Research Symposium

BIO

Gavin Jordan is a Freshman majoring in Finance on the pre-law track at FSU. Gavin grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where he studied the social sciences and took care of his four little sisters. He currently serves as a research assistant for Mr. Liam Wirsansky on his project with the Rosenstrasse foundation through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) at FSU. Gavin’s other involvements include membership in the Sigma Chi fraternity and the presidential scholars program at FSU. He was drawn to the project due to his immense interest in history and politics, and hopes to continue making meaningful contributions to the project’s research.

Civil Courage in Nazi Germany

Abstract

As the Second World War progressed and Hitler’s ethnic cleansing of the Jewish people from Europe known as the Holocaust continued, the Gestapo began to round up Jews from mixed marriages. In 1943, the final roundup of Jews from Berlin occurred, including hundreds of Jewish men married to Aryan women into an assembly camp on the Rosenstrasse. On February 27, 1943, hundreds of women whose husbands were held captive flocked to the streets to protest the injustice. The Rosenstrasse Civil Courage Foundation aims to tell the stories of these brave women who engaged in one of the only open protests in Nazi Germany and their families. Throughout the course of the project, the Rosenstrasse Civil Courage Foundation provided its research assistants with information on who may have been involved with the protest. Its researchers would then insert their information into Ancestry to attempt to find matches. When matches were found, the team would continue to several other databases and document collections to piece together a full story. The stories of multiple families were retraced and uncovered whose bravery deserves to be forever enshrined by the Rosenstrasse foundation. Multiple biographies have been constructed to show how the civil courage of a few women was able to free hundreds of Jewish men in the face of one of history’s most brutal authoritarian dictators. These biographies will be utilized in curriculums to teach about the importance of civil courage, and the unique role that women play in history and resistance. 

Keywords: History, Nazi, Identity