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The Ernst Fraenkel Prize

We are now accepting submissions for The Ernst Fraenkel Prize 2025. Please read below for more information regarding submission requirements

The Wiener Library Ernst Fraenkel Prize is a prestigious annual competition for book-length academic manuscripts on the Holocaust, its context and implications, and twentieth-century and post-Holocaust genocides.

Ernst Fraenkel at The Wiener Library, c. 1998.
Ernst Fraenkel at The Wiener Library, c. 1998.

As the Prize reached its 25th anniversary in 2014, we wanted to re-evaluate its remit to ensure that it continues to reflect the Library’s fields of interest, which have evolved over the years. Following the death of Ernst Fraenkel OBE in late 2014, the Prize was suspended for a year in 2016 and we took this opportunity to work with our trustees and with the Fraenkel family to revise the rules of the competition and the subject areas it covers.

Please note there are no longer two categories; the Ernst Fraenkel Prize is a single prize of £5,000, open to anyone who has not published more than two books (monographs). Please refer to the list of eligible subject areas and restrictions before sending your submission.

The following subject areas are eligible:

  • The History of Antisemitism as it pertains to the Nazi era
  • The History of Nazism and the Holocaust
  • Refugees and Exiles in the Nazi era
  • The Holocaust
  • Jewish History in the twentieth century as it pertains to the Holocaust
  • World War Two as it pertains to the Holocaust
  • Studies of post-Holocaust issues, for example, memory, commemoration, justice, Holocaust literature and art, philosophical and theological responses, etc.

Restrictions

  • Entry is restricted to an author’s first or second book (monograph)
  • The Prize is open to submissions for books or manuscripts accepted by a publisher but not yet published at the time of submission
  • The work must be written in English, or translated into English
  • Book manuscripts submitted in previous years may not be resubmitted in any following year
  • The panel reserves the right not to consider any work that falls outside the specified subject areas or fails to meet entry requirements.

Please send submissions to Olivia Oakley, Office Coordinator at [email protected], in a Word or PDF format along with a copy of your CV. The deadline for submissions is Sunday 26 October 2025.

The opening date for 2026 submissions will be Monday 27 October 2025.

Heritage Fund The Association of Jewish Refugees Federal Foreign Office

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