Abstract
Historian and heritage and memory expert Rob van der Laarse discusses in his valedictory speech of 2024 the crucial changes after his 2012 inaugural on the future of European War and Holocaust heritage in terms of a in the future of Europe in War. Beginning with the question of how to communicate in public about the Palestine attack of 7 October and the Israeli-Gaza War as well as the Russian-Ukrainian war within a world driven by trauma, populism and geopolitics, he reworks Susan Sontag's notion of Regarding the Pain of Others by opening a new perspective on the duty to overcome essentialist identity politics and other abuses of the past by selective memory politics, in order to communicate with 'others' beyond the conflicting axis of Holocaust, postcommunist and postcolonial memory. He ends by supporting current civil servants's rights to demonstrate against their own governments, by warning against the notion of banality of evil, as the collaboration of high officials is crucial in the erosion of fundamental rights.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher | VU |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Publication status | Published - 12 Jan 2024 |
Keywords
- Holocaust memory
- Israel-Palestinian Conflict
- Russia's invasion of Ukraine
- Ukrianian memory politics
- Simon Schama
- Susan Sontag
- European memory politics
- historical dialogue
- grievability
- Samual P. Huntington
- culture wars
- Europe in War
- civil servants right of demonstration
- genocide