Central European University Conference on Holocaust Memory Highlights Visual History Archive

Attendees of Central European University’s Future of Holocaust Memorialization: Confronting Racism, Antisemitism and Homophobia through Memory Work conference this week had two opportunities to learn about the Visual History Archive from a USC Shoah Foundation teaching fellow and staff.

The conference was organized by Central European University – a Visual History Archive full access site in Budapest – in conjunction with the Tom Lantos Institute and University of Victoria. In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust, the conference considered the potential of Holocaust memorialization and memory work to serve as a catalyst for addressing discrimination today. Presentations explored different innovative teaching practices in higher education and civic initiatives.

Karen Jungblut, USC Shoah Foundation director of research and documentation, gave the presentation “A Synonym for Remembering? Examining the Development of the Visual History Archive and Future Directions.”

CEU Professor Andrea Peto gave a presentation with Helga Dorner and Edit Kovacs titled “New Ways of Seeing: Digital Testimonies, Reflective Inquiry and Video Pedagogy in the International Graduate Seminar.” The presentation was about the course Peto developed as a 2013 USC Shoah Foundation Teaching Fellow, Gendered Memory of the Holocaust.

The graduate seminar course brought together two classes, one from CEU and another from Smith College in Massachusetts, to research gender and memory construction of the Holocaust in the Visual History Archive and create video projects in IWitness. Many class periods were conducted via video conference so the two groups of students could work together.

The ambassadors of Israel, Norway and Sweden delivered opening and concluding remarks at the conference. Other presentations covered modern Holocaust denial and racism, new approaches for teaching about the Holocaust and current Holocaust discourses.