Facing the Aftermath: Recovery and Reconstitution after the Holocaust

by / On / In Jewish Issues

Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27, 2021, will focus on the theme “Facing the Aftermath: Recovery and Reconstitution after the Holocaust”. The United Nations in New York will run virtual remembrance and educational events during January and February that can be viewed around the world. ICJW members are invited to join. (Note that the program times given are for New York)

Click on the links below to register for the following events

The theme of the program will focus on the measures taken in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust to begin the process of recovery and reconstitution of individuals, community, and systems of justice. Integral to the process of reconstitution was the accurate recording of the historical account of what happened before and during the Holocaust. Challenging the denial and distortion of the historical events was interwoven in the processes of recovery and reconstitution. The theme examines the contribution of the responses to the victims of the Holocaust, and the survivors, to addressing the needs of the contemporary world, and to the historical record of the Holocaust.

Against a global context of rising antisemitism and increasing levels of disinformation and hate speech, Holocaust education and remembrance is even more urgent, as is the development of an historical literacy to counter repeated attempts to deny and distort the history of the Holocaust.

Please register and join the following events:

Women and Genocide

Panel Discussion, Thursday, 21 January 2021, 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. EST

Experts will examine the experience of women and the place of gender in the Holocaust, the genocide in Srebrenica, and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. This is Episode 4 of the live discussion series Beyond the long shadow: engaging with difficult histories.

United Nations Holocaust Memorial Ceremony

Wednesday, 27 January 2021, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

The Holocaust Memorial Ceremony is organized jointly by the United Nations Department of Global Communications and UNESCO, in partnership with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The event will include remarks by the United Nations Secretary-General and the Director-General of UNESCO, as well as statements by high-level guests, a Holocaust survivor testimony and the memorial prayers.

Holocaust Denial and Distortion

Online panel discussion, Wednesday, 27 January, 2021, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

The online commemoration will be followed by a panel discussion on Holocaust denial and distortion, with contributions of diverse experts in the field. The panel discussion is organized together with UNESCO, and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Nazi Rise to Power and the Weimar Constitution

Panel Discussion, Thursday, 28 January 2021, 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

The panel will consider the democracy that existed before the Nazis came to power, and the extent to which the legal framework in place contributed to the rise of the Nazis, and the collapse of the Weimar Republic. The discussion is organized in partnership with the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists (IJL).

Childhood after Atrocity Crimes: Hope for Peace, Dignity and Equality

Civil Society Briefing, Thursday, 4 February 2021, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

The briefing will examine the approaches taken to support children who survived the Holocaust and will consider how these approaches contributed to models adopted for contemporary practice for working with young people who have survived atrocity crimes.

The Windermere Children

Film screening and discussion, Thursday, 11 February, 2021, 11:00 a.m.

“The Windermere Children” is a biographical drama about the recovery and rehabilitation of 300 young orphaned Jewish children who survived the Holocaust and were sent to the United Kingdom after the end of the Second World War. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with a historian and a Holocaust survivor.