Reclaiming a Dwelling Place: How a German History Learning Community Handles Traumatic Memories of Shoah Witnesses

Katalin Eszter Morgan

doi:10.21697/fp.2019.1.16

Published: 2019-09-04

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2019)

Reclaiming a Dwelling Place: How a German History Learning Community Handles Traumatic Memories of Shoah Witnesses

Katalin Eszter Morgan

Pedagogical Forum

Section: Colloquia

https://doi.org/10.21697/fp.2019.1.16

Abstract

This paper describes the results of an empirical study in which the objective was to find out how traumatic narratives by Shoah survivors are handled in a classroom setting. The study was conducted using an ethnographic approach by means of which a history lesson sequence was observed and analysed. The teaching medium of the lesson was a digitised presentation of memories by Shoah survivors. The description of the lesson establishes how teachers and students negotiate the difficult terrain of an emotional engagement with the testimonies. The findings are discussed by elaborating on the meaning of traumatic memories for the witnesses, and in turn by asking what it means to listen to the telling of such memories. Conclusions are drawn about the overall meaning of (history) education.

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Morgan, K. E. (2019). Reclaiming a Dwelling Place: How a German History Learning Community Handles Traumatic Memories of Shoah Witnesses. Pedagogical Forum, 9(1), 225–243. https://doi.org/10.21697/fp.2019.1.16

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Katalin Eszter Morgan

katalin.morgan@uni-due.de

Affiliation:

independent researcher Germany

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

studied Sociology and Education in Johannesburg (South Africa), focusing on Social Science, History and Technology. Her PhD thesis completed in 2011 examined the representation of Nazism and the Holocaust in South African high school history textbooks. The publications from this work centered around issues of race, racism, stereotypes, as well as on theoretical issues pertaining to textbook analysis more generally. In 2015 she relocated to Germany, her former childhood home, to pursue an Alexander von Humboldt-funded post-doctoral study on the use of digitised, video-graphed Shoah victim testimonies. She is currently working on several papers documenting the results of this study, based at the University Duisburg-Essen. She is also working on a book project that draws on her personal biography to illuminate her experiences in the field. Her other research interests include Antisemitism, inherited or generational guilt and trauma, learning technology and media design, philosophy of history, and theories of memory.