Dalia Ofer

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Faculty Member

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Historian of Jewish history, a retired prof. of the Hebrew University. Special area, of research Holocaust, second world war. Main area of research interest the gettos in Eastern Europe during the Holocaust. Interested in education, teaching history, memory studies,
Address: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

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Papers by Dalia Ofer

The family under duress: A male perspective

De Gruyter eBooks, Mar 6, 2023

Nazi oppression impacted every aspect of family life and all family members. Terror, uncertainty,... more Nazi oppression impacted every aspect of family life and all family members. Terror, uncertainty, constant fear, loss of employment, dispossession, social con straints, and destruction of professional networks all shattered the family's inter nal equilibrium and endangered its ability to persevere. Families-nuclear and extended families, couples, parents and children, siblings-had to find ways to obtain sustenance and safe housing and to rework their relations. The kind of environment that might have helped them maintain solidarity and keep going is hard to determine. The answer depends on both external and internal factors. The type of setting-village, town, city-, the pace and dynamic of the oppression, and internal and external connections all counted in a family's ability or inability to sustain itself. Internal factors relate to the conditions within the Jewish commu nity and the patterns of internal life that it adopted to alleviate the burden of the Nazi yoke. Of significance here was the economic and social state of the family. However, solidarity, cooperation, and psychological resilience among family members before the war were crucial. We usually have little information about these, and the evidence we can glean from contemporary sources is fragmentary. Most contemporary sources, such as diaries or letters, disclose information solely through the lens of the writer and relate to a limited period of time. Seldom do they illuminate the detailed background of a family's life. Consequently, a tentative rather than a definite approach to research on fami lies would seem appropriate. However, by combining the available sources with the use of social, cultural, and psychological categories, scholars can express assump tions about the impact of the oppression on family life and structure. Questions about changes in relations among family members and about how each member tried to fulfill the roles assigned to them by social and individual values and con ventions may be answered in part. Below I limit the discussion to Eastern Europe and focus on the ghettos and the voices of male heads of household as husbands, fathers, and sons of elder parents. Elsewhere1 I describe the complex reality of families between the two extremes of cohesion and rupture. There I find families' daily lives characterized by instabil ity and great vulnerability. However, the better off the family was financially, the broader its social network and the closer its social or professional connections to

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Introduction. Holocaust Survivors in their Countries of Resettlement: Time, Space, and Identities

Holocaust Survivors

Chapter 6. Mending the Body, Mending the Soul: Members of Youth Aliyah Take a Look at Themselves and at Others

Holocaust Survivors

ENMITY, INDIFFERENCE OR COOPERATION : The Allies and Yishuv’s rescue activists

Chapter 3 Narrating Daily Family Life in Ghettos under Nazi Occupation

Her Story, My Story?

Reflections on an Academic Path: The Inspiration of a Teacher and Mentor

The Journal of Holocaust Research

ABSTRACT The focus of this article is the author's experience as both a student and a colleag... more ABSTRACT The focus of this article is the author's experience as both a student and a colleague of Prof. Bauer and its impact on her development as a historian of the Holocaust. It is a reflection of her contemporary interpretation of their long years of activity at the Hebrew University. The article relates to Bauer as a teacher and a leader of Holocaust studies in Israel. The author addresses the seminars Bauer conducted with students of different backgrounds and his influence on patterns and methodologies of research. Her experience in the Vidal Sassoon Center of Research of Antisemitism manifests Bauer's impact on her understanding of academic leadership, which followed her in other academic appointments.

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“Will You Hear My Voice?”

If This Is a Woman, 2021

1. “Will You Hear My Voice?” Women in the Holocaust: Memory and Analysis

If This Is a Woman, 2021

Bella Hazan Ya’ari

Lessons and Legacies XIV, 2020

Dalia Ofer - The March of Memory: Survivors and Relatives in the Footsteps of the Kladovo-SabaÄ‡ Refugees - Israel Studies 12:3

The article is concerned with the processes by which the collective memory of Israelis relating t... more The article is concerned with the processes by which the collective memory of Israelis relating to the fate of their families in the Holocaust is shaped. The central issues raised are how and when one remembers, what significance is attached to this act of remembrance, and how this memory is transmitted from generation to generation. I shall deal with the

Paula E. Hyman and Dalia Ofer (eds.), Alice Shalvi (associate ed.), Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia

Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues, 2007

... By contrast, a recent review by Shnayer Leiman of the new edition of Encyclopedia Judaica (NE... more ... By contrast, a recent review by Shnayer Leiman of the new edition of Encyclopedia Judaica (NEJ), on the site ???Seforim blog,??? points out that it ... Holocaust survivors; only by opening ???art-second-gen 6??? could I discover that it is a charcoal drawing by Israeli artist/poet Rivka Miriam. ...

The Past that Does Not Pass: Israelis and “Holocaust Memory”

Israel Studies, 2009

... Alongside Shlonsky&#x27;s pathos and Alterman&#x27;s lyricism, the lesser stories of ... more ... Alongside Shlonsky&#x27;s pathos and Alterman&#x27;s lyricism, the lesser stories of Appelfeld (The Seagull) and Orlev&#x27;s imaginative works based on personal memories ... The main argument of the radical critics (Adi Ophir, Idit Zertal, Yosef Gruzhinsky, Moshe Zukerman, and others) is the ...

“Three Lines in History?”

Jewish Resistance Against the Nazis

Parenthood in the Shadow of the Holocaust

During World War II Jewish parents under Nazi occupation experienced unimaginable difficulties as... more During World War II Jewish parents under Nazi occupation experienced unimaginable difficulties as they tried to function according to what they believed was their parental responsibility, which included first of all safe haven to the children, to supply enough food, to care for their health and education.

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An Account from Transnistria: The Diary of Lipman Kunstadt, a Social Critic from Within

Zoë Waxman. Women in the Holocaust: A Feminist History

Women’s Experiences During the Holocaust – New Books in Print

In 1999, for the first time in twenty-nine years of conferences, the Annual Scholars’ Conference ... more In 1999, for the first time in twenty-nine years of conferences, the Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches presented a plenary on women and the Holocaust. As co-chairs of this plenary, Dr. Myrna Goldenberg and I decided to feature recent scholarly books on the subject and to entitle the session “Women’s Holocaust History: Books in Print.” The occasion was historic beyond the fact that the subject was deemed important enough for a plenary, because, by early 1999, a core of “books in print” had made possible a session with such a title. While some women’s diaries and first-hand accounts have been available in English since the late 1940s and 1950s, in 1998 there was an unprecedented crop of more analytical publications; and even more began to appear in 1999. Two out of the three finalists for the 1998 National Jewish Book Awards in the Holocaust category were about women and gender: Between Dignity and Despair by Marion A. Kaplan; and Women in the Holocaust, ed...

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Gender: Writing Women, Writing the Holocaust

Writing the Holocaust

Les survivants de la Shoah dans l�historiographie isra�lienne

Revue d�Histoire de la Shoah

This article focuses on the various works on the She’erit hapletah and tries to underline how the... more This article focuses on the various works on the She’erit hapletah and tries to underline how the research developed throughout the years, depending on the different generations the scholars belong to, and on their role in writing history or in taking part to the events before writing their memoirs. It also examines how this question was received in the public debate. What was the role of the Zionist movement in the DP camps in Europe, in the organization of the brihah (the flight), through which tens of thousands of the survivors head towards exodus ? How were the survivors welcomed and integrated in Israel ? And what debates in historiography did these issues rose in the country ?