Conferences

Background: 2017 is an important anniversary year as regards the Holocaust. It marks 75 years since the Wannsee conference, Operation Reinhard, and the beginning in 1942 of the systematic mass murder of Jews and others in the death camps established in Nazi-occupied Poland. Auschwitz has become the most widely recognized symbol of the Holocaust: in the popular imagination, images of the railway tracks leading into Birkenau or of ‘Arbeit macht frei’ function as shorthand for the Nazi genocide as a whole. But perhaps less well known, and certainly less symbolized, is the total destruction of Jewish life in thousands of towns and villages that took place in occupied Poland in 1942. At the core of the Holocaust was a horrific, relatively short but intense wave of mass murder in that year: in mid-March 1942, some 75 or 80 per cent of all Holocaust victims were still alive; by mid-February 1943, some 75 or 80 per cent of them were dead. 2017 will also mark 75 years since the beginning of mass gassing operations at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and 70 years since the opening of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.

Aims: The conference will explore the current state of scholarship on the history and memory of Auschwitz, bringing together scholars working on the history of the camp complex itself, as well as those engaged in broader studies about its memorialization and representation, and the ways in which it has come to function as an icon of the Nazi genocide.

Possible topics for papers might include:

• Current scholarship on Auschwitz
• The history of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum
• Auschwitz as a symbol of the Holocaust and other Nazi genocides
• Memory of Auschwitz and its memorialization
• The role of Auschwitz in Holocaust education
• The image of Auschwitz in literature, art, film and music

As the aim of the EAHS is to provide a forum for cutting-edge Holocaust scholarship and education in Europe, we also welcome papers on any other aspect of Holocaust Studies, particularly from European scholars, educators, and museum professionals.

Those who are interested in presenting a paper (20 minutes) at the conference should send a proposal with title, an abstract of 250–300 words, and a short CV/bio of 100 words.

http://www.israelstudies.eu/2nd-international-conference-european-association-holocaust-studies/