Grace Shaffer is the Research Assistant for the Zucker/Goldberg Center for Holocaust Studies. She holds bachelor’s degrees in History and Classics from the College of Charleston. She is currently applying to PhD programs in the field of Holocaust history. Grace’s research interests include the experience of LGBT+ individuals during the Holocaust, the role of women and femininity within fascist movements, and postal censorship under the Nazi regime.

Here at the Center, Grace assists Dr. Gibbs’ ongoing research on resistance at Treblinka and aids in the editing and processing oral history interviews conducted with the descendants of Holocaust survivors. Her current projects include preparing collections of family correspondence for future classroom materials. Grace also helps coordinate the Center’s Instagram presence.

In addition to her work at the Center, Grace works on a variety of public history projects. Among these is the Pink Triangle Legacies Project, directed by Dr. Jake Newsome. As the Fall 2023 intern, she researched and wrote biographies on both Frieda Belinfante and Josef Kohout and filmed video companions for these biographies. In partnership with the Synagogues of the South project, she has written about Holocaust memorial torahs around South Carolina. She discusses this work on Episode 2 of the H.E.A.R. podcast. Her most recent publication, “Returned, Redacted, and Refused: Postal Censorship in Nazi Germany,” can be found in the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina Magazine’s Spring 2022 edition.

Publications:

“Inscribed in Stone: Holocaust Torah Scrolls in South Carolina.” Episode 2, H.E.A.R. Their Stories: Holocaust History and Memory.

“Biography of Frieda Bellinfante” Pink Triangle Legacies Project. November 2023. 

“Biography of Josef Kohout” Pink Triangle Legacies Project. December 2023. 

“MST# 808: Temple Beth Yam, Hilton Head Island, S.C.” Synagogues of the South Project. 

“MST# 848: Temple Sinai, Sumter, S.C.” Synagogues of the South Project. 

“MST# 923: Congregation B’Nai Israel, Anderson, S.C.” Synagogues of the South Project. 

“MST# 1170: Congregation B’Nai Israel, Spartanburg, S.C.” Synagogues of the South Project.

“Returned, Redacted, and Refused: Postal Censorship in Nazi Germany.” Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina, Spring 2023.