Taking My German Father to Nazi Labor Camp: A Journey with Dr. Björn Krondorfer

A personal look at the effects of the Holocaust and war memories in German society after 1945, especially as they are passed on intergenerationally in German families. We hear about the author’s father who was drafted into the German army at age 17 and ended up in the vicinity of a Jewish slave labor camp in Poland. More general themes about German society are also addressed. The talk concludes with brief remarks on the value of dialogue between the communities affected by historical trauma due to violent, state-sponsored ideologies

This program is cohosted by Friends of the Florence Community Library. This is an in-person event.

Björn Krondorfer is Regents’ Professor and the Director of the Martin-Springer Institute at Northern Arizona University. As Endowed Professor of Religious Studies, he also teaches in the Department of Comparative Cultural Studies. His field of expertise is religion/gender/culture and (post-) Holocaust and reconciliation studies. He received a Senior Research Fellowship at the Vrije University in Amsterdam and held visiting faculty positions in Germany and South Africa. He is currently the VP of the “Association for Public Religion and Intellectual Life”; in 2020 he became chair of the “Consortium of Higher Education Centers for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies.”