Abstract: In the current study, a detailed analysis of legal restrictions on ritualistic animal slaughter, or shechita, in various comparative settings is undertaken. The chapter deals with the historical and present debate on this phenomenon, very controversial both in Europe and beyond Europe since the 1990s. Analyses establish that civil society campaigns for the ban on shechita, supported by medical and veterinary authorities and activists on social media, have been effective in some, but not all, countries. The chapter will have two main aims. First, to document the historical bias against ritual animal slaughter, starting inmedieval times and culminating in 19th and 20th century European anti-Semitism, and to show the reemergence of this bias in recent decades. This reemergence, it will be shown, combines classic anti-Semitism with more recent Islamophobia (from the Right), and animal rights and anti-religious progressivism (from the Left). Second, to suggest that constitutional doctrines grounded in anti-discrimination principles are more effective than the doctrine of proportionality in protecting the religious and cultural rights of the Jewish minority in the context of shechita. This is because they are better equipped to expose hidden biases and prejudices against Jews than their proportionality-based counterparts.
Abstract: In memory of Dr. Paul Levine, my friend and mentor during the last years of his life, this chapter honors his commitment to research, write, and teach about the Holocaust and the entangled histories of Sweden and the Holocaust. In this chapter, I demonstrate how traces of the Holocaust in Sweden—including former refugee camps, cemeteries, schools, and hospitals, etc.—help educate students and the public about the events of the Holocaust, its historical significance in Sweden, and its relevance today. I argue that “authentic sites” of Nazi persecution—often regarded as the most pedagogically authoritative locations—are not only the places where the destruction and persecution were perpetrated (a conception that vests authenticity with the perpetrators). Rather, I contend that “authenticity” in relation to Nazi persecution (and the pedagogical authority carried with it) is conferred by the victims and survivors. Authentic sites of Nazi persecution can thus be understood not only as sites of destruction but also as sites of survival and death in the aftermath of the destruction. As such, many authentic sites of Nazi persecution exist in Sweden. This chapter draws on examples from my own and other scholars’ research on places in Sweden where traces of the Holocaust may be found, as well as on grassroots efforts conducted by educators and activists, for three purposes. First, to explore theoretical and practical approaches to uncovering the significance of place. Second, to examine the potential of local history for teaching about broader, national and transnational histories of the Holocaust and Sweden’s complex connection with the Holocaust and its aftermath. Finally, to investigate what can be—or is already being—done to enhance past and current efforts to educate the public about these important issues.
Abstract: This chapter examines the manifestations of antisemitism within three international online large groups convened by the Greek Institute of Relational and Group Psychotherapy following the October 7, 2023, attacks in Israel. Drawing on the social unconscious (Hopper, Fromm), relational psychoanalysis, and group-as-whole dynamics, the analysis traces how 80–120 mental health professionals enacted unconscious antisemitic patterns across three phases: initial idealization of the Greek cofacilitators as “neutral” containers, subsequent demonization marked by paranoid suspicion and conspiratorial attribution, and finally, fragmented empathy, where Jewish grief became conditional upon political disclaimers. The chapter introduces “conditional solidarity” as a contemporary antisemitic mechanism whereby Israeli professionals’ trauma is delegitimized unless accompanied by self-condemnation. Integrating the Talmudic Bar Kamtza narrative and the Greek Danaids myth, the analysis illuminates how institutional failures to process collective mourning perpetuate cycles of envy, aggression, and unmetabolized loss. The concept of “institutional illiteracy” describes professional communities’ inability to hold the complexity of Jewish identity, resulting in persecutory-paranoid dynamics rather than reflective containment. This psychodynamic approach reveals antisemitism’s persistence within ostensibly progressive therapeutic spaces.
