Beyond Simple Myths: History and Memory of the Shoah in Eastern Europe
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Winter Program Keynote Lecture
Admission: $15 |
Historical memory has become a deeply contentious topic in the post-communist societies of Eastern Europe, particularly so with regard to World War II, communism, and nationalism. Memories are not static, and our historical knowledge is embedded in a dynamic contemporary context. Which myths are influential? Which groups are active in these disputes? Christoph Dieckmann, a historical expert on the German occupation in Lithuania, will share his experiences and impressions of both history and memory in Eastern Europe from the perspective of an engaged German historian.
Read The Algemeiner’s interview with Christoph Dieckmann.
About the Speaker
Dr. Christoph Dieckmann is a historian and taught Modern European History from 2005 until 2014 at Keele University in the United Kingdom. His study Deutsche Besatzungspolitik in Litauen 1941-1944 (German Occupation Policy in Lithuania 1941-1944) was published in 2011 and was awarded the Yad Vashem International Book Prize for Holocaust Research in 2012. Since 2000, he has also been a member of the Presidential International Commission for the Evaluation of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania.
Until 2017, he conducted a research project called Yiddish Historiography on the Russian Civil War at the Fritz-Bauer-Institut in Frankfurt am Main. Presently, Dieckmann works at the University of Bern on a project focused on sound-history called Sounds of Anti-Jewish Persecution.