Camp des Milles Foundation and in the UNESCO Chair for Education for Citizenship, Human Sciences and Convergence of Memories, shared with Aix Marseille University and directed by Prof. Alain Chouraqui, president of the Camp des Milles Foundation. She holds a PhD in International Law focused on the Responsibility to Prevent mass atrocity crimes. Currently acting as a French delegate to IHRA, Casiez is also a Fellow of the Institute for International Humanitarian Studies and Legal expert before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).
What are the actual crises that you are dealing with in your institutions and sites?
Dr. Andreas Kahrs shared his reflections on the nationalistic turn in Europe, the repercussions of the war in Ukraine, and the events of October 7th in Israel, stating that “only in these times of crisis, we can really see this is the result of maybe a failed approach.” “We're living in a time of great instability,” pointed out Olivia Marks-Woldman, adding Holocaust distortion, Holocaust denial, antisemitism, loss of confidence in authority, and the growth in “alternative truths” to the list. “We can see at the very moment that democracy societies are failing and that the risk that antisemitism will turn into the pogroms is much bigger,” expressed his concerns Dr. Matthias Heyl, mentioning also the pressure put onto memorial sites to solve this issue. Dr. Lena Casiez spoke of the loss of references, rejection of the elites, and manipulation of media, stressing that “one of the main challenges is to work with every single person who can, in a way, accelerate the processes or stop it.”
How can you define the purpose and the educational objectives of memorial sites of atrocities? Have they changed or been reinterpreted to adapt them in these unstable times?
Dr. Kahrs encouraged redefining the approach to target groups, reaching out to the participants “that really want to learn something about it,” and building on their motivation through using local history and critical reflection about the continuity of particular mechanisms. He spoke about the experience of his foundation in working with adult groups at different memorial sites and emphasized that adults should be more included in the education, stating that “it's not that only the young people need to know; it's everybody needs to know.“ “We can only make a difference to the people we're actually engaging with and interacting with,” noted Marks-Woldman, pointing to the limitations of such activity and the need to define the aims and outcomes more precisely. “We've gone really to basics to say everybody needs to know what the Holocaust was, how many Jewish people were murdered, what antisemitism is, that genocides have happened since the Holocaust,” she added.
Dr. Heyl spoke of different individuals and groups coming to visit the Ravensbrück Memorial Site, often with their personal experience of exclusion, persecution, or war. “If we listen to our visitors, they put a lot of questions to us about today because they are today living here and they are today coming to the memorial sites,” he explained, emphasizing the importance of linking the history to the present time and making it relevant for the visitors. Dr. Caisez emphasized the significance of teaching about the common mechanisms that lead to such atrocities: “ommon indicators in different countries, different periods of time that can be useful for today.” She also noted that “it's urgent to put people again together in order to be able to just live together,” referring to the projects aimed at integrating different social groups.