[Special Issue] Introduction
Memory Politics in Troubling Times: Conceptualizing the Study Tour
Guest editors Janine Wulz and Oliver Schmidtke (University of Victoria)
At a time when democratic norms are eroding in many parts of the world and public discourse is increasingly shaped by misinformation, conspiracy, and nationalist nostalgia, memory politics has emerged as a crucial site of both contestation and hope. The ways in which societies remember—or fail to remember—past injustices have profound consequences for the present. Political actors frequently manipulate historical narratives to legitimize exclusionary ideologies and undermine trust in democratic institutions. In this context, engaging critically with memory is not a luxury reserved for historians; it is an urgent civic task.
Historical narratives are a driving force in how contemporary polities define their collective identity and visions for the political community. In the 2020s, we are at a critical turning point about how societies remember the past, use it for current political debates, and what lessons are drawn from defining historical markers for contemporary politics. Over the past years, references to fascism, National Socialism, and communism have taken centre stage in mobilizing history for contemporary political struggles (most notably in Russia’s war in Ukraine or in the growing popularity of authoritarian nationalism). How is the “age of extremes” and its atrocities remembered and politically mobilized in the 21st century (Hobsbawm 1995)? In what way will the transformation in commemorating this past alter the anti-fascist commitment and the memory of the victims of war and genocide on which an important aspect of Western democracy has been based since 1945? How do these historical narratives speak to and frame current struggles over the fate of liberal democracy?
In this special issue of Augenblick, which is titled “Memory Politics in Troubling Times: A Study Tour Across Europe,” we explore how experiential learning can play a vital role in preparing students to address these questions and develop a deeper understanding for what is at stake in memory politics. When students have the opportunity to encounter sites of historical trauma firsthand, to speak with survivors and educators, and to reflect on the material traces of violent pasts, they gain a deeper understanding not only of history itself, but of the power and responsibility that comes with remembering. Experiential education can transform abstract concepts into lived encounters, fostering empathy, critical thinking, and a lasting sense of civic responsibility. It allows students to see memory not just as something to be studied, but as something they actively shape. Our work is based on the European Memory Politics Study Tour hosted by the University of Victoria, which facilitated student reflections and scholarship aligned with the values we outline above and which are collected as individual contributions in Augenblick.
The Power of Personal, On-Site Educational Experiences
The European Memory Politics Study Tour is an affective pedagogical experience. For instance, one student reflected on the emotional weight of seeing a swastika spray-painted on a building in Austria—not as part of a museum exhibit, but in the real world, reminding them that hate has not disappeared with history. Another shared the profound experience of listening to a Holocaust survivor speak at Auschwitz, recalling not just the content of her testimony but the emotional atmosphere in the room—the silence, grief, and solidarity. These encounters pushed students beyond academic detachment, requiring them to grapple with the ethical demands of remembrance.
Our study tour was designed precisely with this pedagogical vision in mind. In May and June of 2023, a group of undergraduate students from the University of Victoria (UVic) participated in a three-week immersive journey across Austria, Poland, Hungary, and Italy. Organized with support from the Jean Monnet Network project “European Memory Politics: Populism, Nationalism, and the Challenges to a European Memory Culture,” this field school provided a rare opportunity for students to directly engage with the memorial cultures, political discourses, and historical sites that shape how Europe remembers the Holocaust and the traumas of the 20th century.
The study tour was conceived as a research-driven initiative, one rooted in place-based learning, reflective practice, and comparative transatlantic memory studies. The students involved had already completed preparatory coursework at UVic, and several contributed to a multilingual digital booklet on Canadian and European memory politics (see EUCANet Europe Canada Network 2022).
Far from a passive tourism model or a memorial pilgrimage, this was an active and critically engaged tour that emphasized political context, the formation of contested narratives around commemoration, and the implications of memory culture for democracy today.
In Austria, students visited memorial sites and museums such as the Documentary Archive of the Austrian Resistance, as well as more controversial landmarks like the memorial to the former mayor of Vienna and known antisemite Karl Lueger. They engaged in conversations with representatives from the Ministry of Education, student activists, and members of minority communities. In Poland, the group visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial, the city of Oświęcim, and Kraków, gaining insights into local history and contemporary Polish discourses on memory politics alongside critical insights about so-called “Holocaust tourism.”
In Hungary, the focus was on the memorial landscape and the intersections of nationalism and memory politics. Walking tours and museum visits in Budapest provided context for understanding how the past is being narrated in the current political climate. Students also attended an academic conference on memory politics, which was an important opportunity for many to engage with challenging topics and the field of memory studies in a scholarly setting.
The second part of the tour focused on the memory of Europe’s borderlands: the regions between Austria and Slovenia, and between Slovenia, Italy, and Croatia. These areas are shaped by histories of resistance, Italian fascism, and the complex, often traumatic, legacies of war and occupation. The group explored how these histories are remembered today, and how they contribute to ongoing debates about national identity and reconciliation.
The study tour emerged from collaborative research and teaching initiatives focused on the social and political functions of memory. As such, it was also about building relationships. Students met and learned from individuals directly engaged in memory politics—people who experience its effects in their daily lives and who are working to confront, and perhaps heal from, intergenerational trauma. The group spoke with young people whose grandparents had been persecuted—Jews, Roma and Sinti, Slovenians, and Croatians—and learned about their activism. They heard the story of an Auschwitz survivor, one of the few remaining able to give personal testimony. In Italy, a guide shared their family story, spanning Slovenia, Italy, and Croatia, powerfully illustrating how complex histories can converge in a single life.
