USC.edu

Wolf Gruner

Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of History
Wolf Gruner
Pronouns He / Him / His Email gruner@usc.edu Office SOS 265 Office Phone (213) 740-1668

Center, Institute & Lab Affiliations

  • 2014-present USC Dornsife Center of Advanced Genocide Research, Founding Director
  • Consortium for Higher Education Centers for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies,, Member Executive Committee, since December 2019

Biography

Originally from Germany, I am a historian and specialist for Holocaust and German-Jewish history, topics on which I authored 10 books, coedited four volumes and published more than 80 articles and book chapters by now. Most recently, based on more than 12 years of research, my book “Resisters. How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany” was published with Yale University Press (Fall 2023) (see link below). Written for a wider audience, the book discusses widepread acts of individual acts fundamentally revising our understanding of Jewish resistance and challenging the wrong myth of Jewis passivity during the Holocaust.

Additional areas of research include the comparative history of mass violence and its resistance on a global scale, as well as racial and state discrimination against indigenous and other minority populations, especially in Latin America. 

I arrived at the University of Southern California straight from Berlin as the Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of History. At USC, I established and directed the 2020 Dornsife interdisciplinary research cluster: “Resisting the Path to Genocides” (2010-2014). In 2014, I became the founding director of the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research (prev. USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research). I am an appointed member of the Academic Advisory Committee of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, and co-founder of the Consortium of Higher Education Centers for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies.

Education

  • Ph.D. i.e. Habilitation History, Technical University Berlin, 2/2006
  • Ph.D. History, Technical University Berlin, 3/1994
  • M.A. History, Humboldt University Berlin, 6/1989
    • John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow, Harvard University, Minda de Gunzburg Centre for European Studies, 01/2003 – 08/2003
    • Pearl Resnik Fellow, US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Centre for Advanced Holocaust Studies, 09/2002 – 01/2003
    • Post doc Fellow, Yad Vashem,International Institute for Holocaust Research , Spring 1998

  • Tenure Track Appointments

    • Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies, Professor of History , University of Southern California, 08/2008 –

    Research, Teaching, Practice, and Clinical Appointments

    • Director, Genocide Studies Field, Collection Convergence Initiative, USC Doheny Library, University of Southern California, 2017-09-2024-08
    • Founding Director, USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research , University of Southern California, 2014-

