The Holocaust as a Global Archetype? The Position of the Jewish Genocide in Rwanda’s Memory Culture

The USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research and the USC Shoah Foundation present this public lecture by Charlotte Kiechel (Visiting Assistant Professor in History, Williams College), the Center's 2021-2022 USC Shoah Foundation Robert J. Katz Research Fellow in Genocide Studies, presented at the University of Southern California and on Zoom on October 6, 2022.

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In the wake of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda, government officials, memory workers, and human rights activists have all deployed a litany of Holocaust references — from discussions of “Never Again” to allusions to Primo Levi’s “grey zone.” Drawing upon research conducted with testimonies from the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, this talk illuminates the global uses of Holocaust memory by examining the use of Holocaust references in the testimonies of Rwandan genocide survivors and by Rwandan governmental forces.