International Conference at the Center for Holocaust Studies, 17–19 June 2026

Historians have long regarded the persecution of intermarried families as marginal to the history of the Holocaust. Yet ‘mixed’ relationships were neither peripheral nor exempt from persecution — they were central to a regime fundamentally concerned with redefining the boundaries of belonging. For Nazi officials, the “unsolved problem” of ‘mixed couples’ and their children sparked ongoing disputes among policymakers and administrative officials, exposing profound contradictions at the core of National Socialist racial ideology. Across Nazi-controlled Europe and its colonies, the treatment of ‘mixed families’ varied markedly – from the legal ambiguities within the Reich to an almost complete lack of protection in the occupied eastern territories.

This conference seeks to bring together scholars examining the histories of ‘mixed couples’ and their children under Axis rule. We invite proposals that explore the daily lives, administrative categorizations, and moral dilemmas faced by individuals in intimate relationships that crossed perceived racial, ethnic, or religious boundaries. While the study of Jewish/non-Jewish relationships remains central to understanding Nazi persecution, we also encourage contributions on Roma and Sinti, other interethnic or interreligious marriages, and colonial contexts in which intimacy and racial difference were similarly policed or criminalized by the Nazi regime, its allies, and its local collaborators.

We welcome proposals from historians and scholars in related disciplines, including religious studies, sociology, anthropology, gender studies, and legal studies. Comparative, interdisciplinary, and cross-regional approaches are particularly encouraged. Please submit your abstract (up to 300 words) and a short biograhical note to zfhs[at]ifz-muenchen.de by 15 December 2025.

This conference is organized within the framework of the collaborative research projects Bond of Intimacy and Dependency: Survival Strategies of Intermarried Families in Nazi-Dominated Europe (IfZ / Center for Holocaust Studies) and Intermarriage and Family: Survival during War, Occupation and Genocide (NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies) by Michaela Raggam-Blesch (IfZ) and Laurien Vastenhout (NIOD). It will be hosted by the Center for Holocaust Studies at the Leibniz-Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) in Munich from June 17-19th 2026.

► Further information can be found in the complete Call for Papers.