Afke Berger, MA

Afke Berger is a PhD candidate at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

Aafke is working on a dissertation on the functioning of the Association of Dutch Municipalities and local government in the Netherlands between 1933 and 1946. In her research, she looks at the ways in which this organisation and the people associated with it did or did not maintain themselves, the dilemmas they faced and how they legitimised their actions and positions.

She studied History in Groningen (Bachelor's, cum laude) and Amsterdam (Research Master's), focusing primarily on modern history, identity formation, refugees, the persecution of Jews, the legacy of the past in the present, and human behavior in uncertain times. In 2019, she was awarded the Hartog Beem Prize for her Master's thesis 'Admitted/Rejected: A digital data analysis of Jewish asylum applications in the Netherlands, 1938-1939'.

Afke is also working on a publication about Ruth Marion Weile (1928-1943). She came to the Netherlands in 1938 with the 'Children's Transport' and left behind a photo album.

Afke previously worked as a lecturer in Contemporary History at the University of Groningen, as a research assistent in the Research Department at the University of Amsterdam and as organiser of Open Jewish Houses in Groningen.