The Future of Holocaust Memorialisation. Peto Andrea, Helga Thorson To cite this version: Peto Andrea, Helga Thorson. The Future of Holocaust Memorialisation.: Confronting Racism, Anti- Semitism, and Homophobia Through Memory Work. Tom Lantos Institute, 2015, 978-615-80159-0-5. hal-03197600 HAL Id: hal-03197600 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03197600 Submitted on 6 May 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. THE FUTURE OF HOLOCAUST MEMORIALIZATION First published 2015 by Tom Lantos Institute 1016 Budapest, Bérc utca 13-15. © 2015 Tom Lantos Institute All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, me- chanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN: 978-615-80159-0-5 Printed by Bonex Press KFT Copy edited by Helga Thorson and Andrea van Noord. THE FUTURE OF HOLOCAUST MEMORIALIZATION: Confronting Racism, Antisemitism, and Homophobia through Memory Work EDITED BY AndreA Pető And HelgA tHorson TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTIONS Anna-Mária Bíró Introduction 6 John Shattuck Introduction 7 Andrea Pető and Helga Thorson Introduction: The Future of Holocaust Memorialization 8 PART 1 Institutional Perspectives and Challenges 11 Paul Shapiro Facing the Facts of the Holocaust: The Challenges and the Cost of Failure 12 Karen Jungblut The Future of Holocaust Memorialization: Institutional Perspectives and Challenges 16 Holocaust Discourses Now 21 Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke Teaching the Holocaust as Part of Local History: The Case of Denmark 22 Klas-Göran Karlsson Holocaust History and Historical Learning 29 John C. Swanson Returning to History: Memory and Holocaust Education 35 PART 2 Benefits and Challenges of digital resources 41 Helga Dorner, Edit Jeges, and Andrea Pető New Ways of Seeing: Digital Testimonies, Reflective Inquiry, and Video Pedagogy in a Graduate Seminar 42 Elizabeth Anthony The Digital Transformation of the International Tracing Service Digital Collection 46 Working against Prejudice and Hate 53 Ildikó Barna Introducing a New Subject in a Challenging Environment among Students of Military Sciences, Public Administration, and Law Enforcement in Hungary: A Case Study 54 Heike Radvan Facing Current Anti-Semitism, Racism, and Neo-Nazism: Talking about the Holocaust in Local Initiatives in East Germany 60 Charlotte Schallié The Case of Feincost Adam©: Confronting Antisemitism through Creative Memory Work 65 Rethinking Pedagogical Practices Annamaria Orla-Bukowska Remembering Righteousness: Transnational Touchstones in the International Classroom 72 Helga Thorson and Andrea van Noord Stories from the Past, Creative Representations of the Future: Inter-Cultural Exchange, the Possibility of Inter-Generational Communication, and the Future of Holocaust Studies 80 Local Initiatives in Commemorating the Holocaust Barbara Kintaert Shedding Light on the Past: Digging for Information and 88 Grassroots Memorialization Borbála Klacsmann Memory Walk: History through Monuments 100 Gabor Kalman Filming the Past for the Present 105 About the Authors 108 INTRODUCTION ANNA-MÁRIA BÍRÓ Director, Tom Lantos Institute Budapest, Hungary n June 2014 the Central European The Tom Lantos Institute hopes University and the Tom Lantos Institute or- that this publication contributes to under- ganized an international conference on “The standing and accepting our responsibility in Future of Holocaust Memorialization: Con- these past tragic events as the first steps in a fronting Racism, Antisemitism, and Homo- process of reconciliation and social justice. phobia through Memory Work” in Budapest, Hungary. Prominent educators, researchers, and practitioners gathered to consider the potential of Holocaust memorialization and memory work in countering antisemitism and other forms of discrimination as well as the strengthening of democratic values and processes. Participants explored various teaching methodologies and methods in higher education and assessed a number of innovative civic initiatives. This book gathers the contributions of conference speakers to instigate further discussion on this important issue when antisemitism has been on the rise in Europe and beyond. For a Budapest-based human and minority rights institution focusing, among other things, on Jewish life and antisemi- tism, this initiative is of crucial importance at a time when the Hungarian state and society struggle to come to terms with their roles in