  • Book

    • Gruner, Wolf; Victoria Sanford (Ed.). Genocide and Resistance in Guatemala. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
    • Gruner, Wolf; Boaz Cohen, Miriam Offer, Thomas Pegelow Kaplan (Ed.). (2024). Holocaust Testimonies: Reassessing Survivors’ Voices and their Future in Challenging Times. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
    • Gruner, W. (2023). Resisters. How Ordinary Jews fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany. New Haven, Ct.: Yale University Press. PubMed Web Address Amazon
    • Gruner, Wolf/Thomas Pegelow-Kaplan (Ed.). (2020). Resisting Persecution. Jews and their Petitions during the Holocaust. New York: Berghahn Books. PubMed Web Address Amazon
    • Gruner, Wolf; Steve Ross (Ed.). (2019). New Perspectives on Kristallnacht: After 80 Years, the Nazi Pogrom in Global Comparison. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press. PubMed Web Address Amazon
    • Gruner, W. (2019). The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia. Czech Initiatives, German Policies, Jewish Responses. New York: Berghahn Books. PubMed Web Address Amazon
    • Gruner, Wolf (Ed.). (2019). The Persecution and Murder of the European Jews by Nazi Germany, 1933–1945, Vol. 1: German Reich 1933–1937. Munich: DE GRUYTER OLDENBOURG. PubMed Web Address Amazon
    • Gruner, W. (2016). Die Judenverfolgung im Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren. Lokale Initiativen, zentrale Entscheidungen, jüdische Antworten 1939-1945. Goettingen: Wallstein Verlag. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, W. (2015). Parias de la Patria. El mito de la liberación de las Indígenas en la República de Bolivia 1825-1890 (Parias de la Patria. The myth of the liberation of the indigenous people in the Republic of Bolivia). La Paz: Plural Editores. Plural editores facebook
    • Gruner, Wolf and Joerg Osterloh (Ed.). (2015). THE GREATER GERMAN REICH AND THE JEWS. Nazi Persecution Policies in the Annexed Territories 1935-1945. New York: Berghahn Books. PubMed Web Address Amazon
    • Gruner, W. (2014). The Persecution of the Jews in Berlin 1933-1945 A Chronology of Measures by the Authorities in the German Capital. Berlin: Stiftung Topographie des Terrors, Berlin.
    • Gruner, W. (2013). Gedenkort Rosenstraße 2-4: Internierung and Protest im NS-Staat (Memorial. Rosenstrasse 2-4. Internment and Protest in the Nazi state). Berlin: Hentrich and Hentrich. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, Wolf and Osterloh, Jörg (Ed.). (2010). Das „Großdeutsche Reich” und die Juden. Nationalsozialistische Verfolgungspolitik in den angegliederten Gebieten. Frankfurt/Main: Campus Verlag. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, W. (2009). Judenverfolgung in Berlin 1933-1945. Eine Chronologie der Behördenmaßnahmen in der Reichshauptstadt (The Persecution of the Berlin Jews. A Chronology). Berlin: Topographie des Terrors. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, W. (2008). Jewish Forced Labor under the Nazis. Economic Needs and Racial Aims (1938-1944) Revised Paperback edition. New York: Cambridge University Press. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, Wolf (Ed.). (2008). Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933-1945, part I, Vol 1: Das Deutsche Reich 1933 bis 1937 (Collection of primary Holocaust documents on Germany 1933-1937). Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, W. (2006). Jewish Forced Labor under the Nazis. Economic Needs and Racial Aims (1938-1944). New York: Cambridge University Press. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, W. (2005). Widerstand in der Rosenstraße. Die Fabrik-Aktion und die Verfolgung der „Mischehen” 1943 (Resistance in the Rosenstrasse. The Factory Raid and the Persecution of the „Mixed Marriages”). Frankfurt/Main: S. Fischer-Verlag. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, W. (2002). Öffentliche Wohlfahrt und Judenverfolgung. Wechselwirkungen lokaler und zentraler Politik im NS-Staat (1933-1942) (Public Welfare and the Persecution of Jews. Local vs. Centralized Policy-making in the Nazi State). Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, Wolf and Nolzen, Armin (Ed.). (2001). Bürokratien: Initiative und Effizienz (Beiträge zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus, Bd. 17 (: Bureaucracy: Initiative and Efficiency. Essays on the History of National Socialism, vol. 17 ). Berlin: Assoziation a.
    • Gruner, W. (2000). Zwangsarbeit und Verfolgung. Österreichische Juden im NS-Staat 1938-1945 (Forced Labor and the Persecution of Austrian Jews 1938-1945). Innsbruck-Vienna-Munich: Studien-Verlag. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, W. (1997). Der Geschlossene Arbeitseinsatz deutscher Juden. Zwangsarbeit als ein Element der Verfolgung 1938-1943 (The Compulsory Labor Project for German Jews. Forced Labor as an Element of Persecution 1938-1943). Berlin: Metropol-Verlag.
    • Gruner, W. (1996). Judenverfolgung in Berlin 1933-1945. Eine Chronologie der Behördenmaßnahmen in der Reichshauptstadt (The Persecution of the Berlin Jews. A Chronology). Berlin: Hentrich.

