Dirk Rupnow: “The Politics of Holocaust Remembrance”

On Feb. 10, 2022, Professor Dirk Rupnow of the Institute of Contemporary History and dean of the faculty of philosophy and history at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, spoke at the Wagner College Holocaust Center on “Ignorance, Abuse and Competition in the Politics of Holocaust Remembrance.”

After a period of globalization and institutionalization, Holocaust remembrance appears to be subject to profound changes. This talk attempts to outline the status and the present challenges in European, “Western” and global contexts. It raises questions about the meaning of Holocaust remembrance in the increasingly diverse European “migration societies” during a perceived refugee crisis in Europe, as well as evident racism and ever-growing Islamophobia; and, at the same time, the global “competition” between memory of the Holocaust and the crimes of European colonial powers, as well as their relative place in European memory.