Katja Schatte is pursuing a Ph.D. in East German Jewish History at the University of Washington. Her dissertation in progress, entitled “‘Don’t We All Have a Responsibility in This World?’ Jewish Women’s Lives and Identities in East Berlin, 1945-1990,” focuses on female Holocaust survivors, memory, post-memory, and trans-generational trauma.  

At the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, Schatte expands her research and analysis of East Jewish German life to include scholars, writers, teachers, artists, and journalists in the GDR (German Democratic Republic) and post-GDR. She touches on issues such as the relationship between the second and third generations of East German Jews, scholarly and community debates about contemporary and East German Jewish identity, Holocaust memory, and the effects of trauma and exile across generations.