The European and transnational dimension of the Holocaust was an important element of both the survivors' memories and the perpetrators' experiences. Although extensive investigation of the Holocaust was conducted by Jewish historians such as Filip Friedman, Szymon Datner, Leon Poliakov, and Joseph Wulf in the early post-Holocaust period and although numerous post-war trials against the perpetrators took place in Europe and beyond, for a long time the persecution and murder of the European Jews did not play a significant role in the understanding of the national histories of the countries where the actual events took place. This applies equally to West Germany as well as to those countries that had been occupied by Nazi Germany such as Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine and which subsequently found themselves on the other side of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. The approach taken to their own history only began to change in the 1990s – after the screening of the mini-series “Holocaust” in most European countries and the beginning of public debates about the Shoah in the countries concerned or in their communities overseas. The confrontation with the reality of the events and the “discovery” of the Holocaust for the national histories of the above mentioned countries triggered a number of debates on the nature of individual and societal participation in the Holocaust. During these debates certain exculpatory stereotypes were questioned by historians, while at the same time some national misperceptions were reinforced. In the case of Germany, new historical narratives emerged that dealt with the behaviour and role of concrete perpetrators, groups of perpetrators as well as ordinary members of the German perpetrator society (such as the Wehrmacht and employees of the Reichsbahn) during the Holocaust. As it became clear that the Holocaust “was in reality a series of ‘Holocausts’” (Dan Stone), a European phenomenon that the Nazi regime could not have carried out on such a scale if it had relied on the participation of Germans only, questions of indirect or direct involvement of parts of the civilian populations of German-occupied Europe and their responsibility have emerged.
Programm
5 December 2016
17:15: Opening
17:30: Introduction: Katrin Stoll (Warsaw) and Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe (Berlin)
18:00: Key-Note: Omer Bartov (Brown University): Denationalizing and Transnationalizing Holocaust Perpetrators: The View from Below
19:30: Dinner
6 December 2016
9:00-10:30: Challenging the Germano-centric approach to the Holocaust. Towards a multi-faceted perspective on the Holocaust
Chair and commentary: Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe (Berlin)
David Silberklang (Jerusalem): In the Eyes of the Beholder: The Complexion of the Shoah in the Lublin District
Christoph Dieckmann (Frankfurt): Old Questions, Old Methods, New Sources: New Results on Lithuania under German Occupation 1941-1944
10:30-11:00: Coffee break
11:30-14:00: Chair and commentary: Katrin Stoll (Warsaw)
Nicolas Berg (Leipzig): German Historians and the Conceptualizations of the Holocaust, 1945 to 1990
Moshe Zimmermann (Jerusalem): The Holocaust in Post-Unification German Historiography
14:00-15:30: Lunch
15:30-17:30: New Approaches to the Holocaust in Poland
Chair and commentary: Antony Polonsky (Brandeis University)
Franziska Bruder (Berlin): Escapes from Deportation Trains: Critical Reflections on new Aspects of Jewish resistance
Joshua Zimmerman (New York): The AK, the Delegate's Bureau, and the Jews: What do the Sources Reveal?
Elżbieta Janicka (Warsaw): Bystanders or Participating observers? The German Project and the Local Contexts in Occupied Poland
17:30-18:00: Coffee break
18:00-20:00: Ukraine: Investigating and Representing the Holocaust in Ukraine
Chair and commentary: Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe (Berlin)
Kai Struve (Halle): Anti-Jewish violence in Western Ukraine in summer 1941 – German and Ukrainian perpetrators
Anatoly Podolsky (Kiev): Exploring, Teaching and Debating the Holocaust in Ukraine since the 1990s
Olga Baranova (Vienna): Memory of the Holocaust in Ukraine and Belorussia
7 December 2016
9:00-11:00: Representing and Debating the Holocaust in Poland
Chair and commentary: Magdalena Saryusz-Wolska (Warsaw)
Joanna Michlic (London): Memory of the Holocaust at the Crossroads: Poland 2016
Hannah Wilson (Nottingham Trent University): The Re-conceptualization of Sobibór Memorial Site
Annika Wienert (Warsaw): Holocaust-related Art from Poland in National and Transnational Contexts
11:00-11:30: Coffee Break
11:30-14:00: Lithuania: Investigating the Holocaust beyond the Lithuanian nationalist and Germano-centric narratives
Chair and commentary: Saulius Sužiedėlis (Millersville University)
Stanislovas Stasiulis (Vilnius): The Holocaust in Lithuanian Historiography: Myths, problems and future perspectives
Milda Jakulytė-Vasil (Amsterdam/Vilnius): Atlas of the Lithuania Holocaust
14:00-15:00: Lunch
15:00-16:00: Lithuania: Investigating the Holocaust beyond the Lithuanian nationalist and Germano-centric narratives
Ruta Vanagaite (Vilnius): The Motivation [of the shooters] to Kill; The Motivation [of Lithuanian governments] to Conceal the Crimes
Efraim Zuroff (Jerusalem): Holocaust Distortion in Post-Communist Eastern Europe: The Example of Lithuania
16:00: Dan Michman (Jerusalem): Commentary on the panels and final discussion
Chair: Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe (Berlin) and Katrin Stoll (Warsaw)
Kontakt
Katrin Stoll und Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe
Deutsches Historisches Institut Warschau und Freie Universität Berlin