Holocaust Education Week
Announcing the 38th Annual Neuberger Holocaust Education Week: November 1-8, 2018
Photo: San Juan Holocaust Memorial (discoveringpuertorico).
HEW 2018 attempts to shed light on the pieces of Holocaust history and memory not often examined – new areas of research, recently-uncovered facts, shadows in testimony or less common narratives. The Neuberger encourages venues to consider some of these topics when choosing their program for HEW 2018 – together we can cast light on the lesser-known aspects of the Holocaust.
ILLUMINATING THE SHADOWS
Untold Stories of the Holocaust
With millions of pages of historical documents, photographs and film recorded by perpetrators, victims and rescuers, along with thousands of hours of recorded testimony from survivors as well as perpetrators, the Holocaust is the most documented case of genocide in the world.
The postwar trials, the opening of the Red Cross archives through the International Tracing Service, and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe which enabled scholars to access Soviet-era holdings, all contributed to new insights into the complexity and context of how the Holocaust unfolded. Yet even with access to these extensive collections, much remains unknown, awaiting discovery.
Few, if any, could have predicted that Raoul Hilberg’s 1200-page opus The Destruction of the European Jews would inspire a new academic field. Published in 1961, it illuminated a new generation of scholarship and inspired the discipline known as Holocaust Studies. Now a recognized discipline for academic study, remembrance of the Holocaust has permeated the cultural, cinematic and literary spheres and educating about the Holocaust has been integrated into the school system.
Yet, why do we choose to promote certain stories above others? Why are some experiences overlooked or excluded from the canon? Why do we know so much about the Diary of Anne Frank, but few recognize the name of Yitzhak Rudashevski? Why have certain types of experiences become synonymous with the Holocaust – the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, gas chambers, the Warsaw Ghetto – but others are much less familiar? These are the questions HEW 2018 seeks to respond to while shedding light on the lesser known aspects of the Holocaust.
This year’s program sheds light on untold stories, new research, and marginalized histories of the Holocaust. HEW 2018 creates a platform for them to be heard and understood, expanding the familiar picture and leading us to a more robust and complex understanding of the multidimensional nature of the Holocaust.
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