Dear All,
On Thursday, June 8th, we are welcoming a visiting scholar – Jan Grabowski (University of Ottawa) - to Hugo Valentin Centre’s seminar series (Uppsala Uni).
Drawing on his own experience of being accused in a defamation trial of tarnishing the memory of a Polish villager in a book about the Holocaust (The
Historians Under Attack for Exploring Poland’s Role in the Holocaust | The New Yorker), Jan will give a talk:
“From Holocaust Denial to Holocaust Distortion: New Challenges Facing Scholars”.
Here you can read more about Jan’s talk:
Holocaust denial, well known to educators, scholars and to most of the reading public, means denying the factuality of the Jewish catastrophe. Holocaust denial, however insidious a phenomenon, has recently
been largely replaced with Holocaust distortion, a much more dangerous threat to the memory of the Shoah. Holocaust distortionists do not deny that Holocaust happened – they simply argue that their people, their nation, their group had nothing to do with the
event. The distortion of the Holocaust has become an unstated “history policy” of several European states. The state resources poured into Holocaust distortion and the narrative based on half-truths and fallacies served without the proper historical context,
all conspire to make the distortion of the Holocaust a significant threat to the memory of six million dead victims of the Shoah.
Jan’s work overlaps with the multiple research interests of the colleagues in the FFSS network.
He is a leading scholar of the Holocaust. He has dedicated his career to the study of the Holocaust in Poland. His works – such as his famous book “Hunt for the Jews” - are considered milestones in Holocaust studies. In recognition of his
achievements, Grabowski’s work was recently awarded the prestigious Impact Award, which honours the achievements of Canada’s top thinkers and researchers. Thus, I am confident his work will be of interest to many colleagues.
The seminar will be held in room
22-1009 at Engelska Parken, between 10:15 and 12:15. Thus, I hope we will have lots of time for a
Q&A session as well as more open debate.
Importantly, the seminar is
open to everyone so please disseminate this event broadly!
Also, Jan is actually coming to Uppsala for a two-day visit (7-8th of June). Should you wish to meet him, contact me.
Yours with respect,
__________________________________________
Dr Tadek Markiewicz | Postdoctoral Research Fellow
The Hugo Valentin Centre | Uppsala University
P.O. Box 521 | 751 20 Uppsala
Read my article for Political Psychology:
When Victimhood Goes to War? Israel and Victim Claims
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pops.12690?af=R