EHRI at IHRA Conference in Canada

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Monday, 7 October, 2013

EHRI is well represented at the conference and meetings of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in Toronto, Canada, that take place from 6-10 October. On Wednesday 9, Haim Gertner from Yad Vashem and Karel Berkhoff from NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, who both also work for EHRI, will give an update to the Plenary Meeting about two of the latest achievements of EHRI, the conference in Berlin, Public History of the Holocaust, and the EHRI Summer Schools.

In advance of the IHRA meetings, the Canadian Chairmanship and the University of Toronto are co-sponsoring  the international academic conference New Scholars, New Research on the Holocaust, featuring 24 speakers from North America, Europe, Israel, Australia and Argentina. Among them is Andrea Löw from the Institute of Contemporary History Munich, who is responsible for EHRI's Online Course and Summer School Programme. In Toronto, she will speak about "Jewish Communities and Councils in Europe during World War II". Also present is EHRI fellow Yuri Radchenko from Kharkiv National University, who reports about his research "The Ukrainische Hilfspolizei and the Holocaust in Military Administered Zone in Ukraine, 1941-1943".

Over 250 people from all over the world responded to the call for papers. “We have worked hard to bring together some of the most interesting and original new scholars in Holocaust studies,” said Professor Doris Bergen of the University of Toronto, and organizer of the meeting. “Our meeting will demonstrate the vitality of Holocaust research and introduce new ways of thinking about this crucial event.” Michael Marrus, Bergen’s predecessor, stressed the importance of Holocaust scholarship as an international undertaking. “We see the Holocaust as an event of global significance, and as such it is important that we bring together serious scholarship from as many different perspectives as possible,” he said.

IHRA logoCanada holds the chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (the former International Task Force on Holocaust Remembrance) for the year 2013. The biannual IHRA working meeting will bring together experts, academics and policy-makers from 31 member countries. On the agenda are among other things a working definition of Holocaust denial and distortion, IHRA's grant funding strategy, preservation of archival data and advancement of IHRA's Multi-Year Work Plan (MYWP). This plan will assess the state of access to Holocaust-relevant materials and will focus on the legal, physical, and material obstacles that confront scholars and researchers who utilize Holocaust-relevant documentation. On the Steering Committee on Archival Access are Karel Berkhoff and Haim Gertner, both also involved in EHRI, Haim Gertner as part of the Executive Team. The work of EHRI is very relevant to IHRA.

The purpose of IHRA is to bring political and social leaders together to learn from the Holocaust for the benefit of citizens of member countries and the international public.

Read more about IHRA.

Read the Conference  Programme New Scholars, New Research on the Holocaust.

Photo by Yuri Dojc, "Last Folio".