Fortunoff/Vienna Wiesenthal Institute Research Fellowship
The Fellow will be able to conduct research on a topic of their choice in the field of Holocaust studies at the VWI using the digital collection of the Fortunoff Archive in Vienna. Beyond the research work itself, the stay at the institute is intended to encourage communication and scientific exchange among the fellows at VWI. At the end of their stay, the fellow is required to submit a research paper for the institute’s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation, as well as contribute to the Fortunoff Archive's Critical Edition Series.
Current Fellows
Roman ShliakhtychFortunoff Research Fellow/VWI
Roman Shliakhtych is a lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities at the State University of Economics and Technology in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. Since 2023, he has been a doctoral student at Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, researching the involvement of members of the Ukrainian auxiliary police in the implementation of Holocaust policy in the ‘Reichskommissariat Ukraine’. Roman is the co-author of two monographs and over forty scientific papers. He has been a fellow at leading Holocaust research centres such as Yad Vashem, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yahad-In Unum, and, from 2023 to 2024, the Vienna-based Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Research.
Roman researches the social history of the Holocaust in Ukraine, focusing on the behaviour, motives, and role of the auxiliary police and local authorities in the discrimination, exploitation, and extermination of Jews. Drawing on eyewitness and survivor accounts, including video evidence from the Fortunoff Archive, the project offers a deeper understanding of how local collaboration functioned at the grassroots level. By revealing the strategies and choices of these actors, the research sheds new light on the complex dynamics of complicity and the human dimensions of mass violence in occupied Ukraine.