On February 19-20, 2023, the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida will host an interdisciplinary conference devoted to the history and significance of the Holocaust’s universalization.

The aim is not to revisit whether universalization of the Holocaust in and of itself banalizes the Jewish catastrophe. Rather, it is to investigate how the Holocaust has been and is currently viewed and remembered, and to investigate the idea of universalization and how it has developed. Of special interest is how formerly colonized people and other oppressed groups have sought meaning and significance for their experiences from the Holocaust and/or how they have applied its memory, lessons, and legacies to their past and contemporary experiences.

The conference assembles a diverse group of scholars, to discuss how Holocaust history and memory have been universalized in informative ways but also in ways that have misrepresented the past and present.

The Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Florida thanks Norman and Irma Braman for their most generous support for this conference and for Holocaust Studies at the University of Florida.