School of Information Sciences

Bernadette Callery Archives Lecture Series

The lecture series honors the memory of Dr. Bernadette Callery who was a member of the iSchool faculty and who taught in the Archives specialization in the Library and Information Science program. Previous to joining the faculty, Dr. Callery was the Museum Librarian at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Before her death, Dr. Callery thoughtfully established this lecture series, which was funded through a generous bequest.

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Monday, September 26, 2016

3:00 p.m.
Alumni Hall, Connolly Ballroom
4227 5th Avenue
A kosher catered reception will be held after the lecture and Q&A.

Click here to RSVP.

Katharina Hering (MLIS '10)
Project Archivist, National Equal Justice Library, Georgetown Law Library, Washington, D.C.

"Holocaust Reparation and Restitution Files in German State Archives: Institutional Approaches to Managing Ethical and Technical Challenges for Providing Access"

This event is brought to you, in part by, the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh Jewish Studies Department, and the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Senator John Heinz History Center.

Abstract: Following the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors filed reparation, restitution and pension claims with West German state agencies. In recent decades, archivists have noticed an increased research interest in the case files documenting these claims. Providing access to these records, and enabling their discovery, has posed significant technical and ethical challenges for archives and archivists. This is due to the large volume of files, to privacy laws protecting the private and confidential information that survivors had to provide, and to preservation issues. In this lecture in honor of Dr. Bernadette Callery, I will discuss how different German state archives have managed these challenges, and how archivists reflect about their roles as custodians of public records, who are committed to respecting the informational self-determination of Holocaust survivors. A special focus will be on the approaches of the Bavarian State Archives. My research-in-progress is based on a 2016 survey of archival challenges to providing access to reparation and restitution files, which is supported by a fellowship of the EHRI (European Holocaust Research Infrastructure) project. I greatly look forward to a vibrant discussion.

Bio: Katharina Hering is the Project Archivist for the National Equal Justice Library at Georgetown Law Library in Washington, D.C., and active on the steering committee of SAA’s International Archival Affairs Roundtable. She holds a PhD in history from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA, a MLIS specializing in archives, records management, and preservation from the University of Pittsburgh, and a MA in political science and history from the Universität Hamburg, Germany. Her dissertation analyzed the history of Pennsylvania German genealogical practice from a transatlantic perspective, and her current research focuses on the ethics of archival access to reparation and restitution case files. While pursuing her MLIS, she worked for the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Sen. John Heinz History Center as part of the Pitt Partners Program. Before moving to Washington, D.C., she lived in Hamburg, Germany, where she worked on several projects on the history of the Holocaust and its aftermath and was also active in an independent community radio station.

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