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MARIAL CENTER COLLOQUIUM ( Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Memory Research at Essen and Research Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Witten/Herdecke) Grandpa Wasn’t a Nazi: Nazism and the Holocaust in German Family Remembrance Wednesday, March 30, 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Holocaust education, teaching through memorials, and school lessons about Nazism and the Shoah have become very popular and successful in Germany. Survey data show that young Germans are generally well informed about the historical events and can associate correctly with key words such as “ Auschwitz” and “SS.” Thus education on the history of the Third Reich might be considered a successfully completed project—but only if one doesn’t ask what use the young recipients of these educational offerings actually make of the product. Knowledge and the assimilation of knowledge on a personal basis are two very different things. The research project “Transmitting Historical Awareness” dealt with family communication about the Nazi period in the Federal Republic of Germany. For this study, forty Western and Eastern German families were interviewed within the context of one-family discussions and separate interviews with at least one member each of the eyewitness, children, and grandchildren generations in the family. The talk will illustrate how history is formed and transmitted through conversations among the generations, how anti-Jewish stereotypes are similarly passed down, and how Germans interpret the roles of their parents or grandparents in the Third Reich. Recent books: “Das soziale Gedächtnis. Geschichte, Erinnerung, Tradierung”. (“Social Memory. Memory, History, Tradition”. Hamburg: Hamburger Edition 2001; “’Opa war kein Nazi’. Nationalsozialismus und Holocaust im Familiengedächtnis“ (mit S. Moller u. K. Tschuggnall), Frankfurt/M: Fischer 2002; „Grandpa Wasn’t a Nazi: Nazism and the Holocaust in German Family Remembrance“. Berlin: AJC 2005; „Das kommunikative Gedächtnis. Eine Theorie der Erinnerung“ (Communicative Memory). München: Beck 2002.
DIRECTIONS TO THE MARIAL CENTER The MARIAL Center is located on the 4th floor of the main building of Emory's Briarcliff Campus, 1256 Briarcliff Road. There is ample parking close to the building. Alternatively, you may take the Emory shuttle (Route A). The Emory shuttle (Route A) provides transportation from the main campus to the MARIAL Center every 20 minutes (a 5-10 minute ride). For the shortest travel time, board the shuttle in front of the B. Jones Center or at the corner of Dowman and Fishburne (across from Glenn Memorial) at approximately 4, 24, and 44 minutes after each hour. A complete schedule and the route map are available on the web at http://www.epcs.emory.edu/AltTransp/route-a.htm Please tell the receptionist at the front window
that you are here for the
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