Research on Transgenerational Holocaust-memory in Central Europe supported by Visegrad Fund

THE DATAS OF THE PROJECT

The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

Visegrad Fund logo

Title: Research on Transgenerational Holocaust-memory in Central Europe

Supported by:  Visegrad Fund

Identification number: 22210229

The amount of the sponsorship: 53790 Euro

The proposed period of the project: 01. 05. 2022 - 01. 10. 2023.

Coordinating institution: 

Project coordinator:  

  • Richárd Papp, director of institute. E-mail: pappriki@tatk.elte.hu. Phone: 0036-1-372-2500/6738.

Partner institutions:


DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

The goal of our research is to be able to interpret both the generational changes and further inher-ited processes of Holocaust memory in three localities per country by examining three generations. The three selected settlements include the capital, towns, and rural localities of each country. All this provides an opportunity for a comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between Holocaust memory in the capital and in the countryside.

PROJECT RELEVANCE AND CONTEXT

Nearly eighty years have passed since the tragedy of the Holocaust. The living, communicative memory of a generation of victims and witnesses is slowly being transformed into patterns of cultural memory. Meanwhile, in Central Europe, there has been no collective confrontation in recent decades, no public and comprehensive open social discourse on the memory of the tragedy. The problems of forgetting and silence range from the persistence of anti-Semitism, hatred of ethnic, cultural, and sexual minorities, political hatred of refugees, to Holocaust denial, and are still present in Central European societies today. In the three decades since the political regime changes, more detailed Holocaust education has been introduced into school history curricula, and commemorative monuments, museums, archives, books, and films have been created to help remember the Holocaust. However, the ques-tion arises as to how all this contributes to the perpetuation of Holocaust remembrance. What meanings does Holocaust remembrance have today among different generations? There has been a lot of excellent historical and quantitative sociological research on this so far. However, this research fails to explore and analyse the local and personal empirical depths of the patterns of memory that are constructed and reconstructed in personal narratives. Thus, the aim of our research is to process and interpret recent meanings of Holocaust memory using qualitative social science methods in Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland.

The aim of our research is to gain an in-depth empirical understanding and interpretation of the contemporary meanings of Holocaust memory. We believe that an indispensable way of doing this is to explore transgenerational and translocal differences and contexts in Central Europe. A necessary corollary of this is meticulous, up-close and person-focused research. The intensive empirical case studies of our research can enable a detailed understanding of the personal narratives of Holocaust memory. We consider it essential to understand the narratives of the present-day bearers of Holocaust memory, in addition to the victims who lived through the horrors of the Holocaust. Only by doing so can we face up to the current state of holcaust memory in Central Europe and its challenges.

The novelty of the research is that it also includes the meanings of non-Jewish transgenerational memory patterns, the hitherto less explored aspect of the Central European Holocaust memory. This does not mean, of course, that Jewish memory patterns are not covered. Wherever possible, research will also examine the differences and similarities between Jewish and non-Jewish meanings of local Holocaust memory. The research will also address the local memory of non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Thus, our research examines the issues mentioned above in three locations per country. At each site, through focus group interviews, we examine the local aspects of Holocaust-memory across three generations:

  • 70+ years;
  • 40-70 years;
  • 18-30 years generation.

The interview questions comprehensively examine the historical and current processes, changes, and socio-cultural contexts of memory. The focus group interviews are also recorded visually and filmed. The recorded interviews can thus be used as sources of further analysis as well as exhibition products. The interviews will be preceded by one week of fieldwork in each locality. The fieldwork will include the examination of local history and socioeconomics, analysis of local memory spaces, possible commemorative symbols, and visits to the focus group interview partners. Our research therefore specifies the localities of the fieldworks and interviews:

  • Budapest, Miskolc, Körösladány (Hungary);
  • Bratislava, Krupina, Čaňa (Slovakia);
  • Prague, Kolín, Kosova Hora (Czech Republic);
  • Warsaw, Tarnów, Wąsosz (Poland).

Our research plan and further plans can be used in museum exhibitions related to the Holocaust memory (film recordings, interviews) or in the repertoire of programs planned in addition to the exhibitions (organization of socio-drama events using research results and experiences, discussions related to the visual documentation of the research and other sensitizing films, organization of clubs). In addition to the above, the research results could contribute to the studies of social memory in the social science courses and research programs of Central European universities. Our research plan’s long-term goal is to compare, through as many examples as possible, the recurring features, transgenerational and translocal meanings of Holocaust memory in Central Europe. Our present application is the first, introductory phase of this project. If our application is successful, we will reapply for researching in three additional localities per country after the completion of the research undertaken in the application.


