The U.S. and German governments announced on Tuesday that they have new ways that they intend to expand the U.S.-Germany Dialogue on Holocaust Issues, which they launched in 2021.
The two governments said that they intend, based on feedback in the past three years, to better educate the public about the ways the Nazis rose to power, the “transnational impact and implications” of Nazi policy leading up to World War II and the Holocaust’s legacy in “present-day cultures of memory and definitions,” per the U.S. State Department.
They will also focus on “early warning signs for mass atrocities,” per Foggy Bottom.
The group includes the State Department, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, German Federal Foreign Office and German Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It said it is also working on a guidance paper about “attempts to restore the reputations of Holocaust-era criminals and individuals and organizations that promoted Holocaust-era crimes,” which it said are becoming increasingly common.
Another concern is the tendency to address only “central” sites related to the Holocaust, such as major concentration camps.
“The Holocaust happened everywhere, from smaller camp sites spread across Europe to the killing fields all over central and eastern Europe,” the two governments stated.
The two “welcome growing awareness of this through local initiatives that make local Holocaust history accessible and visible through local research and acts of remembrance,” the duo said. “This is an important and innovative way to build knowledge of the history of the Holocaust.”
They added that their future efforts “will also include working to identify and address options to support Holocaust remembrance in Ukraine as a key partner country and address Holocaust distortion campaigns elsewhere.”
