Salzburg Global Seminar Session on Holocaust Education and Genocide Prevention

Salzburg Global is holding its third symposium in its Holocaust Education and Genocide Prevention series, in cooperation with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Austrian Future Fund, the Austrian National Fund, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the Pratt Foundation.

The session, which has been entitled "Sharing Experience Across Borders," is taking place from June 21 to 26.

Building upon the discussion created at the 2012 symposium, the multi-year initiative hopes to look into the challenges and successes in the teaching and remembrance of the Holocaust and other genocides outside of North America and Europe with a particular focus on ways to build awareness about the root causes of the Holocaust and other genocides in countries that are not members of the IHRA.

This year’s symposium will consider how to bring the lessons of the Holocaust to future generations and expand the global network of partners, enabling them to implement activities that spread awareness about the Holocaust, Holocaust education, and genocide prevention, reaching an ever-growing number of young people in ways appropriate to different cultures and countries.

By bringing together educators, civil society leaders, museum directors, policy makers and public officials this summer, the symposium will engage in issues such as whether the lessons from the Holocaust and other genocides serve as a framework to identify pending mass atrocities and how this topic is taught and commemorated in other areas across the globe. Scholars will also attempt to unmask if there are effective strategies to counteract Holocaust and genocide denial and distortion and how we can learn from these events to enable preventive measures in the future.

Previous sessions have focused on "The Holocaust: A distinct history, a universal message" and "Learning from the Past: Global Perspectives on Holocaust Education."

In 2012, the "Global Perspectives on Holocaust Education: Trends, Patterns, and Practices" symposium predominantly focused on how the Holocaust and genocide is taught within the contexts and social understandings of local histories and traditions outside of the 31 member states of the IHRA.

The Holocaust Education programs have been running since 2010 and throughout this time participants have not only discussed and shared their own experiences but have also hosted in-depth debates regarding much of the uncovered work that is currently being done to connect teaching about the Holocaust in other parts of the world, including countries such as South Africa, Rwanda, Turkey and China/Hong Kong.

In June, the session will be chaired by Klaus Mueller, European Representative from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, alongside Edward Mortimer, former Vice President and Chief Program Officer of Salzburg Global Seminar.  IHRA Chair Sir Andrew Burns was the featured speaker on 22 June.