From Nazi Granddaughter to Holocaust Scholar: Researching the Vatican’s Holocaust-Era Archives with Suzanne Brown-Fleming and Shana Penn

How does the granddaughter of a prominent Nazi grow up to become a Holocaust scholar? And what led her to study the Vatican Archives? Researchers have studied the Holocaust for decades, but it was not until 2019 that Pope Francis opened the Vatican archives, about 16 million pages covering the years of 1939 to 1958. Dr. Suzanne Brown-Fleming, director of International Academic Programs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, discusses what inspired her to study the Holocaust, why the Vatican archives are so important and what we can learn from them, as well as what it’s like to do this work knowing that her grandfather was a Nazi. In conversation with Shana Penn, executive director of Taube Philanthropies, a funder of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Vatican Archive Initiative. Sponsored by Moment Magazine.

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