In recent years, scholars have rediscovered Hannah Arendt’s "boomerang thesis", as well as Raphael Lemkin’s work around his definition of genocide, notably its colonial dimensions. These developments have led to a burgeoning literature on the colonial aspects of the Holocaust, as well as the genocidal nature of European colonialism. However, many historians still question whether the Holocaust constituted a divergence or a continuation of previous patterns of violence perpetrated by European powers.

As part of the workshop "Colonial Paradigms of Violence: Comparative Analysis of the Holocaust, Genocide and Mass Killing," our digital panel will discuss the relationship between the Holocaust and imperial and colonial violence and the future of the long-standing comparability debate.

Panel with Carroll P. Kakel (Johns Hopkins University), Tom Lawson (Northumbria University) and Ulrike Lindner (University of Cologne). Chair | Moderation: Rachel O'Sullivan (Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History) and Michelle Gordon (Uppsala University), 13.11.2020, 18:00