Witnessing: Sites of Destruction and the Representation of the Holocaust

The Bergen-Belsen Memorial in cooperation with Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University

PD Dr. Habbo Knoch/Prof. Dr. Henri Lustiger-Thaler in cooperation with Joane Rudof (Yale)

Concept

In October 2007, a new museum opened at the historical site of Bergen-Belsen. Within the new exhibition, sources of individual witnessing figure prominently, in particular the use of rich interview materials, witness accounts and other personal testimonies.
What particular kinds of ethical and theoretical problems are encountered in a discussion of memory and witnessing at sites of destruction? The conference will bring together scholars who address the problem of witnessing and the representation of Nazi crimes within memorial museums at historical sites of the genocide. What kind of rhetoric or ethic of interpretation is called upon when dealing with these sorts of memorial museums? How can we speak of the surrounding landscape(s) of destruction? What kind of auratic claims to “authenticity” influence or affect the ways in which the representation of the Holocaust at sites of destruction is theorized and developed?
The conference will raise questions pertaining to the use of testimonies and other memory genres that have come to the foreground of recent discussions and approaches regarding questions of history, representation and subjectivity.
What is the weight of history, and what is its relation to narrativity at a site of destruction? What is contained within an act of witnessing as an intersubjective event of the visitor/viewer at these specific sites? What are the connecting threads between these sites and discussions of Human Rights violations today? How can these difficult yet fertile associations be ethically navigated?

Program

Saturday, January 10 (Bergen-Belsen)

6.00 pm
Welcome (over Dinner Buffet)
Habbo Knoch, Foundation of Memorial Sites in Lower Saxony, Director

7.00 – 8.30 pm
Presentation of the New Museum at Bergen-Belsen

Sunday, January 11 (Bergen-Belsen)

9.00 – 10.45 am
Guided Tour: Bergen-Belsen as an Historical Site

10.45 – 11.15 am
Coffee Break

11.15 – 11.30 am
Introduction to the Conference
Habbo Knoch, Henri Lustiger-Thaler

11.30 – 1.00 pm
Opening Lecture
Chair: Geoffrey Hartman (Yale University)
Hans Mommsen (Munich)
Victims and Perpetrators in Holocaust Historiography

1.00 – 2.00 pm
Lunch

2.00 pm – 4.00 pm
I. Beyond Authenticity: Camp Sites and Memorial Cultures Chair: Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn (University of Hannover)

Rainer Schulze (Essex University)
Immediate Images. Narrating the British Discovery of Belsen

Teresa Swiebocka (Auschwitz State Museum)
The Politics of Place. Nazi Camp Sites in Poland

Heidemarie Uhl (Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna)
Symbolic Places. Camp Sites as Landscapes of Memory

4.00 – 4.30 pm
Coffee Break

4.30 – 6.30 pm
II. Remembering Destruction: Social Memory and Personal Recollections
Chair: David Bankier (Yad Vashem/Hebrew University) (tbc)

Henri Lustiger-Thaler
Holocaust Lists and the Memorial Museum

Insa Eschebach (Ravensbrück Memorial Museum)
Rituals and Iconographies at Concentration Camp Sites

Zoe Waxman (Royal Holloway, University of London)
Words of Pain. Interpreting Personal Memories of the Holocaust

8.00 pm
Conference Dinner

Monday, January 12 (Bergen-Belsen)

9.00 – 10.00 am
Key Note Lecture
Chair: David Marwell (Museum of Jewish Heritage, New York)

Geoffrey Hartman (Yale University)
Holocaust Testimony in a Genocidal Era: Authentic Memory and Commemoration

10.00 – 10.30 am
Coffee Break

10.30 – 12.00 am

III. Representations of Destruction: Imagining the Place of the Individual Chair: Henri Lustiger-Thaler

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (New York University)
Overdue Memories. The Jewish Museum at Warsaw

Esther Farbstein (Michlalah Jerusalem College)
Ultra Orthodox Collections of Testimonies: History and Characteristics

12.00 – 1.00 pm
Project Report
Chair: Paul Shapiro (USHMM, Washington)

Pere Patrick Desbois (National Service for Relations with Jews/Yahad in Unum, Paris)
Uncovering Hidden Traces. Mass Graves in Ukraine and Belarus

1.00 – 2.00 pm
Lunch

2.00 – 3.30 pm
IV. Extended Memory: Genocide Museums and Human Rights Education Chair: Rainer Schulze (Essex University, UK)

Paul Williams (Ralph Appelbaum Associates, USA)
Remembering Genocides. The Global Rush to Commemorate

Habbo Knoch
Beyond the Individual. Memory and Democracy in Contemporary Politics

3.30 – 4.00 pm
Coffee Break

4.00 – 5.00 pm
Mark Weitzman (Simon Wiesenthal Center, New York)
The Tolerance Project at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, New York

Anja Schade (Gedenkstätte Bergen-Belsen)
Teaching Democracy? Memorial Sites and Human Rights Education in Germany

6.00 – 7.00 pm
Dinner

7.30 – 9.30 pm
Public Panel Discussion (Celle)
Historical Sites, Individual Testimonies and the Future of Memorial Museums
Chair: Bernd Weisbrod (University of Göttingen)
Participants with Statements: Geoffrey Hartman, Thomas Lutz, Paul Shapiro

Tuesday, January 13 (Celle/Bergen-Belsen)

V. Perspectives: Memory and Witnessing in the 21st Century

9.00 – 10.00 am
Chair: Joanne Rudof (Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University)

Lawrence Langer (Simmons College, USA)
Deep Memory Revisited. Where Does it Lead Us?

10.00 – 10.15 am
Coffee Break

10.15 – 11.15 am
Chair: Habbo Knoch

Annette Wieviorka (Director of Research CNRS, Paris)
Cultures of Witnessing and Memory. Entering the 21st Century

11.15 – 12.15 am
Closing Discussion
Participation of all Conference Speakers and Moderators welcome

12.15 – 1.15 pm
Lunch (Celle)

2.00 pm
Tour of the former DP-Camp at Bergen-Hohne

4.15 pm
Gedenkstätte Bergen-Belsen; Transfer to Celle/Hannover

Organization

Stiftung niedersächsische Gedenkstätten/Gedenkstätte Bergen-Belsen PD Dr. Habbo Knoch, Celle/Göttingen
e-Mail: habbo.knoch@stiftung-ng.de
Prof. Dr. Henri Lustiger-Thaler, New York/Paris
e-Mail: lustigerthaler@aol.com
in cooperation with Joane Rudof (Fortunoff Archives, Yale University)

Administration
Stephanie Billib, Michael Pechel, Heike Rudolph, Beatrice Walendy (Stiftung niedersächsische Gedenkstätten)
Phone: +49-5141-93355-0
e-Mail: anmeldung-sngds@web.de

Seats are limited. Participation requires confirmation. Reservation requested until December 20, 2008 by e-Mail. Fee: € 25,- excl. Dinners, to be paid at the conference. Participants (except those invited) have to book hotels on their own. Travel costs cannot be covered. Transfers from Celle to Bergen-Belsen will be offered. Detailed information and final program will be sent out January 2009.