To encourage academic research and publicize its findings, the Auschwitz Foundation and the Remembrance of Auschwitz organize two One-day conferences:
Une deuxième Journée d'étude se tiendra le vendredi 4 février 2011 de 10 à 16 heures, à nouveau dans les bâtiments de la Communauté française de Belgique.
States and criminal groups often use population displacement to isolate groups which they view with hostility or want to marginalize. Together with this denial of its shared rights, the group loses its public visibility, points of reference and social integration. It then becomes possible to subject the displaced population to such radical constraints as deterritorialization or forced labor, or violence such as famine, massacres or even genocide, which endanger the identity and the very survival of the population and its culture. Conflicts and their consequences also lead to population movements in the form of exodus, exile or immigration, which can drastically modify a territorial or demographic situation and have a decisive effect on the political equilibrium of the affected region. This was the case with the First World War, and for a long time after the end of the Second World War. When they have the means to do so, the populations faced by these events develop tactics or strategies to recover at least a precarious equilibrium and some cultural cohesion. A complete cartography of European and world history can be drawn up on the basis of these massacres, exiles and forced or voluntary displacements.
This one-day conference, which inaugurates a five-year cycle, sets out to characterize and try to describe the links between political violence and population displacement, deportation, flight, exile and migration.
Cette deuxième journée d’étude poursuit la réflexion entamée le 19 octobre 2010 sur la caractérisation et la qualification des liens entre violence politique, déplacements de population, déportations, exode, exil et migration à travers des cas spécifiques du génocide arménien à l’Algérie, de la guerre de 1914-1918 à Taïwan. On cherchera également à porter notre attention sur les questions posées par la transmission de ces passés et par les vecteurs de cette transmission.
Participants : ALTOUNIAN Janine (Écrivain, Traductrice) ; BECKER Annette (Université Paris Ouest – Nanterre ; Institut Universitaire de France) ; ENAUDEAU Corine (Philosophe) ; MARCHAND Sandrine (Université d’Artois) ; MESNARD Philippe (Fondation Auschwitz ; Université Blaise-Pascal – Clermont-Ferrand 2) ; RIOUX Catherine (Université Blaise-Pascal – Clermont-Ferrand 2) ; TERNON Yves (Université Paris IV).
La rencontre aura lieu à la Communauté française de Belgique – Salle Lucia de Brouckère – Boulevard Léopold II, 44 – 1080 Bruxelles. Accueil dès 9 h 30. Entrée gratuite, mais réservation souhaitée.
Présentation et programme détaillé de la Journée d'étude du 4 février 2011 (PDF)
Videos of the contributions
Cette rencontre internationale organisée par le directeur de la Fondation Auschwitz, Philippe Mesnard et Luba Jurgenson (Université Paris IV/Circe-CRECOB) rassemblera de nombreux spécialistes internationaux.
Dès l’apparition des médias à grande diffusion, les institutions politiques, des partis politiques au gouvernement, développèrent des discours qui leur permettaient de promouvoir leur image et, ce faisant, de tenter d’emporter la conviction du public auquel ils s’adressaient. Pour cela, ces discours utilisaient ou créaient des stéréotypes pour mieux catalyser l’attention et, plus particulièrement, l’émotion des destinataires. L’image de l’opposant ou de l’ennemi, le premier devenant très vite le second, était largement utilisée. Ainsi, on a assisté à une instrumentalisation généralisée des images à travers les discours et les représentations à des fins politiques. Des spécialistes de ce que l’on pourrait rapprocher aujourd’hui du marketing publicitaire ont mis au point de nombreuses stratégies qui visaient à emporter l’adhésion des opinions et non à faire comprendre les réalités politiques ou sociales. C’est ainsi que la propagande a fonctionné et, dans les contextes de guerre, utilisant les témoignages visuels d’atrocités, elle s’est accentuée jusqu’à devenir l’équivalent d’une arme. Cette arme, les régimes totalitaires s’en sont servis pour produire une vision idéologique du monde et en rejeter ceux qu’ils dénonçaient comme leurs ennemis, soit raciaux, soit sociaux, soit politiques.
