Universiteit Utrecht – Remembering the Holocaust Through the Arts

Throughout the 20th and the 21st century, remembering the Holocaust has taken on different forms. With collective remembrances in the form of monuments and personal remembrances through art pieces or memoirs, there is no single definition of what remembering the Holocaust looks like. Alongside these various ways of remembrance, Europe has seen a rise of extreme right-wing politics, anti-Semitism, and vandalizing of monuments.

Therefore, this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day by Universiteit Utrecht and the Utrechtse Historische Studentenkring will focus on the Holocaust and its remembrance in art, film, comic books, and music, hosted by moderator Dr. Matisse Huiskens.

Prof. dr. Kees Ribbens will give a lecture on how American artist Art Spiegelman managed to make it convincingly clear that the so-called ninth art was capable of bringing the brutal and complex reality of genocide into the limelight in his comic novel Maus.

Prof. dr. Ewout van der Knaap will talk about how Nuit et Brouillard (Night and Fog, 1956) by Alain Resnais carried the impact of the Holocaust to the cinema screen and to societies across the world. Why is this such a canonical film?

We are pleased to invite you to this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day, organized by Utrecht University and the UHSK. The event is open to everyone, you can walk in at any time and the lunch is free.

After the free lunch, prof. dr. Emile Wennekes will lecture on the whereabouts of musicians who survived the Holocaust, up and including their ‘remigration’ to the Netherlands, especially – poignantly – how they were received upon their arrival back ‘home’.

Lastly, Claudia Hofstee will speak about the identification, research and restitution of art seized through Nazi persecution and the importance of its return.

Programme

09.15-09.45: Walk-in

09.45-09.55: Welcome by Dax Antheunisse (HMD committee)

09.55-10.10: Opening Rector Magnificus

10.10-10.30: Opening dr. Matisse Huiskens

10.30-11.15: Lecture Kees Ribbens – Comic book versions of the Holocaust?

11.15-11.45: Screening of the film Nuit et brouillard

11.45-12.15: Lecture Ewout van der Knaap – Echoes of Night and Fog: About the International Impact of a French Film on the Memory of the Holocaust

12:15-13:00: Lunch

13.00-13.45: Lecture Emile Wennekes – Alive, yet ill, bankrupt, and homeless: The fate of Dutch Jewish musicians who survived

13.45-14.30: Lecture Claudia Hofstee – Provenance research, looted art and Holocaust memory

14:30-15:00: Closing panel

The Holocaust Memorial Day Committee invites you to attend. Sign up here: https://www.uhsk.nl/evenementen/evenementen/hmd-holocaust-memorial-day