Simon Wiesenthal Lectures
The Simon Wiesenthal lecture series takes place regularly every six to eight weeks and aims to present the latest research findings on the Holocaust to both a professional and a broader audience. They take into account the impressive spectrum of this discipline, the numerous questions and issues from empirical-analytical historiography to topics of cultural studies and involve young scholars as well as established academics.
Since 2007, when the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) was still being established, the lecture series – at that time in cooperation with the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW) and the Institute of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna– has developed into the flagship of the VWI's outreach activities as a supporting element in the communication of recent academic findings in the field of Holocaust research and Holocaust and genocide studies.
For over a decade, the Austrian State Archives generously offered shelter to the Simon Wiesenthal Lectures in the roof foyer of the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv. During the challenging years of the pandemic, the lectures were held online. From autumn 2022, in order to reach out to further audiences, a new cooperation partner was found in the Wien Museum. Until the reopening of the main location at Karlsplatz, the SWL will take place at MUSA, Felderstraße 6-8, next to the Vienna City Hall.
Simon Wiesenthal Lecture | |||
Dan Michman: Shoah, Churbn, Cataclysm, Judeocide, Holocaust, Genocide (and more). On Terminology and Interpretation | |||
Thursday, 23. October 2014, 18:30 - 20:00 Dachfoyer des Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchivs 1010 Wien, Minoritenplatz 1
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Why do we nowadays use the terms ‚Holocaust‘ and ‚Shoah‘, although a host of other terms were used or proposed both initially and later on? What do these terms mean, where did they originate, and what do they designate? Are they synonyms or do their semantic fields differ? Are they legitimate or not? Why is there a competition between them (and with others)? And what have literature and the film industry to do with their dissemination? In short: do we indeed know what we mean when we speak about ‚the Holocaust‘? In this talk an attempt will be made to understand the complicated links between discourses of survivors and scholars, semantic changes, the impact of historical processes, ideological stances on the use of terminology – and the consequences regarding historical interpretation.
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