Mittwoch, 15. Januar 2020 - 18:15
Dan Michman: Righteous Among the Nations. The Emergence of a Unique Commemorative Category
Gastgeber: Fritz Bauer Institut
Lecture in English by Prof. Dr. Dan Michman
Almost 27.000 non-Jews have hitherto been recognized by Yad Vashem as »Righteous Among the Nations«. This category has gained high profi le in Holocaust commemoration and education and an international status as a kind of Nobel prize for morality and humaneness. But how and why did this commemorative category come into being at all? What does the term mean? Who decides about the recognition? What were - and are - the problems and challenges facing the committee that has to decide about the awarding? Does this category have historical value? And to what extent is it manipulated in current politics?
Prof. Dr. Dan Michman is professor for modern Jewish history at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan and heading the Finkler Institute of Holocaust Research. Moreover he is one of the leading historians at the International Institute for Holocaust Research at the memorial Yad Vashem. In 2017 his book "Adolf Hitler, the Decision-Making Process Leading to the »Final Solution of the Jewish Question«" was published.
Abbildung: Tree, memorial honoring Irena Sendler, a Polish Roman Catholic nurse who saved 2,500 Jews, in The Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, Yad Vashem
Foto: Ehud Amir / creative commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
