Public Workshop: Listening to Testimonies of Mass Atrocities

The workshop coincides with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between EHRI, which is headquartered at NIOD, and the USC Shoah Foundation. A great occasion for a public workshop devoted the subject of working with testimonies, oral histories and witness accounts. A number of specialists is invited to discuss how they have used testimonies in their work on mass atrocities. 

Admission is free, but registration is required. Please email Kevania Menig at k.menig@niod.knaw.nl by October 25 to register.

Programme

13:30 - Welcome

13:40 - 14:10 - Keynote: “Witness(es) for the Future: The Texture of Testimony since 1945” by Robert J. Williams, Finci-Viterbi Executive Director Chair, USC Shoah Foundation; UNESCO Chair on Antisemitism and Holocaust Research; Advisor, International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

14:10 - 15:10 - Panel discussion: Past Lessons from Listening to Eyewitness Testimonies

• Moderator: Nanci Adler, Professor of Memory, History, and Transitional Justice at the NIOD/University of Amsterdam; Senior Researcher, NIOD
• Selma Leydesdorff, em. Professor of Oral History and Culture, University of Amsterdam
• Tony Kushner, James Parkes Professor of Jewish/non-Jewish relations at the University of Southamptom

14:10 - 15:10 - Panel discussion: Past Lessons from Listening to Eyewitness Testimonies

• Moderator: Nanci Adler, Professor of Memory, History, and Transitional Justice at the NIOD/University of Amsterdam; Senior Researcher, NIOD
• Selma Leydesdorff, em. Professor of Oral History and Culture, University of Amsterdam
• Tony Kushner, James Parkes Professor of Jewish/non-Jewish relations at the University of Southamptom

15:10 - 15:30 - Coffee break

15:30 - 16:40 - Panel discussion: Testimony as a Resource for Research and Remembrance

• Moderator: Karel Berkhoff, Senior Researcher, NIOD and Co-Director, EHRI
• Stephen Naron, Director, Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
• Dienke Hondius, Associate Professor of History, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities
• Gelinada Grinchenko, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany/Dnipro National University, Ukraine

16:40 - 17:30 - Round Table and Q&A: Past and New Opportunities for Engaging with Audio-Visual Testimony

• Moderator: Jennifer Rodgers, Director of Academic Programs, USC Shoah Foundation
• Moderator: Reto Speck, Senior Researcher, NIOD and Co-Director, EHRI
• Selma Leydesdorff
• Tony Kushner
• Stephen Naron
• Dienke Hondius
• Gelinada Grinchenko

17:30 - 18:30 - Drinks