Il s’agit dans cet axe d’identifier les figures récurrentes dont s’alimentent les rhétoriques propagandistes. Quel type de victime ? Quelles valeurs ? Comment le héros est-il représenté ? Quelles figures sont-elles convoquées pour présenter l’ennemi et le dénoncer radicalement ? Peut-on caractériser les rhétoriques propagandistes ? Mais aussi les artistes se sont-ils compromis dans des activités de propagande et comment ? À partir de là, on sera en mesure de se demander en quoi une interrogation sur les propagandes contribue-t-elle à la construction du savoir sur les régimes totalitaires. C’est également toute la condition de vérité des assertions produites par les propagandistes qui en sera éclairée.
Un second questionnement consistera à se demander si les discours de propagande ont disparu des démocraties et s’il peut exister des propagandes universellement justes.
La rencontre aura lieu à la Communauté française de Belgique – Salle Lucia de Brouckère – Boulevard Léopold II, 44 – 1080 Bruxelles. Entrée gratuite, mais réservation souhaitée.
Tout renseignement complémentaire peut être obtenu auprès de Bruno Della Pietra :
Tél. : +32 (0)2 512 79 98 – Fax : +32 (0)2 512 58 84 – Contact par Courriel
The journal is available on line at
openedition.org
This dossier will deal with trials that have provided a legal answer to a demand for justice. Several cases will be addressed ranging from Istanbul and the Nuremberg Doctors' trial to the German policemen of the Brussels Jewish section and the gacaca trials in Rwanda.
Table of contents (Dutch version)
Table of contents (French version)
In France and Belgium, research into the relationship between children's literature and the Holocaust is rare, in contrast to the phenomenal attention in America (everyone knows Art Spiegelman's Maus) and in other English-speaking countries. Yet children's books depicting the Holocaust in words and pictures have been steadily gaining ground in post-war France and Belgium. While literary criticism and research still seem to be in their infancy, this dossier will show that critical analysis of this corpus is highly relevant for the future.
Table of contents (Dutch version)
Table of contents (French version)
The executioner has always fascinated and frightened. The perpetrators of mass crimes are those who carry out, facilitate or order the annihilation of a specific group. Issue 100 of Testimony: Between History and Memory, published in September 2008, examined the Nazi executioners. This dossier offers readers a historical and criminological approach to other genocides of the 20th century.
Table of contents (Dutch version)
Table of contents (French version)
This issue looks at the concept of disobedience in wartime. While the concept of civil disobedience may seem familiar in these times of endemic protest, there was a time when obedience was the rule. In a military context, disobedience was frequently followed by deadly consequences. This dossier focuses on three cases from the First World War and one from the Algerian War (1954-1962).
Table of contents (Dutch version)
Table of contents (French version)
During the Second World War, the Nazi regime didn't just try to destroy the Jewish "race", which it considered dangerous. Before implementing the Final Solution, the Nazis massacred those who didn't fit in with their eugenic racial ideology and whom they considered inferior. In this dossier, we focus on the mentally and physically handicapped, systematic victims of Nazi pseudo-medical madness throughout the world conflict.
Table of contents (Dutch version)
Table of contents (French version)
1918-1938: The politicisation of music in Europe
This dossier looks at the instrumentalisation of music by the political world between the wars. The cases are numerous and shed light on the way in which political propaganda was propagated in European musical culture.
Table of contents (Dutch version)
Table of contents (French version)
AKTION REINHARDT and AKTION ERNTEFEST
The Aktion Reinhardt saw approximately 1.8 million Polish Jews perish in the gas chambers of Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka and Majdanek between March 1942 and November 1943. The Jews who ‘escaped’ the gas chambers were shot in Majdanek, Trawniki and Poniatowa on 3 and 4 November 1943 during Aktion Erntefest. The dossier we are proposing takes stock of current research on the Aktion Reinhardt. This historical event has experienced a resurgence of interest among historians of the Shoah over the last fifteen years, thanks, among other things, to archaeological advances at the various sites concerned. We have come a long way since Yithzak Arad's pioneering work in 1987: Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: the Operation Reinhard Death Camps. The dossier highlights different perspectives to discuss current research related to the issue. It addresses the erasure of traces, the sociological perspectives of the executioners, the excavation of extermination sites and the most recent historiography.
Table of contents and abstracts (Dutch version)
Table of contents and abstracts (French version)
Historiography of the Second World War in the Far East
For many people, 8 May 1945 and the surrender of Nazi Germany is the final chapter of the Second World War. However, it is often forgotten that the months between May and September 1945 were decisive for the future of the world, as fierce fighting continued in the Pacific between the United States and the Japanese Empire until the latter’s unconditional surrender on 2 September 1945, the actual date of the end of the Second World War.
