11 October 2024

Preserving Memory, Confronting Distortion: Lessons from the Training at the Sered’ Holocaust Museum

The Road to Sered’

Traveling down highway D1 from Bratislava, regularly placed signs direct drivers to the Holocaust Museum on the edge of the small town of Sereď. As visitors get closer, the signs to the museum disappear. While the entrance may be hard to find, once inside, visitors are immediately confronted with the history of the building. 

The Sereď Holocaust Museum, Slovakia’s only museum dedicated to Holocaust remembrance, stands as a reminder of the country’s history during the Second World War. Opened in January 2016 on the site of a former Nazi concentration and labor camp, the museum forms part of Slovakia’s broader initiative to confront its difficult past and engage in Holocaust education.  

In an effort to support Slovakia’s work to tackle Holocaust denial and distortion, the IHRA conducted an IHRA-UNESCO Capacity Building Training Program between 23–25 September 2024. The workshop, held in partnership with the Sered’ Holocaust Museum, brought together educators and policymakers from across the country to explore practical strategies and resources to effectively address Holocaust distortion in Slovakia and beyond. 

Slovakia and the Holocaust

During the Second World War, the Slovak State, a regime aligned with Nazi Germany, became one of the first countries in Europe to pass anti-Jewish legislation. The infamous ‘Jewish Codex’ of 1941, among the harshest anti-Jewish laws in Europe, deprived Jews of basic rights and ultimately paved the way for mass deportations. In March 1942, the first transport of Jewish women from Slovakia arrived in Auschwitz-Birkenau, marking the beginning of the country’s active involvement in the Holocaust. The Sereď camp, which originally functioned as a forced labor site, became one of the key transit points from which Jews were sent to their deaths. By the end of the war, nearly 13,500 individuals were deported from Sereď alone, many of whom were murdered. 

The museum, which is housed in four of the original twelve barracks of the former camp, provided a unique backdrop, allowing participants to connect with the past.

 

This historical context provided the framework for the workshop’s focus on Holocaust distortion, a growing problem in many parts of the world. The workshop, opened by Ambassador Manuel Korček, Head of the Slovakian Delegation to the IHRA, highlighted the subtle ways in which Holocaust distortion manifests in contemporary society. “Holocaust distortion may be subliminal or present in mainstream media,” Korček noted. He warned that politicians, media outlets, and individuals can inadvertently or deliberately undermine the historical significance of the Holocaust through misleading rhetoric or by downplaying the horrors of the genocide. 

Dr. Martin Korčok, head of the Sereď Holocaust Museum and member of the Slovakian delegation to the IHRA, provided a keynote address that placed the issue of Holocaust distortion within Slovakia’s own historical context. He reflected on the country’s collaboration with Nazi Germany. “Slovakia was one of the first countries to deport Jews, with the very first transport of Jewish women arriving in Auschwitz in March 1942,” he said. Despite Slovakia’s official stance against antisemitism today, Dr. Korčok acknowledged the continued existence of far-right groups that promote revisionist views, illustrating the gap between policy and the real challenges faced in public discourse. This is a growing problem across Europe, where extremist ideologies continue to resurface. 

Dr. Martin Korčok, Head of the Sereď Holocaust Museum and member of the Slovak Delegation to the IHRA, delivers the keynote address

The Sered’ Holocaust Museum

The museum, which is housed in four of the original twelve barracks of the former camp, provided a unique backdrop, allowing participants to connect with the past. Its location on the grounds of the former concentration and labor camp adds a powerful dimension to the experience, deepening the emotional and historical impact it has on visitors.

Each barrack addresses a different theme: the first explores the rise of political antisemitism, displaying antisemitic posters and propaganda from the wartime Slovak state; the second focuses on life in the camp, with recreated prisoner accommodations and workshop spaces showing the harsh conditions Jewish inmates endured before deportation. The third barrack highlights the brutal second wave of deportations after the Slovak National Uprising in 1944, when Nazi SS officer Alois Brunner oversaw mass deportations and atrocities, expanding the exhibition’s scope to show the broader impact of the Holocaust across Europe. 

Supporting Educators and Policymakers to Counter Distortion of the Holocaust

The workshop itself was held in the fourth barrack, where participants discussed not only the challenges of preserving historical truth, but also the broader problem of countering Holocaust distortion online in today’s technologically forward world and combatting the spread of misinformation. “Who would help us deal with this process?” asked a participant. 

Oana Nestian-Sandu, International Program Director of the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights and leading author of the training program, stressed the importance of relying on professional historians when confronting false narratives. She cited IHRA initiatives such as the #ProtectTheFacts campaign, which aim to ensure that Holocaust education is grounded in credible historical research to prevent the spread of inaccuracies. 

Participants also discussed the vital role of survivor testimonies in Holocaust education. As the number of living survivors diminishes, educators are increasingly turning to recorded testimonies, films, and memoirs to keep these memories alive. A Slovak teacher shared how including family histories in the classroom left a lasting impact on her students. Her story underscored how personal narratives can help foster deeply emotional connections to historical events which might otherwise have been perceived as distant.

Complex problems require complex solutions.

The workshop concluded with a call for international cooperation. The participants acknowledged that Holocaust distortion is an issue that requires collaboration across institutions, governments, and international organizations. “We consider it a multidisciplinary problem which requires the cooperation of many broad-spectrum institutions, both state and non-state actors, and international organizations,” one participant noted, highlighting the importance of working together to counteract the revisionist narratives that threaten to erode public understanding of the Holocaust. 

In her final remarks, Oana urged participants to take their discussions beyond the workshop. “Complex problems require complex solutions,” she said, encouraging attendees to continue building partnerships and turning their ideas into action.  

As the day ended, the participants left the remote yet significant setting of the Sereď Holocaust Museum. Like the hundreds of schoolchildren who travel down the highway weekly to visit the museum, the workshop participants took the road back to their cities with a deeper understanding of the Holocaust’s legacy, and a renewed commitment to countering distortion in today’s world. 

Participants pose for a group photo at the conclusion of the workshop

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