Prior to murdering their victims at extermination camps, the Nazis confiscated all their personal possessions. This photograph shows some of the shaving brushes seized by the Nazis at Auschwitz, 1940-1945. Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.

Part of the Fighting Antisemitism from Dreyfus to Today exhibition event series. In association with Yet Again to mark the launch of their resource, Holocaust Distortion in Europe: An Interactive Map.

Holocaust distortion – the attempt to manipulate the historical narrative and significance of the Holocaust – is a significant problem in Europe. Holocaust distortion manifests in many ways: it can be seen in attempts to claim that the Jews are somehow responsible for the Holocaust, or in the erasure of the culpability of some of the perpetrators.

In this event, panellists will discuss some of the issues around Holocaust distortion, including considering how Holocaust distortion should be defined; how, when and where ideas of Holocaust distortion have developed; how Holocaust distortion differs (or not) from Holocaust denial, and what threat Holocaust distortion poses to public discourses.

About the speakers:

Alex Maws is Head of Education and Heritage at the Association of Jewish Refugees. He is a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial and served on the Board of Directors of the British Association of Holocaust Studies from 2013-2016.

Dr Juliane Wetzel is a historian and a senior researcher at the Centre for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University Berlin and chair of the IHRA Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial. She advised the Global Task Force Against Holocaust Distortion, created during the German presidency of the IHRA in 2020.

Event guidelines:

1. The Library will send you a Zoom link and joining instructions via email prior to the event. Please check your junk email folders.

2. Please try and join 5 minutes before the event start time and we will let you into the room (do try and bear with us if this takes a few minutes).

3. If you would like to ask a question during the event, please type your question into the chat function, and we will endeavour to answer as many questions as possible during the Q&A. Your webcam will not be seen during this event.

4. The event will be recorded for the Library’s YouTube channel and will be shared at a later date.