Table of contents and abstracts (Dutch version)
Table of contents and abstracts (French version)
Reception of the Shoah and mentalities in Jewish and Christian circles
The reception of the Shoah has become, for all of humanity, a place of questioning and awareness. This dossier will aim to establish and evaluate the modalities and challenges of the transmission of the Shoah and to measure the resulting changes in identities and mentalities. What were the Catholic views on Judaism before and during the Shoah? What Jewish liturgies and interreligious rites exist for the commemoration of the Shoah in Israel and the United States? The evolution of mentalities in the Jewish world in relation to the Shoah will also be exposed through the analysis of the so-called Bitburg controversy, triggered by the visit of the American President, Ronald Reagan, to the German military cemetery of Bitburg (FRG) in May 1985. The Auschwitz Carmel affair (1985-1993) finally reveals the involvement of the Belgian and French Churches in the resolution of the conflict and is undoubtedly a key stage in the Church's 'teaching of esteem' with regard to the Jews. The historical answers provided in this dossier to the question of the Shoah may be decisive for the survival of Judaism and the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.
Table of contents and abstracts (Dutch version)
Table of contents and abstracts (French version)
Recognition of victims
In recent decades, the idea has gained ground that victims of mass crimes deserve recognition. This has become an essential category of our memorial culture. This dossier aims to take stock of this issue by looking at the broad spectrum of measures to ensure recognition, from simple remembrance to targeted judicial interventions, and by recalling the growing importance of the victim in international criminal justice. It returns to the problematic aspects of recognition when it leads to competition among victims.
Table of contents and abstracts (Dutch version)
Table of contents and abstracts (French version)
Kwibuka [Remember]. 25 years on, how to remember the Tutsi genocide
April 1994. Images of mutilated bodies are projected on European screens, originating from Rwanda. 25 years later, we remember.
Table of contents and abstracts (Dutch version)
Table of contents and abstracts (French version)
Perpetuation of violence after 1918
One hundred years ago, the First World War ended in November 1918. After four years of bloodshed, peace returns to Europe. At least, that was the impression of the victors at the time, and today it is also the impression of the commemorators who celebrate its centenary. The historical reality is more complex. At least until 1923, violence continued in the form of revolutions and counter-revolutions, wars and civil wars. The spirits also remain in the grip of violence on both the left and the right. The dossier proposes to define the contours of this Europe so strongly marked by the Great War, by evoking the culture of violence established by it and which, finally, degenerated into the total explosion of the Second World War.
Questions about the future of remembrance work
On 20 and 21 January 2017, the seminar ‘Questions on the future of remembrance work’ was held in Esch-sur-Alzette, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The five articles in this dossier taken from the conference proceedings attempt to answer the following questions: How can we build a critical memory of the Shoah, free of myths and national fragmentation? How do we anticipate the absence of direct witnesses? In the future, who transmits what, and how?
Persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis
Historical knowledge of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals and their deportation has made significant progress in recent years due to the increase in research on the subject. In this dossier, recognised researchers as well as young doctoral and PhD students take the floor. The insights they provide concern both the question of the singular destiny of homosexual men and women during the Second World War and the way in which the memory of the homosexual victims of Nazism has evolved since the end of that war.
Music in the camps
Music was an integral part of the concentration camp world, Nazi and otherwise. What kind of music was composed and performed, and what exactly was its role in the camps? A factor of survival and resistance for the prisoners, a way for them to express their hope and their humanity - or, on the contrary, an instrument of oppression exploited by the executioners? What is the function of music in the work of memory following the experience of extreme violence and suffering? This dossier proposes to explore these issues.
Translating Memory
Presentation of the dossier: What is the relationship between testimony, defined as a more or less ritualized firstperson account of political violence, and translation? Correspondingly, how does the translator position herself towards the witness? Can the translator be, or become, a witness? How, when and why are testimonies translated? Which linguistic and discursive strategies do translators resort to when faced with ethically challenging texts? Which role do they play exactly in the transmission of the historical knowledge, cultural values or social critique conveyed by the testimony? Does translation weaken or rather reinforce the relevance and impact of the original statement? How important is translation in literary, political and institutional settings? Do these specific settings determine translation practice in significant ways? To which extent can subsequent processes of transcription, editing, translation and archiving affect the source text? And how accurate are the boundaries we draw to distinguish witnessing from translating, documentary from literary testimony, the original from its translation? These are the main questions we intend to explore in our dossier.
