2–9 November The Future of Memory

Educator-In-Residence
Programming
Young Professionals’ Symposium | Sunday, 6 November
The seventh annual symposium features engaging workshops
that invite participants in their 20s and 30s to explore the future
of Holocaust memory from different perspectives. See p. 19 for
more information.
Student Symposium | Tuesday, 8 November
Dr. Gray will address learning about the Holocaust in contemporary
settings as we face a pivotal point in Holocaust education—a future
without survivors. Followed by interactive workshops and a closing
keynote. See p. 23 for more information.
Lunch ‘N Learn | Thursday, 10 November
Exploring the Future of Holocaust Education in a Contemporary Setting.
Dr. Gray will share some of his research in this area and illuminate
possible opportunities and challenges for the future. See p. 25 for more
information.
that the popularity of the theme as a narrative in literature and
film means that authors and producers might drive popular understanding
of the Holocaust into an ethereal realm devoid of context
or historical meaning. Alongside this is the danger that the
Holocaust becomes simplified, trivialised and essentially reduced
to a series of neatly compacted moral lessons which promote a
specific educational or national agenda.
Dealing effectively with these challenges, as well as those of
engaging a post-survivor generation, means imparting meaning
into the Holocaust which transcends generational difference.
This involves students engaging with individual stories and the
themes that make up our shared human experiences. Grounded
within a specific historical context they must hear tales of love
and hatred, narratives of fellowship and separation, and accounts
of life and death. Rather than see Europe’s Jews as a homogenous
group awaiting inevitable annihilation, Holocaust pedagogy must
expound the complexities and variety of Jewish experiences, the
agency and choices that were made by victims, bystanders, collaborators
and perpetrators, as well as the conceptual difficulties
with such terms. Practitioners must discuss the decision-making
processes that led to a policy of systematic murder, the catalysing
effect of war and how choices must be understood within a unique
matrix of political, economic and environmental relationships.
Historians do not have a monopoly on the Holocaust or the future
of its memory. Theologians, psychologists, writers and musicians
amongst others must all add their own perspectives and interpretations
and the field is substantially richer for their contributions.
Yet these other approaches must not detach the Holocaust from
its context or remove it from its historical specificity.
A study of the Holocaust that recognises its complexities and
sophistications and which refuses to ignore them, though they
be difficult to understand, is the only appropriate foundation for
the future of Holocaust memory. As a post-survivor generation
takes up the challenge of continuing that memory, it inherits a
legacy from the survivor community which is the depth and detail
of their historical testimonies. These will inevitably play a key
role in combining the historical with the human and the process
with the personal. Though not present in body, their stories will
no doubt live on and provide an absorbing and unique set of
insights into what remains one of the most macabre, devastating,
and yet compelling chapters of human history. The form that
Holocaust memory takes in the future is impossible to foretell
and likely to continue to manifest itself in different ways depending
on time and place. Yet to be true to itself and to the individuals
who lived through it or perished during it, the memory of the
Holocaust must remain rooted and grounded in a historical understanding
and the past. This is the duty of educators and scholars
everywhere.
Neuberger HEW 2016 Educator-in-Residence
Dr. Michael Gray is Head of Government and
Politics and teacher of History at Harrow School
in London.
Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 13