Team effort guides publicaton of late Liberal Arts dean Susan Welch's last book

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — During her distinguished 28-year tenure as dean of Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts, the late Susan Welch always managed to carve out time in her busy schedule for scholarly research.

A professor of political science, Welch spent the final decade of her life researching and writing a book devoted to the Holocaust. However, not long after turning in the manuscript, she died on March 28, 2022.

Four and a half years later, the finished book, “The Hunted: The Holocaust through the Experiences of Twenty European Jews” (Berghahn Books), has finally seen the light of day, thanks to the efforts of a group led by Welch’s brother, Robert Welch, and Lee Ann Banaszak, professor of political science and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Penn State.

In the book, Susan Welch presented an up-close view of the Holocaust through the firsthand testimony of 20 European Jews as they navigate their survival over the course of World War II.

Combining detail from her subjects’ diaries and memoirs with in-depth historical analysis, she showed the choices they and their families made within the evolving administrative and legal framework of Nazi persecution and mass murder. She also created over a dozen maps to show her protagonists’ movements, from the escape routes they attempted to the ghettos and concentration camps they endured.

Robert Welch said the book makes for a unique hybrid of scholarly and narrative history.

“Susan called it ‘creative history,’” he said. “I’m not the academic in the group, but my sense is it would make a fantastic book for an advanced high school class or college course because it blends all these personal stories with the context of what was going on during the war and the evolution of the Holocaust. It’s unusual to get both in the same place.”

In Banaszak’s view, the book is unlike anything her mentor and friend published during her long academic career.

“Susan is a great storyteller, and if anyone has an interest in the Holocaust, it’s a great first book on the subject to pick up,” Banaszak said. “It was really important to me and Rob and the others in the group for it to see the light of day and commemorate all the work she did, but also because it’s a very good book. It would have been a shame for it to have just been filed away as a manuscript.”

For a while, that appeared to be its fate. After Welch passed away, the academic press she had assumed would publish the book decided not to proceed with the project.

Undeterred, Robert Welch sought out a new publisher, with the assistance of Banaszak and several other people: his daughter, Abby Welch; Annie Booth, daughter of Susan’s late husband, Alan Booth; Alan’s sister, Carol Jennings; and Susan Rigdon and former Penn State senior vice president for research and dean of the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School Eva Pell, both longtime friends of Susan.

It took about two years of searching, but thanks to a recommendation from Tobias Brinkmann, Malvin E. and Lea P. Bank Professor of Jewish Studies and History at Penn State, the group eventually landed with Berghahn Books.

Of course, there was still plenty of work to do to get the book ready for publication, including putting it through a rigorous editing process, reassembling the bibliography, and ensuring all of the quotes and photos were approved for use. That was challenging, Robert Welch said, since the group didn’t have access to earlier versions of the manuscript, and because the books Susan Welch had used for the project had been given away.

“Editing by committee is always a bit of a challenge,” he said with a laugh. “But it was a very talented and committed group, and we were all committed to seeing Susan’s last work become publicly available.”

“When you’re working on someone else’s manuscript, you don’t want to change much,” Banaszak added. “The great thing about this group of people who came together is that everyone felt that it was most important that Susan’s words and vision come through at the end of the day. Rob was wonderful to work with. This was his first time fielding a book and he did a great job of keeping everything on track. It was truly a group effort, and in the process I met a lot of good people I probably wouldn’t have had the chance to meet otherwise.”

For Robert Welch, the project ultimately proved a tremendous way to honor his sister’s legacy.

“I think it’s the book Susan wanted to have published, and everyone who was involved is thrilled it’s now in press,” he said. “This was something she was passionate about. It’s a powerful read, and there’s a lot to be learned from a historical and emotional level. I’m so grateful to all those who helped along the way to get this done.”