Two violins
In between the two roundtables, musicians from the Dutch Leo Smit Foundation presented a short performance for two violins by Dick Kattenburg and Géza Frid. Both composers were of Jewish origin and their music was forbidden during the Holocaust period.
Challenges and innovations in Holocaust Studies today
The second roundtable discussion, entitled Challenges and innovations in Holocaust Studies today, featured Susanne Heim (Freiburg University), David Silberklang (Yad Vashem), Gadi Luzzatto Voghera (CDEC, Milan) and Diana Dumitru (Ion Creangǎ State Pedagogical University, Chisinau). Moderators were Karel Berkhoff (NIOD and EHRI) and Anne-Lise Bobeldijk (NIOD). It provided an opportunity to explore insights and perspectives stemming from current Holocaust research undertaken in Germany, Israel, Italy and Moldova. The main message emanating from the panel amplified what had been evident throughout the day: Interdisciplinary approaches greatly enrich Holocaust Studies. Methods and approaches taken from disciplines such as the digital humanities and political sciences are promising to lead to new research findings and to amplify the societal relevance of Holocaust Studies.
Informal exchanges
While the plenary programme of the conference highlighted the significant potential and relevance of trans-national Holocaust research for contemporary European societies, delegates were offered a rich side programme in which they could explore EHRI’s digital services such as the Online Portal, the Document Blog and the Editions Platform, and visit a marketplace where several EHRI partners and affiliates presented themselves and their research. Taken together with the concluding reception, the conference thus offered ample opportunity for informal exchanges and networking among delegates. The quality of the plenary presentations and the liveliness of subsequent informal discussions, demonstrate that the field of Holocaust Studies is in good health, and that EHRI is an important forum to advance its trans-national and inter-disciplinary agenda, now and in the future.
Watch the livestream of the conference on 3 July:
Images by Mark Nauwen for EHRI