Researcher in Military and War History

My current project at NIOD, Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, within Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), titled “The foreign soldier’s transnational experience in the Nazi military (sphere) – A biographical study of conscripts and volunteers from BeNeLux and their military and individual experience in WWII,” explores the phenomenon of non-German soldiers fighting alongside the Germans in German uniforms during the Second World War. It delves into their involvement in the war and aims to shed light on the over 2 million foreigners who served in the German Nazi armed forces, the Wehrmacht, and the Waffen-SS. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the TransWarSoldierWWII project focuses on soldiers hailing from the Benelux region to offer a fresh perspective on the European war experience.
https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101063708My current project within Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), titled “The foreign soldier’s transnational experience in the Nazi military (sphere) – A biographical study of conscripts and volunteers from BeNeLux and their military and individual experience in WWII,” explores the phenomenon of non-German soldiers fighting alongside the Germans in German uniforms during the Second World War. It delves into their involvement in the war and aims to shed light on the over 2 million foreigners who served in the German Nazi armed forces, the Wehrmacht, and the Waffen-SS. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the TransWarSoldierWWII project focuses on soldiers hailing from the Benelux region to offer a fresh perspective on the European war experience (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101063708).

Until July 2023 I was the Co-PI in the project Warlux “Soldiers and their communities in WWII: The impact and legacy of war experiences” at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History at the University of Luxembourg in Digital and War History.

Before, I was involved in the Project in History of Justice. As an archivist, I was researching and inventorying relevant documents for the project. I analyzed and provided the team with relevant documents and prepares them for the digitalizing and virtual exhibition.

I studied Archival Science in Marburg, European history in Hagen and Haifa/Israel. I worked as an archivist at the German Federal Archive, in Koblenz and Berlin and at the Military Archive in Freiburg, where I managed requests and inquiries concerning the Wehrmacht, WW II and the fate of POW and other Nazi victims. I supported projects in digitalizing and preservation of documents and worked in a project of the German Historical Moscow to digitalize records of Soviet POW.

After my archival career, I began my doctorate at the University of Hamburg in cultural anthropology about the impact of death and violence and the memory of WW II in the post-war period in Germany and Russia. I was a visiting fellow at the State University of St. Petersburg, the Institute for High Technology/Institute for Oral History in Voronezh and at the American Institute for German Contemporary Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C.

My research focus lies on the commemoration aspects of military dead/war dead and war cemeteries in Germany and Russia, the Holocaust in Eastern Europe and on cultural aspects on the Wehrmacht and military violence during WW II. And secondly, my research interests cover the classical historical research in archives and libraries, digital methods and innovations and the questions of digital preservation and accessibility of historical documents. 

Follow me on my latest research about War and Military History

on my blog https://digiwarhist.hypotheses.org

X (former Twitter): https://twitter.com/nina_janz

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ninajanz