Tila de Almeida Mendonça, M.A.

Predoctoral Researcher

Contact

Universität Regensburg
Graduate School for East and Southeast European Studies
Landshuter Straße 4
93047 Regensburg
Deutschland

+49 (0)941 / 943-5487 tila.de-almeida-mendonca@geschichte.uni-regensburg.de

Doctoral Research

Teaching and Research go Underground. Illegal Education in the Warsaw Ghetto, 1939-1942

From the very beginning, the German invasion of Poland was characterized by the persecution of the educated class there. The part of Warsaw’s population that was defined as Jewish experienced the most extensive restrictions in terms of education. Nevertheless, the illegal and semi-legal education structures within the ghetto ranged from kindergarten to vocational schools and a university as well as language and religious schools. This project explores the function of education for the different actors (students, teachers, lecturers, researchers) under the specific circumstances of the Warsaw Ghetto. Furthermore, this study shows how the increasing radicalization of the German occupiers affected the education in the ghetto. Diaries, memoirs, transcribed interviews, reports from survivors, research findings and lecture notes are the mainly used sources chosen for the analysis. This research contributes to the debate about the “resistance” and “everyday experience” of people defined as Jews.

Curriculum Vitae

Tila Mendonça studied History (B. Ed.), Sociology (BA) and History and Politics of the 20th Century (MA) at the Federal University of Goiás (Brazil), Katholische Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Germany), Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (Peru) and Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena (Germany). During her studies, she worked as a language tutor, teaching Portuguese and German, worked as an editorial assistant for the Revista de Teoria da História, and organized conferences. She also participated in conferences presenting her papers. She is currently a pre-doctoral researcher at the Graduate School of East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg.