Holocaust Memory as a Global Language: The Case of Indigenous Australian Suffering

In this talk, Dr Fischer positions Holocaust memory as a global language and applies it to ongoing debates concerning Australia’s race relations and genocidal history. In a discourse analysis drawing on a wide corpus of life writing, scholarly discourse, the Bringing them Home report, Sorry Books, and other sources, she explores where and how the Holocaust trope is invoked in debates about Aboriginal Australian suffering. Through the lens of this specific national case, she opens up the debate in the field of memory studies concerning the global movements of Holocaust memory and the question of whether or not our knowing about other suffering causes us to remember and care more.