University Lecture: From Warsaw to Auschwitz

Professor David Feldman (Birkbeck, University of London) will deliver the University of Cambridge’s Holocaust Memorial Day lecture. 

In the twenty-first century, the Holocaust has become an inescapable component of public history and education in schools in Britain. At the same time, Auschwitz takes a central and symbolic place when we remember the Holocaust. Yet Holocaust memorialization did not always look like this.

In the 1950 and 1960s it was the Warsaw Ghetto and its uprising that provided the focal point for Holocaust memorial events. Moreover, unlike today, in the 1980s the British government was divided and half-hearted when provided with an opportunity to memorialize the Nazis Jewish victims.

This lecture explores how the practice and meaning of Holocaust memorialisation have changed from the 1950s to the present day, and why this matters.

About the speaker

David Feldman is a Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London where he is also Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism. His most recent book, coedited with Marc Volovici, is Antisemitism, Islamophobia and the Politics of Definition (Palgrave, 2023). He is co-author of Facing Antisemitism: the struggle for safety and solidarity, a report on antisemitism in Britain today which will be published by the Runnymede Trust in January 2025.

He has worked with a wide range of organisations including the United Nations, the Victorian and Albert Museum, the Jewish Museum and the Football Association. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, the Financial Times, Haaretz, the New Statesman, The Independent and The Political Quarterly.

David Feldman is also one of the co-convenors of the Entangled Otherings network, led by CIP’s Academic Director Professor Esra Özyürek and funded by the Cambridge–DAAD Hub for German Studies.

Practicalities

The lecture will begin at 17:30. It is free and open to University staff, students and the general public. 

In-person tickets are available to attend at Selwyn College.

Register to attend on site (via tickettailor.com).

Online places are also available.

Register to audit the lecture on Zoom (via tickettailor.com).

Beatrice Leeming, a PhD student in the Faculty of History is the main coordinator for a series exploring Holocaust remembrance 80 years post-war.

Events are open to the general public. Contact Beatrice (rl699 at cam.ac.uk) for additional information.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2025: Remembering Here and Now

Memories of a survivor, a child and a grandchild:
Inter-generational survivor talk with Q&A

When: Tuesday 21st January, 5–7pm
Where: Yusuf Hamied Theatre, Christ’s College, Cambridge

Jan Nêmec’s Diamonds of the Night (1964): 
Film screening + panel discussion

When: Wednesday 22nd January, 7:30-10pm
Where: Main Lecture Theatre, St John's College, Cambridge

Recital: Music written before, during and in the shadow of the Holocaust

When: Friday 24th January, 7-8pm
Where: St Catharine’s College Chapel

The dynamics of remembering the Holocaust in Britain
A public history seminar with Q&A

When: Sunday 26th January, 3-5pm
Where: Mong Hall, Sidney Sussex College