Abstract: My group-analytic work in small and large groups focuses on analyzing group communication through the group. As group analysts, we create space for talking about emotions and fantasies and encourage group participants to endure the coexistence of great diversity, perceive inner resonance phenomena, and enter into dialogue about them. To work on social rifts, we have to face the challenge of dealing openly with hatred, hostility, and conspiracy myths – including antisemitic stereotypes. Scenes from a small group in Berlin in 2024 show the balancing act of group-analytic work, in which politically motivated remarks are viewed neither on the level of rational arguments nor as purely individual phenomena. To this day, the group presented here continues to engage in circular movements with its own fear, with abrupt indifference in social interaction, with the effect of prejudice and rumor in society, and with moments of silent retreat. Group analysis can promote trust in one’s own abilities and relationships and is, at the same time, an effective means of dealing with destructive aggression such as antisemitism in the long term. I see this as an important attempt to counter the social crisis of trust with an increase in sensitivity and the ability to speak.
Abstract: Der Bundesverband der Recherche- und Informationsstellen Antisemitismus e. V. (Bundesverband RIAS) ist der Dachverband zivilgesellschaftlicher Meldestellen für antisemitische Vorfälle in Deutschland. Er verfolgt das Ziel, bundesweit eine einheitliche zivilgesellschaftliche Dokumentation antisemitischer Vorfälle ober- und unterhalb der Strafbarkeitsgrenze zu gewährleisten, die in jährlichen Berichten systematisch ausgewertet und der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht werden. Neben den Meldungen von Betroffenen und Zeug*innen, dem Versammlungs- und Pressemonitoring sind auch polizeilich erfasste Straftaten Teil der Datengrundlagen, wenn diese zugänglich gemacht werden. In den vergangenen Jahren gab es allerdings keinen flächendeckenden systematischen Abgleich mit den polizeilichen Statistiken zu antisemitischen Straftaten. Der Kriminalpolizeiliche Meldedienst Politisch Motivierte Kriminalität (KPMD-PMK), in den neben den klassischen Staatsschutzdelikten auch Hasskriminalität beziehungsweise antisemitische Straftaten eingehen, ist seit Beginn Gegenstand der Arbeit des Bundesverbandes RIAS, etwa in den vom Bundesverband RIAS durchgeführten Problembeschreibungen zu Antisemitismus in mehreren Bundesländern (vgl. RIAS-BK 2018; Bundesverband RIAS, 2019, 2020, 2021a, 2021b, 2022; SABRA 2020). Das durch das BMI geförderte Projekt Austausch von Polizei und Zivilgesellschaft zu Antisemitismus (APZAS) wurde ins Leben gerufen, um einerseits den Austausch zwischen regionalen Antisemitismus-Meldestellen und den Polizeistellen zu initiieren und zu begleiten sowie andererseits die Erfassungspraxis in den föderal arbeitenden Landeskriminalämtern aus zivilgesellschaftlicher Perspektive zu untersuchen und dabei insbesondere den zugrunde liegenden antisemitismusbegriff nachzuvollziehen. Dafür wurden 2023 zwölf leitfadengestützte Interviews mit Expert*innen (vgl. Helfferich, 2019) aus den Bereichen Zivilgesellschaft, Wissenschaft, Justiz, der polizeilichen Hochschullehre sowie Vertreter*innen unterschiedlicher Landeskriminalämter geführt. Die Interviews wurden im Anschluss inhaltsanalytisch ausgewertet (vgl. Kuckartz, 2012; Schreier, 2012). Ausgewählte Ergebnisse werden in diesem Beitrag diskutiert. Bevor wir uns der Kritik der Extremismus-Konzeption widmen, werden zunächst das Antisemitismusverständnis des KPMD-PMK sowie Perspektiven von Betroffenen untersucht.
