Anna Hájková (born 1978) is a Czech-British historian who is currently a faculty member at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

. She specializes in the study of everyday life during the Holocaust and sexuality and the Holocaust. According to Hájková, "My approach to queer Holocaust history shows a more complex, more human, and more real society beyond monsters and saints."

Family

Hájková is the granddaughter of Czech historian

Miloš Hájek Miloš Hájek (12 May 1921 – 25 February 2016) was a Czech historian, politician and Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak resistance fighter during the German occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945). Hájek, who signed the Charter 77 human rights mani ...

(1921–2016) and his first wife, Alena Hájková (1924–2012), a historian who specialized in studying Czech Jewish resistance to Nazism. Both were recognized as

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...

, and Miloš was a

Charter 77 Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech language, Czech and Slovak language, Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members ...

signatory and spokesperson. She is Jewish.

Career

From 1998 to 2006, Hájková studied modern history at the

Humboldt University Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humboldt ...

and the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, ) is a public university, public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities, it is the fourth-oldest academic institution in the Netherlan ...

. She obtained a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

under the supervision of Hartmut Kaelble with a thesis titled "Die Juden aus den Niederlanden im Ghetto Theresienstadt, 1943-1945" (The Jews from the Netherlands in Theresienstadt Ghetto, 1943–1945). She received her PhD from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

in 2013. Her thesis, supervised by Doris Bergen, was titled, "Prisoner Society in the Terezin Ghetto, 1941-1945", regarding the prisoner society in

Theresienstadt Ghetto Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia ( German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstadt served as a waystation to the extermination c ...

. Her dissertation received the awards and . In 2013, she published the paper "Sexual Barter in Times of Genocide: Negotiating the Sexual Economy of the Theresienstadt Ghetto", which received the Catharine Stimpson Prize for Outstanding Feminist Scholarship. According to Michal Frankl, this study uses "a new and inspiring methodological approach". Since 2013, she has been a professor at the

. In 2020, her book ''The Last Ghetto: An Everyday History of Theresienstadt'' was published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, which Frankl described as an "important book project". The same year, she edited an issue of ''German History'' titled "Sexuality, Holocaust, Stigma". She is the chairwoman of the academic advisory board of ("Society for Queer Memory"), a Czech society which collects information about LGBT history. Hájková has also published articles about historical topics in newspapers and magazines such as ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

'', ''

Tablet Magazine ''Tablet'' is a conservative American magazine focused on Jewish news and culture, featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, and essays. It was founded in 2009 by editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse and is supported by the Nextbook foundation ...

'', and ''

History Today ''History Today'' is a history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it presents authoritative history to as wide a public as possible. The magazine covers all periods and geographical regions and publishes articles of tradit ...

''.

Personal rights case

In April 2020, a German court found that Hájková had violated the

personal rights Personal rights are the rights that a person has over their own body. In the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, personal rights are defined as "rights (as of personal security, personal liberty, and private property) appertaining to the person". Among p ...

of a deceased Holocaust survivor by concluding from witness testimonies that it was not unlikely the then camp inmate had entertained a relationship with SS guard

Anneliese Kohlmann Anneliese Kohlmann (1 March 1921 – 17 September 1977) was a German SS camp guard within the Nazi concentration camp system during World War II, notably, at the Neuengamme concentration camp established by the SS in Hamburg, Germany; and at B ...

. Whilst Anneliese Kohlmann explicitly stated in her post-war trial she had fallen in love with this particular inmate, recent legal investigations arise from the remaining uncertainties regarding the extent to which the camp inmate might or might not have responded to Kohlmann's affection.

Works

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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hájková, Anna Czech Jews Jewish historians British people of Czech-Jewish descent British historians of the Holocaust Academics of the University of Warwick 21st-century Czech historians University of Toronto alumni Historians of LGBTQ topics Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Living people 1978 births