Holocaust Memorial Day Lecture - In Person

Holocaust Memory and the Challenges of Empathy

Professor Adam Sutcliffe, Kings College London 

Holocaust memory has been closely associated with the increasing pedagogical emphasis, since the 1990s especially, on the idea of empathy. Fellow-feeling with the suffering wrought by the Nazi genocide helps us, we widely hope, to become more emotionally responsive and politically engaged citizens. This lecture will explore why empathy has become so central to Holocaust education, and why this has not always led to straightforwardly positive outcomes.

Adam Sutcliffe is Professor of European History at King’s College London. He has written widely on early modern and modern Jewish history, intellectual history, and historiography. His most recent book is What Are Jews For? History, Peoplehood and Purpose (Princeton University Press, 2020).