Holocaust memorialization takes a variety of forms. The first public commemorations of the Shoah were held even before World War II ended, and the culture of Holocaust remembrance has evolved ever since. Using examples from the U.S. and Europe in particular, this multimedia talk will survey the public history of the Holocaust and its evolving modes of memorial representation. We will ask not only how we remember the Shoah but why, exactly, do we do so?

Dr. Oren Baruch Stier is Director of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program and Professor of Religious Studies in the Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs at Florida International University, where he also directs the Jewish Studies Certificate Program. The author or co-editor of three books, his research addresses Holocaust testimony, Jewish memory, Holocaust education, and the material and visual culture of the Shoah and its remembrance. Stier has been a Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and in 2013 was the Guest Curator for a Wolfsonian Teaching Gallery exhibition, “Race and Visual Culture under National Socialism,” at FIU’s Frost Art Museum. A past Co-Chair of the Religion, Holocaust and Genocide Group of the American Academy of Religion, Stier in 2020-21 served as the only university faculty member on a Florida Department of Education expert group writing new statewide standards for Holocaust education. Stier teaches and lectures widely on the memory and representation of the Shoah as well as on issues in religion and violence and contemporary Jewish studies. 

Audience members must present a Vassar College ID or supply proof of full vaccination (vaccination or booster within the last six months) or a negative COVID-19 test taken 24 hours before coming to campus. Masks are required indoors for everyone except speakers or performers who can maintain a six-foot distance from the audience.