Abstract: Die deutsche Gesellschaft steht angesichts globaler und regionaler Entwicklungen der letzten Jahrzehnte vor vielfältigen gesellschaftspolitischen Herausforderungen. Verschärfte Konflikte, Rassismus, Diskriminierung sowie die Verbreitung von Falschinformationen und Verschwörungsmythen prägen das gesellschaftliche Klima. Rassistische,
antisemitische, rechtsextreme und autoritäre Einstellungen sind tief in Teilen der Gesellschaft verwurzelt und manifestieren sich zunehmend sichtbarer und gewaltbereiter (Decker et al., 2022; Zick et al., 2023; Institut
für angewandte Familien-, Kindheits- und Jugendforschung e. V., 2023a; 2023b). Die Erkenntnisse dieser Studien verdeutlichen die Dringlichkeit, die Verbreitung extremistischer Einstellungen, insbesondere unter jungen
Menschen, genauer zu erforschen. In diesem Beitrag werden die Ergebnisse einer bundesweiten OnlineBefragung zu antisemitischen Einstellungen junger Menschen in Deutschland zwischen 16 und 27 Jahren vorgestellt. Die Befragung wurde in drei Phasen durchgeführt: In der ersten Phase wurden antisemitische (n = 1 593, Erhebungszeitraum: November 2022), in der zweiten Phase antimuslimische (n = 1 625, Erhebungszeitraum: September 2023) und in der
dritten Phase rechtsextreme Einstellungen (n = 1 313, Erhebungszeitraum: Dezember 2023) junger Menschen erforscht. Bei der Ziehung der Stichprobe wurde auf das Online-Access-Panel GapFish zurückgegriffen. Die
ausgewählten Ergebnisse in diesem Beitrag beziehen sich auf die erste und dritte Phase (antisemitische und rechtsextreme Einstellungen junger Menschen in Deutschland)
Abstract: Transnistria, meaning “beyond the Dniester”, was an artificial geographic term created during the Second World War, referring to a region in the Ukraine that was situated between the Dniester River on the west and the Bug River on the east, also extending southward to the Black Sea. During October and November 1941, thousands of terrorized Jews, mostly without food and water, were deported on foot or by wagon to Transnistria. Depending on whose numbers one uses, between 120,000 and 180,000 Jews were deported to Transnistria from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Of this group, only 50,000 would survive the war.
For years, the fate of the Jews in Transnistria was not emphasized in Holocaust remembrance, education, or commemoration. The reasons for this were manifold. They included problems of documentation; attitudes of Eastern European governments until the transition of the 1990s; priorities of major Holocaust memorial organizations until that transition; activities, primarily internally focused, of the survivor organizations from Bukovina, Bessarabia, and Transnistria; and, finally, the dynamics among Jewish survivors from Romania as they reassembled their lives in the first postwar decades. All this contributed to Transnistria becoming “the forgotten Holocaust”.
As the last Jewish survivors of the Transnistrian ghettos and camps reached their eighth and ninth decades at the beginning of the 21st century, various political, social, educational, and demographic factors coalesced, changing pre-existing dynamics regarding the memory of Transnistria. In this chapter, I focus on these factors, showing how and why this “forgotten Holocaust” is slowly being remembered again.
Abstract: Public engagement with the Holocaust in Romania has developed slowly and unevenly, shaped by decades of political constraint and institutional silence. Until 1989, restricted archival access and an antifascist ideological framework marginalized the specificity of Jewish persecution, subsuming it under a generalized narrative of “victims of fascism”. A substantive public acknowledgment of Romania’s responsibility emerged only in 2004, with the adoption of the Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania. This belated recognition profoundly influenced the spatial articulation of memory in Bucharest.
The chapter examines the fragmented mnemonic landscape of the city through a theoretical distinction between imprints and places. Imprints are material interventions – monuments, plaques, museums – that inscribe historical facts into public space. While essential for visibility and moral acknowledgment, they operate largely as static markers. Places, by contrast, are urban sites whose latent memory is reactivated through collective engagement. Rather than merely preserving the past, they generate memory through interaction, interpretation, and embodied experience.
Through case studies – including Giurgiului Cemetery, the Bucharest Holocaust Memorial (2009), and the Memorial to the Martyrs of the Bucharest Pogrom (2016) – the chapter traces the transition from enclosed, community-bound remembrance to civic visibility. It then analyzes the pedagogical project PLACES (2021), developed with architecture students, which reconstructed the prewar addresses of the 125 pogrom victims and reinscribed them into the contemporary city through mapping, archival research, and digital interfaces.
By shifting attention from sites of death to spaces of everyday life, PLACES exemplifies a performative model of remembrance grounded in secondary witnessing. The study argues that, in the absence of living testimony, urban space itself becomes a medium of memory – capable not only of conserving history but of ethically reactivating it within the present.
