Holocaust Memory and its Discontents: The Case of Germany, Featuring Michael Rothberg

In this lecture, Rothberg will trace the rise of what became known as the “German model” of addressing a nation’s own crimes. While a few years ago it seemed obvious that countries like the United States could “learn from the Germans” to confront their troubled pasts (in Susan Neiman’s terms), today the situation seems more complicated. Focusing especially on the Federal Republic of Germany, Rothberg will survey state-level engagements with National Socialism and the Holocaust as well as grassroots efforts at commemoration that began in the 1980s. He will show how the model of Vergangenheitsbewältigung (“coming to terms with” or “mastering” the past) was consolidated after German unification and then started to fray in the twenty-first century. He will conclude by emphasizing how migration, colonialism, and the October 7/Gaza moment intersect with — and have come to unsettle — German Holocaust memory. This event is generously sponsored by July Galper. How to Attend This event is offered both in person at Geisel Library and virtually via Zoom beginning at 5 p.m. Pacific time. Click the Register button at the top of this page and select your preferred mode of attendance. About the Speaker Michael Rothberg is the 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research focuses on the social and cultural implications of political violence and its afterlives, and his writings have been translated into French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. His books include “The Implicated Subject: Beyond Victims and Perpetrators” (2019), “Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization” (2009), “The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings” (2003; co-edited with Neil Levi), and “Traumatic Realism: The Demands of Holocaust Representation” (2000). With Yasemin Yildiz, he is completi