Episode 25: Defeat or Liberation: The Changing Interpretations of May 8
May 8 marked the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. While the displays of remembrance differed from the past given presence of the coronavirus, it …
Auschwitz is a Warning: Comments on the Seventy-Fifth Anniversary of the Arrival of the Red Army at Auschwitz-Birkenau
I want to discuss three points regarding Auschwitz and Holocaust Memory Today. First, despite a massive scholarship on the subject, knowledge in the public and in the world of policy …
Auschwitz: History and Icon
Auschwitz has become an icon of other-worldly evil, rightly signifying a crime like no other. That monstrous camp of gas chambers and crematoria, however, is also a distinctly human creation …
The Federal Republic’s Political and Societal Responses to Auschwitz
To stand here today and address you as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany is far from easy. I am filled with a deep shame at the barbaric crimes …
Keeping History Alive: 75 Years after the Liberation of Auschwitz
One of the negative icons of the twentieth century was the Holocaust—the Nazi German persecution and murder of approximately 6 million Jewish people in Europe during World War II from …
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The 100th Anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles
Among the many important dates that we largely overlooked is the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles, the treaty that ended the state of war between Germany and the …
Hidden in Plain Sight: The Life and Message of Raymonde Fiol
A Call from the Past It was a Saturday in 2007. Raymonde Fiol was sitting on a sofa in her home in Las Vegas. The phone rang. She answered. The …
The Afghanistan War: Collective Memory Formation in the United States and Germany
Introduction More than eighteen years have passed since October 2001, when U.S. forces were deployed to Afghanistan after the Taliban regime refused to extradite Osama bin Laden and shut down …
The Afghanistan War: Collective Memory Formation in the United States and Germany
More than eighteen years have passed since October 2001, when U.S. forces were deployed to Afghanistan after the Taliban regime refused to extradite Osama bin Laden and shut down Al-Qaeda …
The Unbroken Past: From Germany to Shanghai to San Francisco
Kurt and Jeannette Nothenberg lived comfortably in the middle class in Germany raising their only child, Rudy. Following Kristallnacht, Kurt was arrested and sent to Buchenwald, but was later released …
The September 1952 Reparations Agreement between West Germany and Israel: The Beginning of a Remarkable Friendship
The thorny issue of reparations for war-time crimes against humanity, material losses, despoliation, and human rights abuses has dominated the political sphere in the last several months. On the international …
Transitional Justice as a Foreign Policy Issue across the Atlantic: Trends and Counter-trends
Transitional justice either describes a socio-political process in transitional societies after conflict or authoritarian rule or a set of measures that should facilitate this process. The process in general and …
