Conference that aims to contribute to a more comprehensive and all-encompassing understanding of the Holocaust by discussing how the European press covered nazi anti-Semitism and the Holocaust.

The Press and the Holocaust

Public opinion and the press (taken in a broad sense to include newspapers, radio broadcasts, pamphlets, leaflets, etc.) became major actors of the world since WWI. Their significance can hardly be underestimated. As the American journalist Robert W. Desmond wrote at the very beginning of a book on The Press and World Affairs in 1937, “the press not only reports the history of the world, day by day, but helps to make it.” Surprisingly, however, the press continues to remain only a secondary (and neglected) source of information in Holocaust research. After the first British and American research on the subject, in the late 1960s, and a couple of other scattered case studies that were published from the 1980s on, it was only recently (2023) that a Guide to Holocaust sources finally included a chapter on “Contemporary Newspapers as Sources for Approaching Holocaust Study.”

To be sure, the press plays a double role as a valuable source of information about the period: it disseminated mass information and purported to influence public opinion (the numerous historical studies on propaganda testify to the awareness of its importance), while at the same time it mirrors the multitude of public voices and opinions that were locally available and willing to polemically interact on.

This conference aims to contribute to a more comprehensive and all-encompassing understanding of the Holocaust by discussing how the European press covered nazi anti-Semitism and the Holocaust from a comparative historical perspective.

>> Full programme (PDF) <<

Call for papers

The conference welcomes paper proposals from a broad range of disciplines dealing with:

• The flow of information in European countries about the anti-Semitic violence ongoing in Germany and occupied Europe;
• The knowledge available to public opinion on the genocide that took place during the war;
• The role of news agencies on the dissemination and exchange of (dis)information regarding the Holocaust;
• The constructing and desconstructing of anti-Semitic stereotypes and prejudices during the period;

We especially encourage the participation of younger scholars at the beginning of their careers.
Selected papers will be published.

Working language of the conference: English

Submission of Abstracts: Please submit a paper abstract of 300 words (in English) and a short CV (no more than 250 words long) to claudia.sn@fcsh.unl.pt

Submission deadline: 2 September 2024
Notification of Acceptance: 16 September 2024

Please address all inquiries to claudia.sn@fcsh.unl.pt

>> Download the call for papers (PDF) <<

Organisation:

Cláudia Ninhos (IHC — NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST)
Fernando Clara (NOVA FCSH)

This activity is part of the programme for the 2024 edition of Science and Technology Week, promoted by the Ciência Viva, the national agency for scientific culture. Launch of the new book on the end of the Portuguese empire coordinated by Pedro Aires Oliveira and João Vieira Borges.

Crepúsculo do Império – Portugal e as Guerras de Descolonização

Pedro Aires Oliveira e João Vieira Borges (Coords.)

A Bertrand Editora, a Comissão Portuguesa de História Militar, o Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo e o IHC têm o prazer de convidar para o lançamento do livro “Crepúsculo do Império – Portugal e as Guerras de Descolonização“, coordenado por Pedro Aires Oliveira e João Vieira Borges, que terá lugar no dia 21 de Novembro, às 18h, na Sala de Conferências da Torre do Tombo.

A obra será apresentada por Maria Inácia Rezola, com a presença dos coordenadores.

A sessão faz parte das actividades do IHC integradas na Semana da Ciência e da Tecnologia em Portugal.

ENTRADA LIVRE

Sobre o livro:

As guerras travadas por Portugal entre 1961 e 1975, com vista à preservação do seu secular império ultramarino, são impossíveis de ignorar em qualquer balanço histórico ao 25 de Abril de 1974. Quando se assinalam 50 anos sobre essa data e se revisitam as circunstâncias do tumultuoso processo de descolonização que se desenrolou em várias partes de África e da Ásia, e também na metrópole, este volume apresenta um grande estado da questão sobre os últimos anos do colonialismo português.

Reunindo a colaboração de mais de três dezenas de autores/as oriundos de várias instituições portuguesas e internacionais, bem como de especialistas reconhecidos na área da história, da estratégia e das ciências militares, esta é uma obra que familiarizará o público com algumas das investigações mais inovadoras acerca das guerras coloniais de Portugal, num olhar que procura integrar facetas menos conhecidas desses conflitos (a participação feminina, os prisioneiros de guerra, o fenómeno da deserção, a propaganda, os africanos que combateram pelo império, as sequelas físicas e psicológicas dos antigos combatentes), assim como a perspetiva dos movimentos nacionalistas africanos.