the Hungarian Holocaust and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews and Roma. On the occasion of the seventi- eth anniversary of the Holocaust in Hungary it has become clear that there are divergent, if not antagonistic, memories and narratives which are often highly politicized. It is exactly these events that focus on existing practices of effective Holocaust education and memo- ry work that model and inspire possible ways forward in a society confronting its past. INTRODUCTION JOHN SHATTUCK President and Rector; Professor of Legal Studies and International Relations Central European University Budapest, Hungary his volume consists of papers from other and focused on how Holocaust educa- the conference on “The Future of Holocaust tion can be used to confront issues of racism, Memorialization: Confronting Racism, Anti- antisemitism, homophobia, and other forms semitism, and Homophobia through Memo- of exclusion. I am pleased that this volume ry Work”, hosted by Central European Uni- can be used as a starting point for future dis- versity (CEU) in June 2014. The logo of the cussions of Holocaust education. conference featured the photograph of Au- gust Landmesser, an ordinary worker in Nazi Germany, who alone refused to give the Nazi salute while standing in a large public crowd. Landmesser’s striking photographic image is a dramatic illustration of how individuals can resist oppression. 2014 marks the seventieth anniversary of the Holocaust in Hungary. CEU has organ- ized several commemorative events, includ- ing the conference on which this volume is based. An example of how CEU is a pioneer in the teaching of Holocaust studies in a glob- al context is its hosting of the Shoah Foun- dation’s Visual History Archive of Holocaust survivors. Another example is CEU’s training of Hungarian and Polish secondary school teachers and faculty from other universities in teaching about the Holocaust. The CEU Center for Teaching and Learning focuses on digital initiatives as a new way of teaching traumatic histories, and it has pioneered a course with Smith College in Massachusetts, US, on the topic of gendering the Holocaust. The aim of the Holocaust education conference was to show how critical peda- gogy can teach students how to follow Au- gust Landmesser’s example and honor his legacy of resistance. During the conference participants shared their teaching, research, and memorialization practices with one an- 8 | The Future of Holocaust Memorialization INTRODUCTON: THE FUTURE OF HOLOCAUST MEMORIALIZATION AndreA Pető and education, and to do so in an interdisci- Department of Gender Studies, plinary way. Central European University Andrea Pető agreed to host the first Budapest, Hungary working group meeting in the form of a con- ference at Central European University. The HelgA tHorson Department of Germanic and Slavic Studies, working group members asked Andrea Pető University of Victoria to help organize the conference for several Victoria, BC, Canada reasons. First, they knew that she is not daunt- ed by large tasks such as conference plan- ning and that she knows how to get things n June 10, 2014, a group of em- done, and get things done well. Secondly, inent international scholars, archivists and they wanted to meet in a centrally located museum directors, and professors com- city in Europe, and Central European Univer- mitted to educating about the Holocaust sity seemed to be just the place. Thirdly, and through innovative teaching projects, as well most importantly, they thought it would be as individuals who have undertaken bold significant to hold the conference in Hunga- and creative commemorative projects, met ry – not only as a way to commemorate the to discuss the future of Holocaust education. seventy-year anniversary of the Holocaust in The conference took place at Central Euro- Hungary, but also because Budapest is cur- pean University in Budapest, Hungary. rently in the midst of intense debates about The conference title, “The Future of how best to commemorate and memorialize Holocaust Memorialization: Confronting the Holocaust through monuments, muse- Racism, Antisemitism,1 and Homophobia ums, and educational endeavors. through Memory Work”, is the name of a Our respective institutions, Central working group and research collective that European University and the University of came into existence a year and a half before Victoria, organized the conference in col- the conference