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Discussion: Turkey, the Jews and the Holocaust - On the importance of a critical historical awareness in the migration society
05.12.2020 a 19:00 - 21:00
lecture & conversation with Corry Guttstadt (Author of the books "Turkey, the Jews and the Holocaust" and "Paths without Homecoming - The Armenians, the First World War and the Consequences") Dogan Akhanli (Exiled writer from Turkey and initiator of numerous projects with migrants on the Nazi era and the history of their country of origin) and Osman Okkan (Kulturforum Turkey Deutschland e. V., documentary filmmaker and long-time WDR employee)
The Nazi regime also persecuted the approximately 20,000 to 25,000 Turkish Jews living in Europe. Many of them became victims of the Shoah. Nevertheless, for a long time they received little attention in international Holocaust research.
Cory Guttstadt has researched the fate of Turkish Jews in various European countries under Nazi rule and reports on her research. A particular focus is on the contradictory policy of Turkey, which on the one hand granted exile to persecuted German-Jewish scientists and artists, but on the other hand did little to save its Jewish citizens who were in the Nazi sphere of power.
In his novels, Dogan Akhanli recalls hidden chapters in German-Turkish history. In "Madonna's Last Dream," for example, he addresses the fate of a ship carrying Jewish refugees that was sunk in the Black Sea in 1942 after Turkey had prevented him from landing. The writer also advocates a critical awareness of history in theater and educational projects (e.g. in the NS-DOK). In view of the increasingly openly propagated anti-Semitism in Turkey and Germany as well as the discussion about Holocaust commemoration in the migration society, this seems to him to be indispensable.
An event by recherche international e.V., City of Cologne – Office of the Lord Mayor, European and International Affairs, Kulturforum Turkey Germany e.V., TÜDAY – Human Rights Association Turkey/Germany e.V., Initiative Genocide Remember, in cooperation with the NS Documentation Center
Price: €4.50 | reduced: € 2.00
