- Harsh Mander, Director, Centre for Equity Studies; and Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow, Robert Bosch Academy
Program
5:30 pm Welcome
6:00 pm Talk
7:00 pm Reception
About
Germany is a nation that has tried to acknowledge, confront, and atone for the collective mass crimes, cruelty, and genocide carried out in its recent past. During the dark years of the Third Reich, Germany plunged into genocidal violence that targeted Jews and other minorities. In the postwar era, Germany underwent a complex process of admitting to this past, and attempting to make amends so that it could never happen again.
Today, across the world it is once again dangerous to be a minority. Leaders in numerous countries foment hate and bigotry, and valorize violence against minorities. One such country is India, the world’s largest democracy. India has travelled very far from the humane and inclusive country of equal citizenship to people of every faith that was promised in its freedom struggle, led by Mahatma Gandhi.
Harsh Mander, Indian peace and justice worker, writer, and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, will discuss what his people, and indeed all of humankind, can learn from the ways in which the German state and people have attempted to acknowledge and atone for the Holocaust, and build a country of fraternity and equality.
Among the issues that will be discussed:
- What have the German state and people done well in terms of memory culture and its efforts to atone for the mass crimes of the National Socialist era?
- Has Germany done enough to build a society founded on respect for difference? And to secure itself from the dangers of again falling into a similar abyss? If not, what more does it need to do?
- What can humankind learn from Germany, past and present, to protect the freedoms and rights to equal citizenship of minorities, and lessen the possibility of violent societal and state targeting of minorities in the future?
A light meal and drinks will be served.
Registration for this event is closed.