GATHERING OF EXPERTS FROM MORE THAN 20 COUNTRIES

Novi Sad 27.04.2021

MICROHISTORIES OF THE HOLOCAUST AND ITS EUROPEAN CHARACTER

On 27th of April 2021 Terraforming and Archives of Vojvodina successfully held an international conference which focused on the role local archives play in identifying and safeguarding the Holocaust records.

The conference was organized within the project „The Holocaust, European Values and Local History“ and it gathered experts in the fields of education, historiography and archival science.

You can see or download the full conference program.

Within four hours of program, divided in three sessions, 70 participants from more than 20 countries which attended the conference on the Zoom platform had an opportunity to get insight into up-to-date trends and challenges in archival science referring to the Holocaust, exchange their knowledge and experiences, discover new approaches to and methods of researching the Holocaust, as well as to discuss ever growing problem of the Holocaust distortion and the role local archives play in teaching about and shaping the culture of remembrance.

The registered participants comprised colleagues from the following countries: Austria, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Netherland, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the USA.

The host and the moderator was Miško Stanišić, Director of Terraforming.

To Remain Faithful to the Truth

At the very beginning of the conference, the participants were welcomed by Dr. Nebojša Kuzmanović, Director of the Archives of Vojvodina.He pointed out the importance of such conferences because during these conferences we have an opportunity to talk about historical truth and safeguarding it from distortion and manipulation.

“I consider it necessary to talk about both good and bad things that happened in the past, for it is the only way to reach the truth, but we should not make a mythology of it and allow personal frustration to turn into confrontation with the other people. It is not our aim to confront each other, but to find out the truth which we owe to the victims. That truth we owe to ourselves, too. By hiding the truth we will never make a better society and that is why it is important to keep fighting for the truth and freedom.”

Serbia is an active IHRA member

The Head of delegation of the Republic of Serbia to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), Ambassador Aleksandar Tasić, congratulated the organizers on the successful preparation of the conference dealing with such an important subject as safeguarding the memory of one of the most tragic events in our mutual history. Ambassador Tasić stated that it was our aim, and the aim of the future generations not to let such events as the Holocaust ever happen again, and at the same time to safeguard the memory of these events and not allow them to be forgotten.

“The Republic of Serbia, being a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, actively takes part in work of this organization and in this way contributes to building mutual culture of remembrance of the Holocaust victims. It is a moral obligation of each individual and the whole society, as well. The Republic of Serbia has achieved a significant progress in the fields of teaching about and commemoration of the Holocaust, the National Assembly of Serbia has adopted the Law on Memorial Centre Staro Sajmište, and the Government has officially adopted the definition of Antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.”

Ambassador Tasić pointed out, in particular, the role of Terraforming in creating a Serbian version of the publication “Recommendations for Teaching and Learning about the Holocaust” published by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in co-operation with the UNESCO in November 2020. .

Miško Stanišić, Director of Terraforming

Dr. Nebojša Kuzmanović, Director of the Archives of Vojvodina

Ambassador Aleksandar Tasić, Head of delegation of the Republic of Serbia to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)

Session I

Unboxing the History

In the first part of the conference we discussed the identification of the records which are relevant to the Holocaust history and how to present these records to the public.

Identifying Holocaust Records

Dr. Haim Gertner, Director of International Relations Division,Yad Vashem, in Israel, through its presentation entitled “Identifying Holocaust records” pointed to the significance of microhistory and local archives for better understanding the global picture of the Holocaust in Europe showing it on several examples. Unfortunately, even 75 years later there are still obstacles to archival access. There is still a problem of not understanding the importance of sources about the life in the period before the World War II.

“If we want to find out something about the victims of the Holocaust, focusing only on the period between 1939 and 1945 will not be enough. Instead we should go back to the times before that in order to get a complete picture of the life of the victims. The Nazis not only wanted to kill the Jews, but to destroy the memory of them, too. The Holocaust made a gap in history and it is our duty to fill that gap.”

The journey of a document: from a private collection, through archive shelves, to a publication.

Dr. Milan Koljanin, Historian, talked about the collection of documents entitled “The Ustashas’ atrocities” published by the Archives of Vojvodina and presented the journey of historical documents and record from their discovery to archive shelves and how after being processed and published they finally reached the public. That collection mostly consists of documents originated from Germany about the Ustashas’ crimes against Serbs, but also against Jews and Roma.

While working on this collection, we have concluded that the Holocaust source materials are still being discovered. That is why the local and regional archives and personal initiative play an important role in identifying, collecting, processing and publishing such data.

Promotion of archive records through an educational graphic novel

Building upon the previous presentation, Miško Stanišić, Director of Terraforming, talked about the process of transformation of archive records into contemporary teaching materials. Miško Stanišić acquainted the participants with the work on a new educational graphic novel “Breaking into a Gallop” which deals with the life of and persecution against Roma in occupied Srem and Belgrade. The novel is based on archive funds, collections and publications of the Archives of Vojvodina, but also on sources of the whole range of other archives and institutions, including the Historical Archives of Belgrade, the Historical Archives of the City of Novi Sad, not to mention the archives and museums in Sremska Mitrovica, Šid and other places.

