Mr Lamprecht, the generation of survivors of the Second World War is dying. Who can still talk about it today?
Gerald Lamprecht: First of all, there are many video interviews in which those affected recount their experiences. The Visual History Archive of the USC Shoa Foundation alone contains more than 55,000 interviews. Then there are many relatives - often from the third or fourth generation - who are reappraising their family history and are thus involved in mediation work. Furthermore, places are becoming increasingly important now that there are hardly any contemporary witnesses left. Places of crime and places of remembrance. At memorial sites such as Mauthausen or Ausschwitz-Birkenau, there has been a massive expansion of educational programmes.
A tour of the memorial site including lunch: such offers attract more visitors, but on the other hand, reverence may also suffer as a result. How touristy should we allow the commemoration of the Holocaust to be?
Lamprecht: Memorials are always also tourist sites and ultimately a considerable economic factor. You have to be aware of this and keep an eye on who visits these places and why. However, the example of the Mauthausen Memorial shows that the operators of the memorials are aware of this problem. The mediators, who are highly trained and do highly professional work, take into account the different expectations of the visitors.
Another approach to mediation, especially for young people, is via virtual media. Avatars or holograms, fed with answers to common questions, are intended to bring history to life. What do you think about the development of using AI systems and channels such as TikTok in Holocaust education?
Lamprecht: On the one hand, it is very important to reach young people where they are - and that is TikTok, YouTube and similar platforms. On the other hand, I see the danger of blurring fact and fiction. Millions of people with their own life stories fell victim to the Holocaust. The suffering was real. Social media projects, such as "I am Sophie Scholl", can be used to reach a wider public. In view of the "logic" of the new media, the expertise of educators and teachers plays an even more important role. A pedagogical and didactic framework is therefore needed, as well as moderation in online forums.
How should we commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day? How can remembrance be organised in a contemporary way?
Lamprecht : Certainly not with empty rituals that are simply "worked through". For me personally, two aspects are very important: on the one hand, giving the victims a name and thus realising that there are people behind the numbers, personal fates. And on the other hand, we have to ask ourselves: What does the memory of the Holocaust mean for each individual and for society as a whole? What does it demand of us, what must we never forget?
...that democracy is fragile?
Lamprecht: Exactly. Democracy must be constantly lived and defended. It is a way of life. We must always bear its value in mind - and the value that human rights and a liberal, cosmopolitan society have for our coexistence. We are currently seeing how quickly democracies can come under pressure. Especially in the political times we are living in now, it is all the more important to realise what happens if we lose our democracy.
Are there actually still gaps in research on this topic?
Lamprecht : I wouldn't call this a "gap". To paraphrase the historian Michael Wildt: "History is not a carp pond." It is not the case that at some point the last carp is fished out of the pond and then there is nothing left to discover. Rather, historical research always depends on who asks which questions about the past and when.