Transmission of Holocaust Memory and Immigrant Populations in Europe

Workshop with Prof. Dr. Esra Özyürek (Chair of Turkish Studies, London School of Economics, UK)

This workshop aims to discuss the core of the contemporary debate about European identity by looking at the important but overlooked interconnections between Holocaust memory and immigrant integration in Western Europe, with specific emphasis on Muslim background immigrants in Germany. Today, a fundamental aspect of European and more specifically German national identity is to come to terms with the Holocaust and learn the right lessons from it, including empathy and tolerance. Muslim background minorities who arrived Western Europe in larger numbers to rebuild the war torn continent due to belligerent actions of the Third Reich are today commonly accused of not relating to the Holocaust history, not being empathetic towards its Jewish victims, and importing anti-Zionism as a new form of antiSemitism. As a result, governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as Muslim-minority initiatives organize numerous Holocaust education and anti-Semitism prevention programs specifically designed for Turkish- Kurdish- Arab- and Iranian-background immigrants and refugees, so they can also learn the lessons from the Holocaust and share most important German political values. We will discuss who gets to own or inherit Holocaust memory at an age when last perpetrators and firsthand victims of the Holocaust are dying and one of every five German has ancestry who arrived Germany after the World War II. What relation can non-Germans in Germany and non-native Europeans in Europe, especially those of Muslim background, have to the German/European past and especially the Holocaust? What are the specific challenges Muslim and Middle Eastern background immigrants to embrace the core values of Western Europe?

If you would like to participate please sign up by writing to Julia Büchele (j.buechele@unibas.ch)

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