    Book Chapters

    • Gruner, W. (2023). “This Thug Hitler!” Defiance and Protest of Jewish Women in Nazi Germany. , in: Heroines of the Holocaust Reframing Resistance and Courage in Genocide pp. 20 pages. Oxfordshire, England: Routledge.
    • Gruner, W. (2020). My unorthodox path. Toward integrative, interdisciplinary, and comparative Holocaust studies. Advancing Holocaust Studies New York: Routledge.
    • Gruner, W. (2019). “Worse than Vandals”. The Mass Destruction of Jewish Homes and Jewish Responses during the 1938 pogrom. New Perspectives on Kristallnacht: After 80 Years, pp. 25-49. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press. PubMed Web Address Amazon
    • Gruner, W. (2018). Die Radikalisierung der NS-Verfolgung und die Berliner Jüdinnen und Juden Herbst 1937 bis Sommer 1939. Ausgewiesen! Berlin, 28.10.1938. Die Geschichte de pp. 116-124. Berlin: Metropol Verlag. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, W. (2018). Das Dogma der „Volksgemeinschaft” und die Mikrogeschichte der NS-Gesellschaft. Der Ort der „Volksgemeinschaft” in der deutschen G pp. pp. 71-90. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag.
    • Gruner, W. (2017). Defiance and Protest. A Comparative Micro-Historical Re-evaluation of Individual Jewish Responses towards Nazi Persecution. Micro-History of the Holocaust pp. 209-226.. New York: Berghahn Books.
    • Gruner, W. (2015). Indifference, Participation, Protest? Responses to the Persecution of the Jews as Revealed in Berlin Police logs and Trial records 1933-45. The Germans and the Persecution of the Jews pp. 59-83. New York: Berghahn.
    • Gruner, W. (2015). “Camps and Ghettos – Forced Labor in the Reich Gau Wartheland” (reprint chapter 6 of “Jewish Forced labor under the Nazis” in 2nd edition of: The Holocaust: Origins, Implementation, Aftermath, ed. by Omer Bartov (Rewriting Histories series) Routledge, 2013. The Holocaust: Origins, Implementation, Aftermath pp. 35. Routledge.
    • Gruner, W., Velarde, H. (2013). Beobachten, Erinnern, Verstehen. Michael Peschkes Leben und Werk. Michael Peschke, Von Hauptbahnhof bis Kalaschnikow pp. 7-12. Berlin: Theater der Zeit.
    • Gruner, W. (2013). Die Verfolgung der Juden und die Reaktionen der Berliner. Berlin 1933-1945 pp. pp. 311-323, 422-425. Munich: Siedler.
    • Gruner, W. (2012). „Armenier-Greuel.” Was wussten jüdische und nichtjüdische Deutsche im NS-Staat über den Völkermord von 1915/16?. Holocaust und Völkermorde. Die Reichweite des Verg pp. pp. 31-54. Frankfurt/Main-New York: Campus.
    • Gruner, W. (2011). Die Berliner und die NS-Judenverfolgung. Eine mikrohistorische Studie individueller Handlungen und sozialer Beziehungen (Berliners and the Persecution of the Jews. A Micro Study of Individual Behavior and Social Relationships), in: Berlin im Nationalsozialismus. Politik und Gesellschaft 1933-1945 (Beiträge zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus, Vol. 27), Göttingen 2011, pp. 57-87. pp. pp. 57-87.. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag.
    • Gruner, W. (2011). Die Kommunen im Nationalsozialismus. Innenpolitische Akteure und ihre wirkungsmächtige Vernetzung, in: Wolfgang Seibel/Sven Reichardt (eds.), Der prekäre Staat. Herrschen und Verwalten im Nationalsozialismus, Campus Verlag: Frankfurt am Main 2011, pp. 167-212. (Municipalities during National Socialism. Domestic actors and their powerful networks). Der Prekäre Staat. Herrschen und Verwalten pp. pp. 167-212. Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, W. (2010). The Berlin City Administration and the Persecution of the Jews: Berlin 1933-1945. Between Propaganda und Terror. Exhibition catalogue, published by the Foundation Topograpy of Terror, represented by Andreas Nachama,. pp. pp. 216-222.. Berlin, Germany: Stiftung Topographie des Terrors.
    • Gruner, W. (2010). “Forced Labor in Nazi anti-Jewish Policy, 1938-1945”, in: Jonathan Friedman (ed.), The Routledge History of the Holocaust, London: Routledge 2010, pp. 168-180. The Routledge History of the Holocaust pp. pp. 168-180. London: Routledge.
    • Gruner, W. (2010). Greater Germany, in: Peter Hayes/John Roth (eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies, New York: Oxford University Press 2010, pp. 293-309. pp. 30. New York: Oxford University Press.
    • Gruner, W. (2010). The History of the Holocaust: Multiple Actors, Diverse Motives and Contradictory Developments, in: Betts, Paul/Wiese, Christian: Years of Persecution, Years of Extermination: Saul Friedländer and the Future of Holocaust Studies. pp. 31. London:: Continuum Press.
    • Gruner, W. (2010). Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren, in: Wolf Gruner/Jörg Osterloh (Hrsg.): Das Großdeutsche Reich und die Juden. Nationalsozialistische Verfolgungspolitik in den angegliederten Gebieten,. pp. 33. Frankfurt/Main:: Campus Verlag.

