Events
Events
- 3rd Balzan Bystanding Lecture (15. April 2024, Amsterdam)
April 15, 2024, 8pm (c.t.), Amsterdam
The question how to study, teach and remember historical mass crimes, above all the Holocaust and Slavery, has become emblematic in recent years. The 3rd Balzan Bystanding Lecture took up the challenge and provided grounds for a relational perspective based on new conceptual thinking from the field of Transitional Justice and fresh empirical work on how Dutch teachers address these issues in their every-day educational work.
Prof. Dr. Nicole Immler (Utrecht) opened with a paper focusing on what (Holocaust) historians might learn from a Transitional Justice perspective, in particular from the recognition and repair instruments (of which education is one aspect) that deal with the history and aftermath of the Holocaust, colonial regimes, and slavery. Dr. Joandi Hartendorp (Utrecht) then presented the findings of her dissertation on Dutch history education and its relation to cultural memory. Highlighting that the teaching of the Holocaust and colonialism lacks a critical discussion of perpetration she pleaded for abandoning the ‘black or white’, ‘evil or good’ dichotomy. Rather, a spectral approach would allow pupils to better comprehend the choices contemporaries made. Prof. Dr. Martijn Eickhoff (Groningen/Amsterdam) offered a commentary, followed by a panel discussion and an open discussion with the audience at SPUI 25, Amsterdam. Both were moderated by Prof. Dr. Christina Morina (Bielefeld) and Martijn Eickhoff.
- Thomas-Mann-House Lecture (17. November 2023, Los Angeles)
Thomas Mann House Lecture by Prof. Dr. Christina Morina (Bielefeld University). 17 November 2023, Los Angeles: “Bystanding and the Holocaust in Europe. Experiences, Ramifications, Representations, 1933 to the Present”
Christina Morina visited the Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades/USA to give a lecture on the history and historiography of bystanding during the Holocaust. Morina also reflected on the problem of bystanding in present-day conflicts, especially in light of Hamas’ terror attack against Israel onOctober 7th, 2023, and their aftermath. Afterwards, she engaged in conversation with Saul Friedländer and Norbert Frei. Introduction and moderation by Prof. David Kim.
- 2nd Balzan Bystanding Lecture (11. September 2023, Krakau)
2nd Balzan Bystanding Lecture by Prof. Dr. Barbara Engelking (Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw). 11 September 2023, Kraków: “A minut cu nacht”. The Analysis of the Experience of Jews Who Survived Mass Executions
In the 2nd Balzan Bystanding Lecture, Prof. Dr. Barbara Engelking gave insights into her latest research project on suffering and witnessing the Holocaust, which she worked on together with Agnieszka Haska and Roma Sendyka. Engelking talked particularly carefully and comprehensively about the experiences of Jewish survivors of mass executions.
- 1st Balzan Bystanding Lecture (14. Oktober 2022, Jena)
1st Balzan Bystanding Lecture as a Symposion in honor of Saul Friedländer. 14 October 2022, Jena: “Bystanding. Mehrheitsgesellschaften im Holocaust und danach”
The symposium was the opening event of the Balzan research project "Bystanding and the Holocaust. Experiences, Ramifications, Representations, 1933 to the present". The fact that the Holocaust was a social process that could not have been realized by the National Socialists alone without the active participation of large sections of the non-Jewish majority societies in Germany and the occupied countries is generally undisputed today. However, questions about the attitudes, actions and shared responsibility of the "ordinary", supposedly uninvolved majority populations remain highly controversial across Europe. At the start of the research project, which systematically analyzes Jewish and non-Jewish diaries from this period, the symposium dealt with the current state of research and public debate on the role of majority societies in the Holocaust and its aftermath in a European perspective.
Videomitschnitte der Veranstaltung sind über die u.s. Links verfügbar
1. Grußworte von Norbert Frei und Walter Rosenthal (sciebo video player)
