi Hein-Kircher (Herder Institute, Marburg)

Dirk Hoerder (Arizona State University)

Michael John (Johannes Kepler Universität Linz)

Peter Haslinger (Herder Institute, Marburg)

Eszter Gantner (Herder Institute, Marburg)

Session 2 – Theme: The essay as medium
Moderator: Peter Haslinger (Herder Institute, Marburg)

Rebecca Kobrin (Columbia University, New York)

Kinga Frojimovics (Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies)

Éva Kovács (Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies)

Achim Saupe (Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung, Potsdam)

Session 3 – Theme: Migrant strategies
Moderator: Koby Oppenheim (City University of New York)

Klavdia Smola (Ernst Moritz Arndt Universität Greifswald)

Viktor Krieger (University of Heidelberg)

Wrap-up: Questions and concepts to carry forward

Koby Oppenheim (City University of New York)

Note:
1https://dieandereherkunft.wordpress.com/ (17.03.2017).