    Journal Article

    • Gruner, W., Schüler-Springorum, S. (2023). Two German perspectives on a German Discussion. Central European History. Vol. 56 (2), pp. 278-282.
    • Gruner, W. (2022). “It cries to heaven!” Elderly Jews and Their Individual Resistance to Nazi Persecution in Germany. Yad Vashem Studies. Vol. Vol 50/2, pp. pp. 29-54.
    • Gruner, W. (2019). Verweigerung, Opposition und Protest. Vergessene jüdische Reaktionen auf die NS-Verfolgung in Deutschland. Jahrbuch Zentrum Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg, Hentrich. Vol. 3, pp. 11-30.
    • Gruner, W. (2019). The Twisted Path of Holocaust & Genocide Studies. Potential Avenues of Comparison with the 1937/38 Nanjing Atrocities, in: Japanese Invasion of China History Research. Insititute Japanese Invasion of China History Research. Vol. 1/2019, pp. 4-12.
    • Gruner, W. (2018). L’engagement obligatoire des Juifs au travail, 1938/39-1943. Èvolution, formes et fonctions à l’exemple de la région de Berlin-Brandebourg, in: Èclairer au pays des coupables. La Shoah et l’historiographie allemande 1990-2015. Revue d’histoire de la Shoah, Memorial de la Shoah. Vol. 209 (Octubre 2018), pp. 223-246.
    • Gruner, W., Osterloh, J. (2018). La persécution nationale-socialiste des Juifs dans les territoires annexés, 1935-1945, in: Èclairer au pays des coupables. La Shoah et l’historiographie allemande 1990-2015. Revue d’histoire de la Shoah, Memorial de la Shoah. Vol. 209 (Octubre 2018), pp. 401-430.
    • Gruner, W. (2012). “¿Peregrinaciones hacia al vacio?” Los judios alemanes y su conocimiento sobre el genocidio Armenio durante del Tercer Reich, in: Revista de Estudios sobre Genocidio, vol. 6 (Buenos Aires 2011), pp. 56-78. Revista de Estudios sobre Genocidio. Vol. vol. 6 (2011), pp. pp. 56-78.
    • Gruner, W. (2012). „Peregrinations into the Void?” German Jews and their Knowledge about the Armenian Genocide during the Third Reich, in: Central European History, 45 (2012), No. 1, pp. 1–26. Central European History. Vol. 45 (2012) (No. 1), pp. pp. 1–26.
    • Gruner, W. (2011). “The Germans Should Expel the Foreigner Hitler”. Open Protest and Other Forms of Jewish Defiance in Nazi Germany, in: Yad Vashem Studies, Vol. 39 (2011), No. 2, pp. 13-53. Yad Vashem. Vol. 39 (no 2), pp. 30 pp..

    Proceedings

    • Gruner, W. (2017). Holocaust & Genocide Studies and Potential Avenues of Comparison with the 1937/38 Nanjing Massacres, in: Nanjing Massacre and Japanese War Crimes. International Academic Conference (Paper Collection). pp. 102-108. In Chinese pp 22-25. Nanjing. The Research Institute of Nanjing Massacre History and International Peace and The Research Institute of Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

    Other

    • Gruner, W. (2023). The November Pogrom 1938. Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies Series. Oxford University Press. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, W. (2019). The forgotten mass destruction of Jewish homes during ‘Kristallnacht’. The Conversation. PubMed Web Address
    • Gruner, W. (2014). The Holocaust in Germany. Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies Series. Oxford University Press. PubMed Web Address
    • USC Endowed Chair, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies, 08/16/2008 –
    • LastSeen Project Grimme Online Award Category Education and Science, 2024-2025
    • USC Raubenheimer Outstanding Senior Faculty Award, 2024-2025
    • National Jewish Book Award, Finalist, was awarded to my book Resisters. How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany, (Yale University Press 2023), 2023-2024
    • Distinguished Researcher of the Institute of Nanjing Massacre History and International Peace, Nanjing, China, 2017-2018
    • Sybil Halpern Milton Memorial Book Prize of the German Studies Association 2017 for the best book in Holocaust Studies in 2015 and 2016 for Die Judenverfolgung im Protektorat Böhmen/Mähren. Lokale Initiativen, zentrale Entscheidungen, jüdische Antworten 1939-1945 (Anti-Jewish Persecution in the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia. Local Initiatives, Central Decisions, Jewish Responses), Göttingen, Germany: Wallstein Verlag 2016, 430 pages , 2017-2018
    • Prize for one of the most outstanding German studies in humanities and social sciences in 2017 by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, the VG WORT and the German Foreign Office were awarded to my book: Die Judenverfolgung im Protektorat Böhmen/Mähren. Lokale Initiativen, zentrale Entscheidungen, jüdische Antworten 1939-1945 (Anti-Jewish Persecution in the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia. Local Initiatives, Central Decisions, Jewish Responses), Göttingen, Germany: Wallstein Verlag 2016, 430 pages., 2016-2017
    • Legacy Award from the Benefactors of the Jewish Club of 1933, Los Angeles, 11/2014
    • The book co-edited by Wolf Gruner und Jörg Osterloh: Das „Großdeutsche Reich” und die Juden. Nationalsozialistische Verfolgungspolitik in den „angegliederten” Gebieten (The Greater German Reich and the Jews), Frankfurt/Main: Campus Verlag 2010, 440 pages, was awarded one of the prizes for most outstanding German studies in humanities and social science in 2012 by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, the VG WORT and the German Foreign Office, dedicated to fund a translation into English., 2012-2013
    • USC Shoah Foundation Institute Senior Fellow 2011, Fall 2011
    • USC Innovative Teaching Award, Award from the Fund of Innovative Undergraduate Teaching, USC-Office of the Provost , Spring 2011
    • Wolf Gruner’s book Die Verfolgung und Ermordung der europäischen Juden durch das nationalsozialistische Deutschland 1933-1945, part I, Vol 1: Das Deutsche Reich 1933 bis 1937 (Collection of primary Holocaust documents on Germany 1933-1937), Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag 2008) was ranked under the top five for the 2008 Historical Book of the Year prize (History 1918-1945) by H-Soz-Kult (German branch of H-Net). The book earned rank 5 out of 44 nominations by the votes of an academic jury plus the H-net subscribers, Spring 2009

