The Righteous among the Nations and the Holocaust,
Paris, December 2005

 

 INTERDISCIPLINARY INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM RESCUE, RESCUER,
RESCUED

 The Righteous among the Nations and the Holocaust

 European and Comparative Perspectives

 Location and Schedule: Paris, December 2006

 Call for Papers Deadline: March 1st, 2005

 Jointly organized by the Centre for International Studies (CERI)
and Research and the Centre for the European History in the
Twentieth Century (CHEVS) of the National Foundation of Political
Science with the support of the Foundation for Remembrance of the
Holocaust (Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah)

 Directed by Jacques Semelin, this symposium aims to develop a
deeper understanding of rescue behaviours in Nazi Europe by
analysing their national and historical context, as well as their
social and geographical environment. Our goal is therefore to
gather the most relevant academic contributions on a topic which
has been insufficiently dealt with in the social sciences. The
conference will emphasize comparative perspectives to examine not
only the acts of rescue but also the ways in which they are
remembered.

 The symposium also aims to explore this issue as applied to
other historical cases:

 - Armenian genocide

 - Rwandan genocide

 - Ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia.

 This is an academic symposium, aiming to examine the capacity of
the social sciences to understand rescue practices in deadly
situations. However, a panel discussion with witnesses and
survivors may also be organized.

 International academic committee (preliminary list):

 Claire Andrieu (FR), Wolfgang Benz (DE), Bert Jan Flim (NL),
Philippe Joutard (FR), Joel Kotek (FR), Bob Moore (UK), Nechama
Tec (USA), Renée Poznanski (IL), Henry Rousso (FR), Annette
Wieviorka (FR)

 Papers are anticipated particularly from historians,
sociologists, political scientists and social psychologists.
Regarding the Holocaust, contributions dealing with Eastern
European countries are especially welcome. The conference
organizers want to encourage new academic research on rescue in
genocidal situations.

 Themes include (but are not limited to):

 -Financial and economic aspects of rescue

 -Rescue practices, warfare and geographic borders

 -Socio-political, cultural and religious conditions of rescue

 -Role of local elites in rescuing (such as mayors and clerics)

 -Relationships between collaboration, resistance and rescue

 -Breaking the law: to be rescued and to become a rescuer

 -Identities: rescued and rescuers

 -Relevant methods and scales for rescue understanding

 -Memory-related issues

 Proposals must include names, affiliations and an abstract (up
to 1 000 words) emphasizing the topic, the sources, the methods
and the comparative dimension.

 Abstract proposals should be submitted by March 1st, 2005 as an
attached Word document, to both:

 Jacques Semelin (Conference Director)

 CERI 56 rue Jacob

 Fr - 75006 Paris

 e-mail: semelin@ceri-sciences-po.org

 

 Sarah Gensburger

 (Conference Coordinator)

 EHESS/CEIFR 54 Bd Raspail

 Fr – 75006 Paris

 e-mail: sgensburger@yahoo.fr