(Hi)Stories of Holocaust Memory

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (P.Eisenmann)

Conference and PhD Course

May 18-19, 2015 in Copenhagen

Remembrance of the Holocaust is no longer the concern of single individuals. Today, the event of the Holocaust has become an important factor in formal policy-making and politics – especially in the EU, which defines itself as a bastion against genocide and war. The Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust that took place in the year 2000 and that founded the “Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education” was a catalyst for this development.  Therefore, contemporary artistic representations and historiographical accounts of the Holocaust are not merely occupied with the event itself. They also put into play the classical canon of Holocaust literature, the global circulation of iconic Holocaust memories, the important, but not unambiguous role that the Holocaust plays in present identity politics (especially in the EU and in Israel), and the ongoing conflicts and debates prompted by accounts and theories of the Holocaust.

This conference and PhD course addresses questions of how literature, art and music as well as historiographical accounts reflect experiences of the Holocaust. How do artistic representations of the Holocaust react to the inevitable lack of authentic connection to the event itself? What is the significance of trauma discourse in present research in Holocaust narratives? And what are the historical roots for the politics of national and transnational identity?

Read the program                                                     About the speakers

Organized by:

Inge Birgitte Siegumfeldt, Jessica Ortner, Joseph Ballan and Kirsten Heinsohn

Sponsered by CEMES:
Centre for Modern European Studies
cemes.ku.dk