The project homepage

The project homepage is available here: The Holocaust Memory Project

The films of the project are available here: Documentary Films

The project members will upload the further films on this site.


Events, workshops

The first (opening) workshop

The first (opening) workshop of the Research on transgenerational Holocaust-memory in Central Europe supperted by Visegrad Fund will be held online on 23.09.2022 from 10 am.

MS Teams link

In the first workshop of the project, the applicant and the project partners will prepare the fieldwork, finalise the research methodology and the technical issues of the visual documentation related to the fieldwork.

Transgenerational Holocaust-memory in Hungary

Transgenerational Holocaust-memory in Hungary - documentum film and discussion at the event of "Kutatók Éjszakája 2022"

Interview brainstorming on Visegrad research (the second workshop)

07.10.2022. 10:30 am

MS Teams link

Film event and discussion: “And nothing is but what is not” - The memory of Holocaust in Hungary nowedays

12th of December, 2022

Facebook event

Photos of the event

The third workshop

20th of December, 2022

MS Teams link

Invitation: “And nothing is but what is not” - The memory of Holocaust in Hungary nowedays - film event and discussion at the Museum of Ethnography

20th of April, 2023

Facebook event

Mini conference and film event: "Hamu alatt parázs" – A holokauszt helyi emlékezete Miskolcon

27th of April, 2023

Invitation

Facebook event

Closing workshop

Location of the workshop

The workshop will take place in a mixed (offline and online) way.

Offline: Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Social Sciences, Budapest, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A - Tanári Klub (2nd floor, room 139).

Richard Papp mobile number: +36209508118

Events of the workshop

1. day: Monday, 11th of September 2023, 16.30 - 19.00 

MS Teams Link

Screening of a documentary film on Holocaust memory in Hungary, produced so far during the project, followed by a discussion with the researchers and the audience.

2. day: Tuesday, 12th September 2023 

MS Teams Link

11.00-13.00

Summary and presentation of the experiences and research results of the researchers involved in the project:

11.00-11.20 György Csepeli- Richard Papp: Experiences, results, and further questions in the research of local Holocaust memory in Hungary

11.20-11.40 Katarína Očková - Juraj Buzalka: Remembering the Holocaust in Slovakia

11.40-12.00 Radosław Tyrała: The Holocaust Memory in Poland from the perspective of focus group interviews

12.00-12.20 Veronika Seidlova - Hedvika Novotná: Remembering the Holocaust in Czech Republic

12.20- 13.00 Discussion

13.00-14.00 Lunch break

14.00 – 16.30

Presentations on related and similar research by students and researchers:

14.00- 14.20 Luca Kaszás: The living memory of the Jewish Community of Salgótarján

14.20- 14.40 Cintia Szabó: Narratives of the Holocaust in Hajdúdorog

14.40- 15.00 János Dési: Collective Consciousness, Individual Forgetting

15.00- 15.20 János Ladányi: Memory of the Holocaust in Újpest

15.20- 15.40 Miklós Szabó: Why genocides prevail?

15.40- 16.30 Discussion

Ethnology Without Borders conference

Friday, 29th September, 2023

10:00 - 11:00 : Richárd Papp: Keynote lecture: Reflections on a research project supported by the Visegrád Fund: Transgenerational Holocaust Memory in Central Europe

Conference program

ÜVÖLTŐ CSENDEK - Documentumfilm series of the memory of holocaust in Hungary nowedays - Film events and discussion at the Museum of Ethnography

14. 02. - 27. 03. 2024

More detail

The home page of the Museum of Ethnography


RESULTS

Holocaust Memory - Visual Documentation


MEDIA APPEARANCES

  • Interview with project leader Richard Papp: Realitás - Politikai útkeresés - program of Klubradio (4th of November, 2022)
  • Interview with project leader Richard Papp and György Csepeli by Hit Radio: "A rémtettek körülötti csend megbetegíti a társadalmat" 

  • Interview with project leader Richard Papp and György Csepeli by Népszava: "Sokan hiszik, hogy a fiatalokban kezd halványulni a holokauszt emléke, de inkább az idősebbek nem akarnak beszélni róla, a középgeneráció pedig hallgat, mint a sír"

2022.05.11.