EHRI Public Conference: Holocaust Studies and its Social Setting

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2019

Holocaust Studies and its Social Setting. Challenges and Trends

Venue: Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Wednesday, 3 July 2019 | 9.15 – 18.30 hrs

Read the report of the conference.

Holocaust Studies is a dynamic multidisciplinary research field that is dedicated to the Holocaust itself but also includes aspects of the post-Holocaust world such as memory, human rights, Jewish life or international relations. At the same time, the research field has a manifest public dimension. To examine these diverse and intertwined dimensions, EHRI and its partner institution NIOD, Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, organise two conferences in July 2019.

Holocaust Studies today

The conference Holocaust Studies and its Social Setting. Challenges and Trends, on Wednesday 3 July, will focus on the importance of EHRI’s human network and the public dimension of Holocaust Studies. Renowned Holocaust researchers and policymakers, such as Wendy Lower, Dieter Pohl and Katharina von Schnurbein, will speak at the conference, discuss EHRI’s achievements and reflect on the interaction of Holocaust research with society at large. The programme includes keynotes, round table discussions, a video presentation and a music performance. Many former EHRI fellows and workshop participants, as well as all EHRI’s partners, will attend the conference and relate their first-hand experiences. This conference also marks the conclusion of the second phase of the EHRI project. For more information about speakers, please see the speakers overview.

The second EHRI conference Holocaust Studies in the Digital Age takes place a day before on Tuesday, 2 July 2019, in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. It is an expert meeting, dealing with academic topics and will cater to a professional audience. 

Participation

The conference is open to anyone who is interested in Holocaust Studies, its latest developments and impact on society. We welcome participation from individuals, researchers from several disciplines, students, journalists, as well as representatives from organisations such as museums, archives and memory institutes, and from local, national or international authorities. You are invited to join us in Amsterdam at our venue Pakhuis de Zwijger on 3 July 2019. Attendance is free, but registration is mandatory.

Programme 3 July

09.15 – 10.00 REGISTRATION

 

10:00 – 10:10 INTRODUCTION

Conference chair: EHRI Project Director Karel Berkhoff, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;

 

10.10 – 10.45 KEYNOTE I Do Our Societies Need Holocaust Studies? 

Dieter Pohl, Institut für Geschichte der Universität Klagenfurt, Austria

 

10.45 – 11.20 KEYNOTE II Holocaust Studies: Trends and Promises                    

Wendy Lower, Claremont McKenna College, United States

 

11.20 – 11.40  COFFEE BREAK

 

11.40 – 11.45 VIDEO PRESENTATION about EHRI’s Human Network 

 

11.45 – 12.35 PANEL DISCUSSION Accessing Historical Documents and creating Expert Networks

  • Denisa Nešťáková, Research associate at the Department of General History, Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia 
  • Anna Veronica Pobbe, PhD-candidate at the University of Trento, Italy
  • Florian Zabransky, PhD-candidate at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom
  • Daniela Ozacky-Stern,  Post-doctoral researcher in the Institute of Holocaust Research, Bar-Ilan University, Director of Moreshet Archive, Israel
  • Laurence Prempain, Associate researcher Laboratoire de Recherches Historiques Rhône-Alpes, France

Moderator: Anna Ullrich, Zentrum für Holocaust-Studien am Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich, Germany

 

12:35 – 14:00 LUNCH

 

14:00 – 14:50 ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION Societal Challenges and the Role of Holocaust Expertise

  • Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, Lecturer at the UNESCO Chair for Education about the Holocaust at the Institute of European Studies, Jagiellonian University, Krakow
  • Wichert ten Have, Advisor to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, former director of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, NIOD, Amsterdam

Moderator: Veerle Vanden Daelen, Kazerne Dossin: Memorial, Museum and Documentation Centre on Holocaust and Human Rights, Mechelen, Belgium

 

14:50 – 15:25 MUSIC PERFORMANCE by the Leo Smit Foundation

Young musicians Violetta Adamova and Lev Bogino will perform music for two violins by Dick Kattenburg (1919-1944) and Géza Frid (1904-1989). Both composers were Jewish and their music was forbidden during the Second World War. Read more.

15:25 – 15:50 COFFEE BREAK

 

15:50 – 16:50 ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION Challenges and Innovations in Holocaust Studies Today 

  • Susanne Heim, Freiburg University, Project Coordinator Dokumententedition zur Verfolgung und Ermordung der Europäischen Juden
  • David Silberklang, Senior Historian at the International Institute for Holocaust Research and Editor-in-Chief of Yad Vashem Studies
  • Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, Director of the Fondazione Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea, Milan,
  • Diana Dumitru, Associate professor at the Department of World History, Ion Creangǎ State Pedagogical University, Chisinau, Moldova

Moderators: Anne-Lise Bobeldijk (NIOD) and Karel Berkhoff

 

16:50 – 17:00 CONCLUDING REMARKS by Karel Berkhoff

 

17:00 – 18:30 RECEPTION

For more information about speakers, please see the speakers overview.​

For questions, contact info@ehri-project.eu.

Image: Anchopology & Zeezeilen