Revisionism and negationism
Strictly speaking, Holocaust denial is the ‘doctrine denying the reality of the Nazi genocide of the Jews, including the existence of the gas chambers’; by extension, the term refers to the denial of other genocides and crimes against humanity. The literature on Holocaust denial is extensive. There are studies on the subject in many countries as well as biographies of deniers. The argumentative and rhetorical strategies of the deniers have been widely deciphered. Websites systematically dismantle their fallacies. While there is no shortage of reliable information on the phenomenon, it is essential to return to it again and again, for several reasons.
Extreme violence on stage
Extreme violence shows itself. It bursts through the screens. It surfs from one style and medium to another: news reports, documentaries, fiction, arts of all kinds. Yet theatre distinguishes itself from this mêlée all while constantly returning to the subject. Differently. Linked from its origins to the representation of cruelty and having “miraculously” escaped the often sterile polemics on the interdiction (or not)... of representing the Holocaust, it is still with the same youthfulness that theatre deals with extreme violence today, relentlessly pursuing the articulation of ethics and aesthetics.
What future is there for the memory of the Armenian genocide?
The 1915 genocide of Turkish Armenians still stirs up numerous debates, controversies, declarations of principle, statements and counter-statements, and even negation. However, as we speak, ties are being established more and more openly, bridges are built and bonds strengthened between the Armenian and Turkish communities. Is reconciliation possible?
70 years ago, Auschwitz. Looking back on Primo Levi
27 January 1945. Seventy years ago the first soldiers of the Red Army marched into Auschwitz. One might argue that the camp was “liberated” then, but the truth is that neither Auschwitz, nor any of the other Nazi camps, was ever a priority to the Allied Powers. Primo Levi was one of the few survivors who knew how to hide and escape the enforced evacuation of the camps. With this dossier, we want to cast light on the complex figure that Levi was: a Jew, a deportee, a chemists, a witness, and a writer. It sets out to study his oeuvre and his interpretation of the notions of “resistance” and “engagement”, in order to understand how he eventually became a “professional survivor”, as he once described himself.
In the name of the victims. Dictatorship and State terror in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay
During the 1970s and 1980s, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay were in the grip of military dictatorships. The process of democratic transition that followed the long period of state terror involved the construction of particular narratives and memories, leading to a reconfiguration of the past. Despite local differences, this process is very much centered at the figure of the victim – a figure the articles in this dossier, collected by Claudia Feld, Luciana Messina and Nadia Tahir, set out to explore.
Amis ? Ennemis ? Relations entre mémoires / Vriend of vijand? Hoe herinneringen zich tot elkaar verhouden [Friends? Enemies? Relationships between memories]
Much has been said and written about group memories, limiting their mutual relationships and history to conflicts, “wars”, competitions, or strategies for eclipsing or silencing. These terms have now become the platitudes of a kind of more general doxa about collective and cultural remembrance. This dossier proposes a critical reading of those terms and of that doxa by questioning the emergence, constitution, and inter-relating of different exemplary memories of the major violent episodes of the 20th century. It will address the relationships that those memories can maintain with other memories with which they share, if not the same event, at least similar characteristics and concerns.
Voyages mémoriels / Herdenkingsreizen [Memory trips]
Should we fear what has been grouped under the term “memorial tourism”? Or should we take this as a reality of our time? Can any visitor, group or individual, nowadays be absorbed in the category of “tourist”? Or is this category a remote intellectual reduction of a personal experience that everyone is aiming during his visit? The problem appears in a somewhat different light when we think of tours for young people supervised by adults, usually teachers. This dossier gives the floor to historians and teachers with experience in the field.
L’Espagne en construction mémorielle / Spanje en de opbouw van de gedachtenis [Memory construction in Spain]
This dossier’s objective is to provide a benchmark for understanding the plural identities and relationships between memories and representation forms in contemporary Spain. Indeed, it is necessary today to take a fresh look not only on the stratified memories of the civil war, exile and the Franco repression, but also on the reception of other memories such as that of the Holocaust, and to propose new readings. We propose to highlight the conflicting or fruitful tensions between official actions, initiatives of associations and of artistic events.
