Katharina Friedla

Katharina Friedla serves as a Research Fellow and the Taube Family Curator for European Collections at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Stanford University, specializing in twentieth-century European history with emphasis on Eastern Europe, Jewish experiences, and totalitarian regimes.

Her academic foundation includes:

• History, East European and Jewish Studies at the Free University of Berlin
• Advanced studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Ph.D. in History from the University of Basel, Switzerland, focusing on Eastern European and Jewish History

Dr. Friedla's scholarly work critically examines forced migration, state ideology, and identity formation under oppressive regimes. Her editorial leadership in Polish Jews in the Soviet Union (1939–1959) reveals untold narratives of deportation and survival, while her expertise in archival curation bridges historical trauma with contemporary memory studies. She actively contextualizes Cold War dynamics through transnational lenses, particularly regarding Soviet-era displacements.

At Hoover, she spearheads major acquisitions including the Sándor Kopácsi Papers documenting Hungary's 1956 revolution and the Gerd Heidemann Collection featuring Nazi-era materials. Her digitization initiatives have made 800+ audio recordings of post-WWII Nazi interrogations accessible, and she has curated oral histories on communism's collapse. Her work consistently connects archival evidence to broader themes of authoritarianism and resilience.