“Education based on a graphic novel represents a successful way to tell a story that is based on primary sources and verified facts. In that way not only that we bring this history closer to the public, but we are bringing archives closer to the wider audiences at the same time.“

Dr. Haim Gertner Director, International Relations Division, Yad Vashem, in Israel (former Head of the Archives Department at Yad Vashem)

A slide from Dr. Haim Gertner’s presentation

Dr. Milan Koljanin, Historian.

A slide from Dr. Milan Koljanin’s presentation.

An illustration from an educational graphic novel “Breaking to Gallop” about the life of and persecution against Roma presented by Miško Stanišić (author: Miško Stanišić, illustrator: Marija Ranković).

Session II

Protecting the facts

In the second part of the conference we discussed the importance of historical records for the encountering the Holocaust distortion and the contribution of microhistories to better understanding the European context of the Holocaust.

The Holocaust distortion is more dangerous than the Holocaust denial

Dr. Juliane Wetzel, Historian, Senior Researcher at the Centre for Research on Antisemitism, Technical University Berlin, talked about identifying the distortion of the Holocaust history. She pointed to the problem of manipulation and trivialisation of that event which represent a great challenge.

“Dealing with the problem of the Holocaust distortion demands better connection of institutions, creation of appropriate tools, education and training, as well as international co-operation. It is important that the archivist in local archives make contacts with experts so that together they could establish the broader historical context.”

Reconstruction of history through an archival research

Dr Dora Pataricza talked about reconstructing the fate of Hungarian and Bačka-Serbian victims of the Holocaust. It is a joint project of the Jewish Community of Szeged and theJewish Community of Novi Sad.

“We decided to connect these two communities taking into consideration that in May 1944, before being deported to Auschwitz, 2,226 Jews from Bačka-Serbian had passed through Szeged and only a month later 8,500 Jews from Szedged and surrounding places had also been deported by three trains. By working on this project we tried to reconstruct the names of all detainees from Bačka-Serbian and Szeged. In order to achieve that we used various source materials, literature, testimonies and videos. We primarily used sources from local archives, but also from archives all over the world.

Numbers became names

Aleksandar Bursać, Archivist in Archives of Vojvodina, presented the book “Deportation of the Jews of Bačka in 1944 ”, which was published in 2019 by the Archives of Vojvodina in co-operation with the association “Danubius”. The English version has recently been published.

“This book was initiated by a journalist Vladimir Todorović whose mother had survived the Holocaust, and an introductory study was written by Petar Djurdjev, Director of the Historical archives of the City of Novi Sad. It gives an explanation of occupation of Bačka by the Hungarian troops in 1941, adoption of anti-Jewish laws, economic pressure upon Jews and their isolation and deportation. This book provides a list of 5,388 victims with their full names, but it also comprises occupiers’ documents and testimonies of the survivors.

Dr. Juliane Wetzel, Historian, Senior Researcher at the Centre for Research on Antisemitism, Technical University Berlin, Germany.

A slide from Dr. Juliane Wetzel’s presentation.

A slide from Dr Dora Pataricza’s presentation

A slide from Aleksandar Bursać’s presentation.

Session III

The Past in the Present

In the third part of the conference we talked about using historical records in education through active memory and participatory learning.

Active memory and participatory learning

Wolfgang Schmutz, educator, facilitator and curator, one of the initiators of the MemAct! project, presented an excerpt from a video of an interview with three older women, inhabitants of the little town of Mauthausen in Austria. One of them held warm memories of the SS men, while at the same time another one drew on the toll of being eyewitnesses to brutalities and mass killing. Two memories of the same time, about the same place. Another example shared by Wolfgang deals with a soccer field which was located within Mauthausen concentration camp.

“There were stands for spectators along the field exactly across the camp section for sick inmates. These inmates were so ill and weak, that, deprived of sufficient nutrition and treatment, they were left to die there in masses. Civilians were coming to watch games of the regular soccer league of “Oberdonau” in which teams of SS guards competed against various football clubs from Upper Austria. Both the visitors on the stands and the soccer players could see prisoners through the fence, and at times the dead were carried out of the camp during the games.“

Who are our heroes?

Monika Mazur Rafal, Director of the Foundation Humanity in Action in Poland presented a project aiming at engaging young people in researching local history. In that way young people are encouraged to examine local archives and records and discover facts about the local history.

“We have developed a smartphone application which can be used by young people so that they can learn something about less famous heroes from their local area who helped those who were prosecuted by fascists during the World War II.”

Wolfgang Schmutz, educator and facilitator.

A freeze frame from Wolfgang Schmutz’ s presentation.

A slide from Monika Mazur-Rafal’s presentation.

The whole conference was marked by a dynamic discussion in the Zoom chat.

At the end of the program the participants were asked to share their final comments. Ambassador Georges Santer, former IHRA Chair during the Luxembourg IHRA Presidency 2019-2020, especially praised the concept of the project The Holocaust, European Values and Local History and the program of the conference as being interesting, high-quality and useful. Ambassador Santer pointed out that he was impressed by the progress made by Serbia in enhancing the culture of remembrance and expressed his belief that after adoption of the Law on Memorial Centre “Staro Sajmište” – on which he congratulated once more – the work would be continued in the same spirit towards realization of the Memorial Centre in the following period.

Ambassador Georges Santer, IHRA Chair during the Luxembourg IHRA Presidency 2019-2020.

The conference as a part of the project “The Holocaust, European Values and Local History” is realized with the support of International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, Visegrad Fund, Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia and Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research of Austria.