Sites mémoriels / Gedenkplaatsen [Memorial Sites]
Memorial sites constitute the concrete trace of European remembrance and history of the twentieth century. But what do they look like today? Exhibition and conservation criteria have changed during the last ten to fifteen years, like advances in historical research have changed the way we read and reconstruct past events. This is not only due to the fact that we have moved from a past history written by witnesses to a history written by professional historians. A new consciousness has emerged concerning transmission methods (memory education), and archeology has strengthened historical research. We tore off the veil of ideology that often influenced and prescribed the way we imagined permanent exhibitions, conservation and visits. Can we say we have entered a new era in memory transmission? It remains, in many ways, an open bet on the present and the future.
Les tabous de l'histoire allemande / De taboes van de Duitse geschiedenis The Taboos of German History]
The most painful or ambiguous periods in twentieth-century German history are characterized by numerous taboos, expressed in literature, photography and film as so many “returns of the repressed”. These studies focus in part on problems of antisemitism, and thus on the relationship of German-speaking societies to the Shoah. They also examine the way in which those societies confronted the violence they suffered, such as bombing, fleeing from the Red Army and the expulsions, and mass rapes.
Les enfants de la Guerre d'Espagne. Expériences et représentations culturelles / De kinderen van de Spaanse Burgeroorlog. Ervaringen en culturele voorstellingen [Children of the Spanish Civil War: Experiences and Cultural Representations]
The dossier in this issue deals with the experiences and cultural representations of childhood during the Spanish Civil War. It aims to help towards a better understanding of that conflict, which tore apart a population living on the same territory, by confronting the experiences of Spanish children who lived through it – as expressed in various forms during or after the war – with representations of those same children, particularly those coming from adults.
Art & propagande : jeux inter-dits / Gevaarlijk spel tussen kunst en propaganda [Dangerous Game between Art and Propaganda]
Since the media came into existence, political institutions from political parties to governments have used them to promote their image, in order to win the support of the public they addressed. Authoritarian powers use the media as a means of consolidating their domination. But how can artists take part in propaganda, whose purposes are the opposite of those generally attributed to art? Does that mean setting aside their vocation, or do they themselves distort that vocation?
Déplacements, déportations, exils / Volksverhuizingen, deportaties, verbanningen [Displacements, Deportations, Exile]
States and criminal groups exploit population displacements to isolate or get rid of certain populations. In addition to being denied their normal rights, these populations lose visibility and are deprived of their reference points and social frameworks. In this way it is possible to make them the victims of constraints (deterritorialization, forced labor…) or violence (famine, massacres genocide…). These developments have spread on an unprecedented scale since the First World War and continue to grow worldwide. But there is also a dimension of remembrance to this reality: memories of these displacements are now being expressed in literature, and in exhibitions and museums. This dossier examines the contemporary double aspect of history and memory.
La bande dessinée dans l'orbe des guerres et des génocides du XXe siècle / Twintigste-eeuwse oorlogen en genociden in het stripverhaal [Twentieth Century Wars and Genocides as Portrayed in Graphic Novels and Comic Strips]
Le traitement de l'histoire dans les documentaires filmiques / De behandeling van de geschiedenis in de documentaire film [How Documentaries Handle History]
L'Antifascisme revisité. Histoire – Idéologie – Mémoire / Nogmaals antifascisme. Geschiedenis, ideologie, gedachtenis [Anti-fascism Revisited: History, Ideology, Remembrance]
Crimes et génocides nazis à l'écran / Nazimisdaden en genociden op het scherm [Nazi Crimes and Genocides on the Screen]
Criminels politiques en représentation. Arts, cinéma, théâtre, littérature, médias / De representatie van politieke misdadigers. Kunst, film, theater, literatuur, media [The Portrayal of Political Criminals in Films and Plays, in Literature and in the Media]
Quelle pédagogie, pour quelle(s) mémoire(s) ? / Welke pedagogie, voor welke herinnering(en)? [How to Educate, How to Remember?]
Questions de « bourreaux » / De kwestie van de “beul” [Questions about the “Executioners”]
Auschwitz Foundation – Remembrance of Auschwitz
Rue aux Laines 17 box 50 – B-1000 Brussels
+32 (0)2 512 79 98
info@auschwitz.be
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