Locked-up: Prison and War Crimes

On 23 November 2017 Co-Heads of the Austrian Delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, Hannah Lessing and Michael Baier, and Chair of the IHRA Committee on the Genocide of the Roma, Martina Maschke, introduced the IHRA to participants at the 16th seminar of the teacher training institution "erinnern.at" in Krems/Lower Austria. The focus of the seminar was criminal law enforcement in Nazi Germany, war crimes and the prevention of human rights violation against detainees.

Prisons and prisoners are uncomfortable topics which are often ignored by society. The history of prisons and prisoners under National Socialism has come to be the focus of academic research only in the last 15 years. The 16th teacher training seminar hosted by erinner.at sought to bring this history into the centre-point and explore its contemporary relevance.

The seminar is the largest teacher training seminar in Austria on the topic of the Holocaust and National Socialism. It takes place once a year in a different location. The Director of Erinner.at, Dr Werner Dreier, is a member of the Austrian Delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Image: Hannah Lessing addresses participants. Photo Courtesy of erinnern.at.