Never Again: Germans and Genocide after the Holocaust

Book Launch with Dr. Andrew Port

Speaker:
Dr. Andrew Port, Professor of History at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan

Moderator:
Dr. Eric Langenbacher, Senior Fellow and Director of the Society, Culture & Politics Program at AGI

Looking beyond solemn statements and well-meant monuments, Andrew I. Port’s new book, Never Again: Germans and Genocide after the Holocaust (Harvard University Press, 2023) shows us how the Holocaust shaped German responses to the genocides in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Rwanda—and thus became an argument in German foreign policy, humanitarian aid, immigration and asylum debates, and military interventions, both before and after the Cold War. At the same time, it explores how these foreign atrocities recast Germans’ understanding of their own horrific history. Making the lessons, limits, and liabilities of politics driven by memories of a troubled history harrowingly clear, “Never Again” will have deep resonance for any country confronting a dark past.

This webinar features a reading by Dr. Port from his new book Never Again: Germans and Genocide after the Holocaust and discussion over memory politics and the attitudes towards genocide in modern-day Germany. Dr. Port will be accompanied by Dr. Eric Langenbacher in the launch of this new book in partnership with the American-German Institute.

Dr. Andrew Port is the author of Conflict and Stability in the German Democratic Republic and the recipient of the DAAD Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in German and European Studies. He is Professor of History at Wayne State University in Detroit and former editor-in-chief of the flagship journal Central European History. A past recipient at Wayne State of the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, as well as a Career Development Chair, Professor Port recently held the Board of Governors Distinguished Faculty Fellowship (2018-2020). He has received support in the past from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, and the Krupp Foundation.

Port’s research focuses on modern Germany, communism and state socialism, memory and comparative genocide, labor history, and social protest. He has been frequently invited to lecture across the United States and Canada, as well as in Germany, the United Kingdom, Austria, and elsewhere in Europe.