Parallels between Genocide Denial in the Balkans and the Holocaust
Please join us for a virtual symposium co-convened by Harriman Institute Adjunct Assistant Professor Tanya Domi and Dr. Laura Cohen, Executive Director of the Harriet and Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center at Queensborough Community College, CUNY.
Genocide denial not only abuses history, including contemporary history, but it also insults the survivors and extends the impact of the original crimes. Denial is the final act that never ends for the survivors. This symposium examines some of the parallels of contemporary genocide denial in the Balkans with increasing Holocaust denial and distortion sweeping across Europe. What can we learn from Holocaust experts and scholars that is applicable to the present? And what are some ways that memory activists resist denial of the most brutal crimes?
Program
All times in EDT (New York). Each panel requires individual registration.
Keynote Speaker: Menachem Z. Rosensaft
9:30am–10:30am
Professor Menachem Z. Rosensaft is general counsel and associate executive vice president of the World Jewish Congress, lecturer in law at Columbia Law School, adjunct professor of law at Cornell Law School, and founding chairman of the International Network of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.
Panel I: Deconstructing the Parallels between Holocaust Distortion and Genocide Denial
11:00am–12:30pm
- Hikmet Karčić, Genocide scholar
- Riada Ašimović Akyol, Contributing Editor to New Lines Magazine and both founder and host of the “Dignified Resilience” podcast
- James Smith, Founder and CEO of the Aegis Trust and Co-Founder of the United Kingdom’s National Holocaust Centre and Museum
- Robert Williams, Deputy Director of International Affairs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and US Delegate to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance
Panel II: Combatting Holocaust Distortion and Genocide Denial through Memory Activism
1:00pm–2:30pm
- Velma Šarić, Founder and President of the Sarajevo-based Post-Conflict Research Center (PCRC) and Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Balkan Diskurs
- Tali Nates, Founder and Executive Director of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre
- Eli Tauber, Author, Historian, and President of Haggadah Sarajevo
- Dr. Paul Lowe, Award-winning photojournalist; Course Leader of the Master’s program in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts, London, UK