The Memory of Nazism and the Migration Society: Fears, Experiences and Attributions. Intergenerational Historical Consciousness

The original title: NS-Erinnerung und Migrationsgesellschaft: Befüchtungen, Erfahrungen und Zuschreibungen

(Einsichten und Perspektiven, Bayerische Zeitschrift für Politik und Geschichte, 1(8), pp. 52-65)

The articles deals with a specific part of the pilot-study (see Kühner et al. 2008) on teachers’ and students’ experiences and representations, i.e. with the dimension of a migration-society. The author suggests to use the idea of “a society of migration as a context,” instead of the “migrants as target group.” This approach allows the author to work out several ways in which the students and teachers position themselves towards the national-socialist past of German society, and how the attribution of guilt, shame or  esponsibility to several groups of “Others” serves as an interactive pattern in a migration society. Migration can therefore offer on one hand a tool to project their own fears or feelings, but on the other hand, it can also offer an opportunity for dialog and a higher degree of reflexivity on the past and the present.

The above abstract is taken from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Education Research Project. Please also consult the full list of abstracts in 15 languages and the accompanying publication Research in Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust: A Dialogue Beyond Borders. Ed: IHRA, Monique Eckmann, Doyle Stevick, Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs, 2017, Metropol Verlag at www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/publications.