The study tour, its innovative pedagogical framework, and the rich experiential learning it enabled are documented in the project publication Remembering Past Injustices – Envisioning the Future: Explorations into Debates on and Pedagogical Approaches to Memory Politics in a Trans-Atlantic Perspective – Canada, Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, and Poland. This publication features student voices, powerful visual impressions, and critical reflections, offering a multifaceted look at how immersive, site-based learning deepens engagement with Holocaust memory, commemoration practices, and transnational memory politics.
As part of this broader educational effort, we also produced a multilingual digital booklet, entitled Using the Past to Define the Present: An Introduction to Memory Politics in Canada & Europe, designed for high school and undergraduate learners. The booklet introduces key themes in transatlantic memory politics and serves as an accessible resource for engaging with historical responsibility, contested narratives, and the role of memory in shaping democratic societies. It serves both as a scholarly output and an educational tool, capturing the diverse voices and reflections of participating students while engaging with contemporary issues of memory politics, identity, and historical responsibility.
Why Does this Matter to Canadian Students?
The study tour intentionally invited students to draw connections between the politics of Holocaust remembrance in Europe and Canada’s ongoing struggle to confront the history and lasting impact of colonialism. For instance, just as many European countries have implemented robust institutional frameworks for Holocaust education and memorialization, Canada has only recently begun to make space for Indigenous-led remembrance practices within public discourse and policy. Landmark developments such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), its 94 Calls to Action, and the establishment of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation have marked important steps toward acknowledging and redressing the harms of the residential school system. At the same time, public controversies—such as debates over the commemoration of figures like John A. Macdonald or the inclusion of Indigenous histories in national museums—reveal the contested and evolving nature of Canadian memory politics.
Students on the study tour were thus encouraged to consider what it would mean to engage in a truly decolonial memory politics, informed by transnational perspectives. In this sense, learning about Auschwitz or anti-fascist resistance in Austria was not only about understanding European history; it was also about developing the tools and language to grapple with memory, justice, and responsibility in our own national context. As the course emphasized, confronting the past is a critical tool for promoting democratic resilience and preventing the rise of populist and nationalist ideologies that exploit historical narratives.
Students participating in the tour were challenged to consider how memory can be mobilized to foster democratic norms and civic engagement. As future scholars, educators, and activists, they were asked to think critically about their role in shaping collective memory in Canada and beyond. They engaged with questions such as: How can we responsibly remember past injustices? What are the risks of forgetting or distorting history? How can comparative perspectives on memory deepen our understanding of reconciliation, inclusion, and justice?
This special issue of Augenblick showcases the work of students who participated in the tour. Their contributions range from personal interviews and reflective essays to academic papers and creative responses. While some pieces take the form of scholarly analysis and others are grounded in lived experience and take the form of personal reflection, all are united by a shared commitment: to make sense of what it means to remember atrocity in a world where memory itself is increasingly fragile, and where the future of democracy may depend on how we remember the past.
The issue opens with personal interviews and reflections, which are followed by academic analyses and creative responses. Our hope is that this structure invites both scholarly and general audiences into the conversation.
The following is a list of contributions, each of which is a testament to how students today are thinking critically about memory, identity, and the politics of the past. Moreover, these contributions illustrate the diversity of engagement fostered by the study tour.
Kalea Palmer offers a personal meditation on how European Holocaust memory reshaped her understanding of memorial landscapes and collective responsibility, drawing connections between the Holocaust and Canada’s colonial history.
Alissa Schmidtke reflects on the contested narratives of Holocaust remembrance and nationalism, particularly in Austria, and how they intersect with her own experience as a Canadian student.
Ellie Hiotakis explores how embodied experience and emotional memory shape our understanding of historical trauma, offering a moving account of empathy, discomfort, and identity.
Elena Senecal analyzes the role of youth-led civil society organizations in sustaining memory practices and resisting state revisionism, comparing European examples with youth-driven reconciliation efforts in Canada.
Janine Wulz, Ana Paula Santana Bertho, Megan Klein and Kalea Palmer present interviews on their reflective journey learning about the Holocaust and memory politics in Europe during the study tour, using innovative reflection methods.
Together, these contributions offer a cross-section of how experiential learning can equip students to participate actively in global memory politics. Their work testifies to the potential of experiential learning as a transformative force that links academic exploration with civic responsibility and transnational solidarity.
Bibliography
EUCANet Europe Canada Network. Using the Past to Define the Present: An Introduction to Memory Politics in Canada & Europe. Digital booklet. 2022. https://www.eucanet.org/digital-booklet-introduction-to-memory-politics-in-canada-and-europe/.
Hobsbawm, Eric. Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century 1914–1991. London: Abacus, 1995.
Janine Wulz is a lecturer for German and Holocaust Studies at UVIC and UBC. Oliver Shmidtke s Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria.
Picture: “Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz concentration camp)” , photographed by Mariusz Cieszewski, hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland (MFA of Poland) on Flickr. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0). No changes have been made.