  • Office Hours

      Tuesdays : 12.45 am-1.45 pm, and with appointment by email

  • Administative Appointment

    • Member Executive Committee of the Consortium for Higher Education Centers for Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies, since December 2019 , 12/2019 –
    • Appointed Member of the Academic Committee of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, 11/2017 –
    • Co-Chair of the academic program for the 2016 international conference: The Holocaust in the 21st Century: Relevance and Challenges in the Digital Age , 11/2014 – 11/2016

    Committees

    • Member, 2023 Yad Vashem International Book Prize Committee “Research on the Holocaust”, 2023-2024
    • Member, 2014 Yad Vashem International Book Prize Committee “Research on the Holocaust”, 05/01/2014 – 10/31/2014

    Conferences Organized

    • Co-host and co-organizer, Lessons and Legacies, Claremont McKenna and USC, 12/2022 – 11/2024
    • Planner, co-organizer and host, Genocide and Survivor Communities: Agency, Resistance, Recognition”, INoGS 9th International Conference on Genocide, USC, 07/2022 – 06/2024
    • Planner, co-organizer and host, Mass Violence and Its Lasting Impact on Indigenous Peoples – The Case of the Americas and Australia/Pacific Region , USC, 08/2018 – 10/2022
    • Co-organizer, Knowledge on the Move. Information Networks During and After the Holocaust, USC, 05/2021 – 04/2022
    • Planner, Organizer and Host , New Perspectives on Kristallnacht: After 80 Years, the Nazi Pogrom in Global Comparison, USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, 10/2016 – 11/2019
    • Planner, Organizer and Host , Digital Approaches to Genolcides Studies, USC Shoah Foundation Center for Genocide Research, 08/2016 – 10/2017
    • Planner and Organizer, Third Workshop for Advanced PhD Candidates from North American Universities and Israel who are working on the Holocaust , Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel, 08/2016 – 06/2017
    • Co-chair for the Academic Program, The Holocaust in the 21st Century: Relevance and Challenges in the Digital Age, Claremont McKenna, 11/2014 – 11/2016
    • Planner, Organizer and Host, A conflict? Genocide and Resistance in Guatemala, USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, 03/2015 – 09/2016
    • Planner, Organizer and Host, Music as Resistance to Genocide, USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, 2014 – 2015
    • Planner and Organizer, “Resisting the Path to Genocide: Individual Resistance”, International Workshop of the 2020 Genocide Resistance Research Cluster , University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in collaboration with Villa Aurora, Pacific Palisades. , 2013-2014
    • Planner and Organizer, “Researching the Holocaust”. Second Bilateral Workshop for PhD Candidates from the United States of America and Israel , USC, Los Angeles, 2013-2014
    • Planner and Organizer, “Resisting the Path to Genocide: Groups and Networks”, International Workshop of the 2020 Genocide Resistance Research Cluster , University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in collaboration with Villa Aurora, Pacific Palisades., 2012-2013
    • Planner and Organizer, “Resisting the Path to Genocide: The Case of States and Societies”, Los Angeles and Pacific Palisades, 2010-2011
    • Planner and Organizer, “Researching the Holocaust”. First Bilateral Workshop for PhD Candidates from the United States of America and Israel, International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 2010-2011

    Editorships and Editorial Boards

    • Member of the International Advisory Board, Journal of Genocide Research, 04/2010 –
    • Member of the Editorial board, Beitraege zur Geschichte des Nationalsozialismus, 2000 –
    • Co-editor of the review section, Journal of Genocide Research, 01/2005 – 03/2010
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