Abstract: The chapter uses an autoethnographic method to analyse the displacement experiences of its authors, who come from different ethnic backgrounds, mother tongues, geographies and histories in Turkey. The fact that the paths of the authors, as living representations of Turkey’s ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity, crossed in exile in Germany is also the history of the silencing of ethnic, religious and political minorities. The authors uncover the interconnectedness of those individual stories that are inherent in the larger historical narrative of the country. Thus, they offer us an analysis of the experiences of exile in Germany, through three intertwined autoethnographies of Jewish, Kurdish and anarchist academic exiles.
Abstract: The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum received two million visitors in 2019, making it the most heavily visited museum in Poland. This entry situates tourism at Auschwitz within the broader context of Holocaust tourism by providing an historical account of the phenomenon. It begins with those visitors to the camp before 1945 who were not tourists (Nazi officials, local suppliers, engineers), drawing attention to tourism’s ethical ambiguity. Since the museum’s 1947 opening, tourists have encountered a site undergoing continual development, its exhibition spaces and its messaging evolving from the Stalinist era through the Cold War to the present period. This chapter considers how shifts in the site’s memory politics, especially regarding the representation of different victim groups, have led to unresolved tensions that still surface during the tour. It then considers some present-day challenges to the legitimacy of tourism at Auschwitz, such as visitor behaviour or the difficulties in providing an appropriate, authentic, and informative experience to large crowds. Finally, the chapter reviews different scholarly approaches to Holocaust tourism, such as dark tourism theory and empirical visitor research, before concluding with questions for future research into Auschwitz tourism.
Abstract: The chapter addresses the key problem of Polish collective memory of Auschwitz, that is, how Poles perceive the former camp, in a wider context of Polish memory of World War II, Nazi camps, and the Holocaust. It presents and discusses results of surveys representative of Poland’s population, particularly two designed by the authors and conducted in 2020. The surveys show that the war is the major theme of Polish collective memory, and Nazi camps in general and Auschwitz in particular belong to top Polish lieux de mémoire. Auschwitz evokes in Poles mostly general and universalist associations with destruction, murder, crematoria, gas chambers, and death. The Holocaust is spontaneously associated with Auschwitz only rarely. On the other hand, the camp is the most frequently associated site of the destruction of Jews. The Polish collective memory of Auschwitz hinges upon a poor awareness of the number, nationality, and countries of origin of the camp’s victims. However, Poles are aware of the major historical functions of the camp and share different symbolic meanings of it. Some survey results suggest that a cosmopolitan Holocaust memory focusing on Auschwitz developed among Poles while others indicate that the Polish memory of Auschwitz has nationalist characteristics.
Abstract: The past is never past, wrote William Faulkner. The great American writer had in mind his native Mississippi, but he might as well have written those words about Poland. Indeed, among history-conscious Poles, the findings of historians have had far-reaching social and political consequences that transcend the esoteric discussions of scholars. This was corroborated in recent times by the emergence of a discourse in Poland over what some have called polityka historyczna (Geschichtspolitik, or history policy), which focuses on the question of whether historians who write of the less glorious episodes in Polish history are actually acting against the interests of the nation. Many Polish historians, including the best-known scholars among them, have protested against this suggestion, which poses a clear danger to the fidelity of their discipline. The dissolution of the Communist regime in Poland at the end of the 1980s made possible the deconstruction of every aspect of contemporary history. The process of reconstruction, begun in earnest, proved to be complex and painful. This was particularly the case when dealing with the bitterest chapters in the millennial story of Polish-Jewish relations, which were, and continue to be, the subject of popular and intellectual discussion as well as serious scholarly research. Out of this process emerged a new understanding of history, one that renders much of the earlier canon on the topic virtually obsolete. It had, in fact, been under way for some years even before the collapse of Communism – especially in the pages of Poland’s extraordinarily vibrant underground press and also, to an impressive extent given the prevailing censorship, in those of Poland’s legally operated independent Catholic press. Polish émigré journals were also regularly smuggled into Poland and had significant influence. Nevertheless, it was only with the collapse of the old regime and the birth of Poland’s Third Republic that this activity could be carried out without interference and Poland could finally undergo its own Vergangenheitsbewältigung (coming to terms with the past). This chapter discusses the evolution of Poland’s confrontation with the destruction of Polish Jewry.
