Eva Hoffman - Justice after a genocide

Eva Hoffman, Visiting Professor at University College London, discusses what lessons, if any, we have learned from the Holocaust and other genocides.

About Eva Hoffman "I’m a Visiting Professor at the European Institute of University College London. I write about the aftermaths of difficult history, democracy and human time.

I was born in Poland two months after World War II ended. My parents survived the Holocaust in hiding in the Ukraine. I have written about living in the second language, about the long aftermath of traumatic histories, about the transition to democracy in Eastern Europe after 1989 and about the patterns of human time."

Key Points

• Allowing the victim to confront the perpetrator is a prime example of learning to deal with the aftermath of genocides better. • Mutual recognition, dialogue and the creation of strong solidarity are vital to help prevent genocides. • Our best hope of preventing genocides may be by strengthening liberal democracies which have been weakened in the last decades.  

"Never again" The question that arises from the study of the Nazi genocide and the genocides which have come after is whether we have learned anything from them. The second generation’s temporal position allows it not only to delve into the historical context and the historical causes of the Holocaust but also to know what has happened in the 70 years since then. And unfortunately, as we know, the motto “never again” has not been realised. We have seen a number of genocides and other forms of gratuitous violence like the awful phenomenon of apartheid in South Africa..

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