Center and Periphery. The Perception of NS Concentration Camps
17th workshop on history and memory of NS concentration camps

First launched in 1994, the annual ›Workshop on the History of the NS Concentration Camps‹ has successfully established itself as a well known international forum for young scholars working on the history of memory of NS concentration camps. Organized by former participants, the workshop traditionally features an interdisciplinary discussion on current research issues in an atmosphere relatively free of hierarchy.

The ›17th Workshop on History and Memory of NS concentration camps‹ will take place in Mauthausen Memorial (Austria) from September 30 to October 4, 2011. The extension of the hitherto title accounts for an increasing interest in memory culture and politics. The workshop is being orgaized in cooperation with Mauthausen Memorial, the Institute of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna, the Mauthausen Archive and the Austrian Society of Contemporary History. The programme will encompass a guided tour in Mauthausen Memoral as well as a discussion with staff members on the re-conceptualization of the memorial. There will be an excursion to the former concentration camp Gusen and a guided tour on NS history and memory in the nearby city Linz.

Under the headline »Center and Periphery. The Perception of the NS concentration camps«, the next workshop will take issue with core themes and omissions within the discourse on NS concentration camps after 1945. Regarding the actual history of the camps, we are interested in places, events, methods and research questions that by now have been neglected or marginalized in historical research. In the field of memory culture, we ask for contributions that critically deal with respective theoretical, topographical or methodological foci in the representation of NS concentration camps as well as with tabooizations and voids coming along with them. Here some suggestions:

1) Center/Periphery: History of NS Concentration Camps
– dimensions of the NS camp system: camp types that have been hardly researched by now; subcamp systems; relations between camps and surrounding societies
– camp society as an »extreme case of the social« (M. Suderland): inner differentiation; power relations and conflict constellations; aspects of everyday life in the camp
– perspectives from the inside of the camp: horizons of experience and expectation; perceptions of time and space; subjective theorizing on one’s own situation...
– politics of persecution and extermination under NS occupation and in the sphere of collaborating regimes (e.g. North Africa/Vichy; Romania, Croatia...)...
– how feasible are claims of historical continuities or horizons of comparison?: colonial regime and NS population politics; continuities in the discrimination of NS persecutees after 1945; comparisons between different types of camps and dictatorships...

2) Center/Periphery: Memory Culture in History and Present
– ›End of Witnessing‹: the ›witness‹ as a cultural phenomenon; public attitudes towards different ›categories‹ of survivors after 1945; the »social conditions for speaking out« (M. Pollak); the relation between survivor’s narratives and contemporary narrative contexts...
– History of historiography: At what time and why, and with what methodological and thematical interest, have there been research and publications on NS concentration camps after 1945?
– History of memorial sites: Central and peripheral places; ›forgotten‹ places; memory activism; design of topography and exhibitions...
– Metanarratives: »Cosmopolitanization« (D. Levy/N. Sznaider) and ›transnationalization‹ of Holocaust memory or »multidirectional memory« (M. Rothberg); national and international memory politics...

Considering the workshhop character of the event, we do not ask for the presentation of ›completed‹ work, but rather for insights in current research and discussions of research problems and open questions. Contributors are obliged to send a meaningful paper (ca. 10 pages, in German with an English abstract or in English) to all participants prior to the workshop. The talk itself should not exceed 25 minutes in order to have enough time for discussion.

Non-German and non-Austrian participants are particularily invited to apply. Languages will be German and Englisch, translation will be provided. Applicants who don’t speak German are requested to inform us about their knowledge of German (if there is some) and English. Costs for the workshop and accomodation are covered; and we expect to be able to cover at least good parts of your travel expenses. Who doesn’t want to contribute him- or herself but would nevertheless like to participate can respond to a Call for Participation that will soon follow up.

We ask all applicants to send an abstract of two pages maximum together with a short biography until February 28, 2011 to the following adress: 17.workshop.orgateam@googlemail.com

Roman Fröhlich, Mira Jovanović-Ratković, Peter Larndorfer, Cornelia Siebeck, Frank Wiedemann