JOINED THE DEPARTMENT
2011
Gerald J. Steinacher is the James A. Rawley Professor of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). His research focuses on 20th Century European History with an emphasis on the Holocaust, National Socialism, Italian Fascism, and intelligence studies. He has published four books, edited ten more, and written over one hundred book chapters and journal articles on these topics. Steinacher’s research has been featured in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Jerusalem Post, and the German weekly Der Spiegel among others.
Steinacher’s 2011 book, Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice, examines the post-war fate of Nazis and Holocaust perpetrators, and the institutions facilitating their escape from Europe. The book was published by Oxford University Press in 2011 and has been translated in several languages. It was awarded the 2011 National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category. Steinacher’s most recent book, Humanitarians at War: The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust, was published with Oxford University Press in 2017. The book explores the lessons learned by the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross from its handling of the Holocaust, and the ensuing policy changes regarding genocide and victims of war.
Steinacher’s current research project, under the working title Forgive and Forget: Vatican Responses to Nazi War Crime Trials, examines the attitude of the Catholic Church leadership towards war crime trials and the denazification of Germany in the first post-war decade. The project analyzes church alternatives to retributive justice as a way of dealing with guilt and responsibility after World War II and the Holocaust. Steinacher is also the co-editor of the series Contemporary Holocaust Studies published with the University of Nebraska Press. He is currently working on the third volume in the series, Fascisms: Now and Then.
Steinacher has held many distinguished research fellowships and visiting professorships. These include fellowships at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, at the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem (Jerusalem), at the Institute for Contemporary History (Munich), and at the Archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (New York). In 2006 he was a Visiting Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington, DC) and since then has continued to work closely with the Museum’s education and research programs. Most recently, Steinacher was a Senior Fellow at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies. He has also held visiting professorships at the Universities of Munich, Passau, and Lucerne.
Steinacher teaches classes on the Holocaust, Modern Jewish History, Modern German History, History of Immigration, and Intelligence and Espionage History.
BOOKS
- Humanitarians at War: The Red Cross in the Shadow of the Holocaust (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
- Nazis on the Run: How Hitler's Henchmen Fled Justice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
- Südtirol und die Geheimdienste 1943-1945 (Vienna: Studienverlag, 2000).
BOOK REVIEWS
- UNL Professor Steinacher talks about his book "Nazis on the Run" on C-SPAN TV
- Gerald Steinacher interviewed by HNN History News Network
- Review of Nazis on the Run by Philip Kerr in the Wall Street Journal
- Review of Nazis on the Run by David Cesarini in the New Statesman
- Review of Nazis on the Run by Robert Gerwarth in The Irish Times
- Review of Nazis on the Run by Steven P. Remy in Holocaust and Genocide Studies
- Review of Humanitarians at War by Edward B. Westermann in the German Studies Review
- Review of Humanitarians at War by Peter Crossland in Holocaust and Genocide Studies
- Review in H-Soz-u-Kult, H-Net of Prof. Steinacher's volume about Italian Fascist architecture (edited together with Aram Mattioli): Für den Faschismus bauen. Architektur als Gesellschafts-, Sozial- und Machtpolitik
SELECTED ARTICLES
- "Österreich und die Flucht von NS-Tätern nach Übersee", in: Jahrbuch Mauthausen 2016: NS-Täterinnen und Täter in der Nachkriegszeit, pp. 35-50 [Austria and the escape of Nazi perpetrators to overseas].
- "’A Man with a Wide Horizon’: The Postwar Professional Journey of SS Officer Karl Nicolussi-Leck", In Nazi Self-Help and Recast Identities: Post-War Fates of Nazi Functional Elites, edited by David A. Messenger and Katrin Paehler, 225-248. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 2013.
- "The University in Exile and the Garden of Eden: Alvin Johnson and his rescue efforts for European Jews and Intellectuals", In Reassessing History from Two Continents: Festschrift Günter Bischof, edited by Martin Eichtinger et al., pp. 49–68. Innsbruck: University Press, 2013.
- "Rabbi Adolf Altmann: Salzburg, Meran, Trier, Auschwitz", In Jüdische Lebensgeschichten aus Tirol: Vom Mittelalter bis in die Gegenwart, edited by Thomas Albrich, pp. 235-260. Innsbruck-Vienna: Haymon Verlag, 2012.
- "Das Massaker der Fosse Ardeatine und die Täterverfolgung: Deutsch-italienische Störfälle von Kappler bis Priebke", In Italien – Österreich – Deutschland: Ein Dreiecksverhältnis in Europa, edited by Michael Gehler and Maddalena Guiotto, pp. 291-315. Vienna-Weimar-Cologne: Boehlau· Verlag, 2012, [The reprisal killings in the Fosse Ardeatine and the prosecution of perpetrators].
- "Argentinien als NS-Fluchtziel. Die Emigration von Kriegsverbrechern und Nationalsozialisten durch Italien an den Rio de la Plata. Mythos und Wirklichkeit", In Argentinien und das Dritte Reich: Mediale und reale Präsenz, Ideologietransfer, Folgewirkungen, edited by Holger Meding and Georg Ismar, pp. 231-254. Berlin: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin 2008, [Argentina as Nazi-hideout. The emigration of war criminals and National Socialists through Italy to the Rio de la Plata. Myth and reality].
- "The Cape of Last Hope. The Postwar Flight of Nazi War Criminals through Italy/South Tyrol to South America", In Transatlantic Relations: Austria and Latin America in the 19th and 20th Century (Transatlantica 1), edited by Klaus Eisterer and Günter Bischof, pp. 203-224. Innsbruck: Studienverlag 2006.