I'm interested in some aspect of Jewish collaboration and Nazi collaborators during World War II. I've read Eichmann in Jerusalem, Ordinary Men, and various other books on the Judenrat. All these books sparked my interest.
I have a professor who I'll ask to work with, but how should I figure out what an appropriate aspect of this huge topic would be for my thesis? What steps do I need to take? Thanks.
I might suggest finding out what primary sources you plan on using (assuming this is a requirement). Once you have that limitation, you will have a more direct thesis. The secondary works which you have mentioned can help with categorization, historiography, and methodology. Having read Ordinary Men, you might look at who the collaborators were and how they were influenced. From Eichmann in Jerusalem you might be led to focus on the banal nature of their collaboration. Ultimately, however, I suggest finding a primary sources on a particular set of collaborators and moving from there.
If you want to look at America and collaborators you can look at the trials of camp Kapos who immigrated to the US but were later tried. They were both prisoners and collaborators.
Suggested Readings
In Neighbors Jan Gross uses trial transcripts, which then led to other documents and oral narratives, to study the perpetration of a massacre in Poland.
Primo Levi, in The Drowned and the Saved, discusses the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz and their moral positioning. Certainly worth a look when discussing Jewish collaboration in the Holocaust.
I'm not a historian, but your question is such that it can also benefit from input from other academics.
One suggestion is to think not so much about "Topic" but about "Questions". When you approach a huge topic, what are some of the questions that come to mind? Then pick one that sounds interesting and relevant.
Suggested Reading
In this regard: I bet your university library has access to Kate Turabian's excellent book "A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations". While most people know it as the "Chicago Style Manual", the first part of the book actually goes into very practical and applicable detail of how to ask the right questions, formulate a thesis, and make good arguments. The version I read used The Alamo as an example: Huuuuge topic, but how to pick a particular question that's relevant and interesting?
1. Find some recent, good, books that are related to your topic. Are any of those books you read from like the past ten years? If not, look for a couple that are. Next, search their titles in JSTOR and see if they've been reviewed by academics in the field, and then scan the reviews briefly to make sure they don't all say "this is a terrible book with no redeeming value."
2. Read the introduction and conclusion and see what questions the author is engaging with. Do they mention other scholars who have done good work? Who have done bad work? Do they mention questions that the book hasn't fully answered? Try to pick a few questions or disagreements they mention that sounds interesting to you.
3. Look at primary sources the book mentions: Look at the footnotes in the text or endnotes at the back, and also the intro and conclusion. Look for any documents it mentions. See if you can find ones that seem like they might help you answer one of the questions you came up with in part 2. Google them. If you don't know German, see if they're available in English.
4. Go talk to that professor: Make an appointment, and say "I'm thinking about studying [x aspect of Jewish collaboration in the Holocaust from Part 2] using [y primary sources from part 3.] Do you think that could work?"