Holocaust Memorial Day 2022
Statement from Olivier Levy, President of the University of Bristol History Society:
The 27th of January marks Holocaust Memorial Day, the day we devote to remembering the lives lost to the Holocaust.
Background
During the Second World War, one of history’s most oppressive regimes committed heinous acts in the name of national socialism, systemically murdering Jews, Roma, disabled people and homosexuals, among so many more.
77 years since Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated, how do we remember the Holocaust, as well as other genocides committed both before and since?
Holocaust Memorialisation is about ascribing humanity to the dehumanised, restoring individuality to the collectivised, and giving life back to the murdered.
Upcoming event
On Thursday 27 January, at 18:00, the University of Bristol Jewish Society, Union of Jewish Student and the Holocaust Education Trust will be hosting Vera Bernstein, who will share her mother, Alice Svarin’s, story of surviving Auschwitz. To find out more about this event and how to join click here.
Resources
You can find further resources on the Holocaust, including books, research, articles and films below. All of which have been compiled by the University of Bristol History Society, with the help of Prof Tim Cole and Dr Janek Gryta.
Films
- Schindler’s List (1993) is perhaps the most famous film on the Holocaust, portraying the demise and treatment of Jewish people in Poland. (Available on Netflix.)
- Denial (2016) portrays the 1996 Irving vs Penguin Books Ltd. Trial, and the dangers Holocaust deniers pose.
Books
- If This Is a Man, by Primo Levi, is an autobiographical account of the author’s internment at Auschwitz.
- Maus, by Artie Spiegelman - a comic book depicting the author’s interview of his father, Vladek, showing how the Holocaust lingers in collective memory. Jews are caricatured as mice, and Nazis as cats. It is available in the ASSL.
- The Pope’s Jews, by Gordon Thomas, shows the Vatican’s efforts to save Jewish people.
Academic and Public History
- Articles in The Bristorian, History Society’s magazine:
- ‘The Persecution of Jewish Peoples: From Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism,’ by Milan Perera (Yr 2 English).
- ‘New Discoveries on Anne Frank,’ by Sasha Gordon (Yr 1 History).
- ‘Holocaust Memorialisation – Why it Matters,’ by Olivier Levy (Yr 3 History).
- Generation2Generation enables the continuation of Holocaust testimony.
- The Imperial War Museum, in London, hosts a permanent exhibition on the Holocaust.
- Mapping the Holocaust (fifth video down): this lecture by Prof Tim Cole takes us on a journey through different landscapes of the Holocaust, detailing how central Auschwitz-Birkenau was to the genocide.
- The UCS Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive contains 54,000 interviews with survivors of genocide. You can access all these with your University of Bristol email.
